In Space Infrastructure, Rockets

Space transport roundup – Mar.14.2019

A sampling of recent items related to traveling to and through space:

[ Update: The Soyuz launch and docking with the ISS were successful:

]

** A Russian Soyuz is set to launch today with three new crew members to the ISS. Astronaut Christina Koch, on her first mission to space, joins cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA flight engineer Tyler “Nick” Hague, who were both on the Soyuz MS-10 that suffered an in-flight abort last October. The Soyuz with the threesome will reach the station after a quick 6 hour flight.

Lift off is set for 3:14 pm EDT:

** United Launch Alliance (ULA) is set to launch a Delta IV rocket on Friday from Cape Canaveral with the 10th Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft (Wideband Gapfiller Satellite), built by Boeing for the U.S. military. Delta IV WGS-10 – United Launch Alliance (ULA) Rocket Launch

The webcast starts at 6:56 p.m. EDT and the launch window extends to 9:05 p.m. EDT:

** China launched a Long March 3B on March 9th from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The rocket carried the Zhongxing-6C (ChinaSat-6C) communication satellite.

** The Chinese company OneSpace plans to launch the solid-fueled OS-M1 rocket this month on its first test flight to orbit. The rocket will carry a Lingque 1B remote sensing CubeSat for China’s ZeroG Lab, which aims to create its Magpie constellation consisting of over 375 earth observation CubeSats: China’s OneSpace completes rocket assembly ahead of first orbital launch – SpaceNews.com

** China’s LinkSpace tests vertical takeoff and landing rocket, similar to the type flown by Masten Space for many years. The LinkSpace goal is a reusable first stage for a rocket that will launch small satellites to low earth orbit:

** Rocket Lab plans to launch an Electron rocket in the latter half of this month with a DARPA satellite aboard: Rocket Lab launch of DARPA satellite slips – SpaceNews.com

** A Vega rocket is set to launch from French Guiana on March 21st with Italy’s PRISMA Earth observation satellite.

** European small rockets for smallsat launch are now a focus of ESA: Microlaunchers to grow Europe’s economy – ESA.

The Vega-C upgrade, however, is behind schedule: Vega C debut slips to 2020 – SpaceNews.com

** Reaction Engines will start building a prototype Sabre rocket engine after an ESA review gives the design a thumbs-up. While powering a vehicle in the atmosphere, the Sabre’s pre-cooler would gather air, cool it, and feed it into the combustion chamber of the rocket along with hydrogen fuel. Once outside the atmosphere, oxygen from on-board tanks would feed the Sabre (Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine):

“The Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine is uniquely designed to scoop up atmospheric air during the early part of its flight to orbit. This slashes the need for the vehicle to carry bulky onboard oxygen for this part of the ascent, before switching to rocket mode drawing on internal propellants for its final climb to space. To allow SABRE to use the superfast onrushing airstream as oxidiser, the air must be cooled from 1000°C to –150°C within just a hundredth of second, at the same time avoiding the formation of dangerous ice.” – Engine Airflow/ESA

The air-cooler technology has been proven in a standalone test. The demo engine will include only the rocket

Reaction Engines launched a significant new element of its development programme in October 2016 to design, build and demonstrate a SABRE engine core. The test item consists of an engine core, which is a major module of the complete SABRE engine, but without the pre-cooler and rocket nozzle in place. This core design and development activity is a major undertaking and upon completion of the tests, major elements of the world’s first air-breathing engine capable of accelerating from zero to Mach 5 will have been demonstrated.

The SABRE engine core tests are part of a range of development activities currently underway at Reaction Engines. The company will shortly begin its HTX ‘hot’ heat exchanger testing in a unique test facility it has constructed in Colorado, United States. The HTX test programme is a manufacturing and performance ground-level demonstration of the SABRE engine ‘Pre-Cooler’ heat exchanger in a high temperature environment, similar to that expected to be seen by the SABRE engine during its air-breathing flight regime – up to 1000°C air inlet temperature.

The goal is an propulsion system efficient enough to power a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle like the Skylon.

** HyperSciences’ hypersonic projectiles can shoot downward for drilling and upward for reaching space: For HyperSciences, geothermal energy builds a path to space – Teslarati

[HyperSciences founder and CEO Mark] Russell and his team have developed a low-cost, multi-purpose projectile called the HyperDrone that can accelerate to velocities over five times the speed of sound and pulverize hard rock via their HyperDrill. This will enable tunneling speeds that are 5-10 times quicker than conventional methods, and more importantly, it opens up significant market viability in other industries that could benefit, namely when that acceleration is pointed skyward. NASA has already recognized this potential and is a current investor and major partner of HyperSciences.

** Nuclear propulsion for in-space transportation would open up the solar system to exploration and settlement: Nuclear rocket innovation is the future of space travel, exploration – USA Today

With a nuclear rocket like the ones researched in project NERVA, a trip to Mars could be done in  four months. (Interestingly, the astronauts would actually be exposed to less radiation with a nuclear ship, because shortening the trip reduces their exposure to cosmic rays in space.) And with higher thrust and higher efficiency, nuclear rockets would open up much of the solar system. They could even be designed to rendezvous with comets and use cometary ice as fuel for the return trip.

…

Now NASA is getting interested in nuclear rockets again.  In 2017, it awarded a nearly  $19 million contract for development. And this year’s NASA budget contains $100 million for nuclear thermal research, leading to a demonstration in 2024.

** SpaceX:

[ Update: The StarHopper will begin static firing tests and tethered hops soon: County approves authority for road closures for rocket testing – Brownsville Herald: Local News

Last Friday, SpaceX Spokesman James Gleeson said in an email that the Starship prototype was moved in preparation for non-public testing.

“SpaceX will conduct checkouts of the newly installed ground systems and perform a short static fire test in the days ahead,” Gleeson said. “Although the prototype is designed to perform sub-orbital flights, or hops, powered by the SpaceX Raptor engine, the vehicle will be tethered during initial testing and hops will not be visible from offsite. SpaceX will establish a safety zone perimeter in coordination with local enforcement and signage will be in place to alert the community prior to the testing.”

]

**** A Raptor engine arrived at Boca Chica Beach this week to be attached to the StarHopper: SpaceX’s Elon Musk says Raptor will be installed on Starship prototype this week – Teslarati

**** The latest view of the StarHopper from a drone flying above the SpaceX facilities:

**** Scott Manley gives his review of the Crew Dragon mission to the ISS:

Yesterday SpaceX’s crew capable Dragon 2 spacecraft completed its visit to the ISS, demonstrating the technology was sound and clearing one more hurdle on its way to becoming a commercial crew transportation provider.

**** Videos of the Crew Dragon and the Falcon 9 booster following the mission (via www.USLaunchReport.com):

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Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA, and International Partners are Creating a New Space Age

Activism, Space Science, SpaceCasts

Videos: TMRO Orbit 12.08 – “Stories from a Mars rover specialist”

The latest TMRO.tv Space show is now available: Stories from a Mars rover specialist – Orbit 12.08

This week Dr Tanya Harrison joins us to talk about the science of Mars and her experiences working on various Mars missions such as Opportunity, Curiosity, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the upcoming Mars 2020 rover. We also talk about how Arizona State University is promoting collaboration between industry and academia through their NewSpace Initiative.

Here are recent TMRO space news reporst:

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Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto

Astronomy

ESO: The Cosmic Bat of the Orion constellation

The latest ESO (European Southern Observatory) report:

A Cosmic Bat in Flight
ESO’s Cosmic Gems Programme captures the Cosmic Bat’s dusty clouds

Hidden in one of the darkest corners of the Orion constellation, this Cosmic Bat is spreading its hazy wings through interstellar space two thousand light-years away. It is illuminated by the young stars nestled in its core — despite being shrouded by opaque clouds of dust, their bright rays still illuminate the nebula. Too dim to be discerned by the naked eye, NGC 1788 reveals its soft colours to ESO’s Very Large Telescope in this image — the most detailed to date.

Hidden in one of the darkest corners of the Orion constellation, this Cosmic Bat is spreading its hazy wings through interstellar space two thousand light-years away. It is illuminated by the young stars nestled in its core — despite being shrouded by opaque clouds of dust, their bright rays still illuminate the nebula. Too dim to be discerned by the naked eye, NGC 1788 reveals its soft colours to ESO’s Very Large Telescope in this image — the most detailed to date.

ESOcast 195 Light: A Cosmic Bat in Flight | ESO

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has caught a glimpse of an ethereal nebula hidden away in the darkest corners of the constellation of Orion (The Hunter) — NGC 1788, nicknamed the Cosmic Bat. This bat-shaped reflection nebula doesn’t emit light — instead it is illuminated by a cluster of young stars in its core, only dimly visible through the clouds of dust. Scientific instruments have come a long way since NGC 1788 was first described, and this image taken by the VLT is the most detailed portrait of this nebula ever taken.

The delicate nebula NGC 1788 is located in a dark and often neglected corner of the constellation Orion. Although this ghostly cloud is rather isolated from Orion’s bright stars, their powerful winds and light have a strong impact on the nebula, forging its shape and making it a home to a multitude of infant suns. This image from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 covers a field of view of 3 x 2.9 degrees, and shows that the Bat Nebula is part of much larger nebulosity.

Even though this ghostly nebula in Orion appears to be isolated from other cosmic objects, astronomers believe that it was shaped by powerful stellar winds from the massive stars beyond it. These streams of scorching plasma are thrown from a star’s upper atmosphere at incredible speeds, shaping the clouds secluding the Cosmic Bat’s nascent stars.

NGC 1788 was first described by the German–British astronomer William Herschel, who included it in a catalogue that later served as the basis for one of the most significant collections of deep-sky objects, the New General Catalogue (NGC) [1]. A nice image of this small and dim nebula had already been captured by the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, but this newly observed scene leaves it in the proverbial dust. Frozen in flight, the minute details of this Cosmic Bat’s dusty wings were imaged for the twentieth anniversary of one of ESO’s most versatile instruments, the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2).

FORS2 is an instrument mounted on Antu, one of the VLT’s 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes at the Paranal Observatory, and its ability to image large areas of the sky in exceptional detail has made it a coveted member of ESO’s fleet of cutting-edge scientific instruments. Since its first light 20 years ago, FORS2 has become known as “the Swiss army knife of instruments”. This moniker originates from its uniquely broad set of functions [2]. FORS2’s versatility extends beyond purely scientific uses — its ability to capture beautiful high-quality images like this makes it a particularly useful tool for public outreach.

This image was taken as part of ESO’s Cosmic Gems programme, an outreach initiative that uses ESO telescopes to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects for the purposes of education and public outreach. The programme makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations, and — with the help of FORS2 — produces breathtaking images of some of the most striking objects in the night sky, such as this intricate reflection nebula. In case the data collected could be useful for future scientific purposes, these observations are saved and made available to astronomers through the ESO Science Archive.

Notes

[1] In 1864 John Herschel published the General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters, which built on extensive catalogues and contained entries for more than five thousand intriguing deep-sky objects. Twenty-four years later, this catalogue was expanded by John Louis Emil Dreyer and published as the New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (NGC), a comprehensive collection of stunning deep-sky objects.

[2] In addition to being able to image large areas of the sky with precision, FORS2 can also measure the spectra of multiple objects in the night sky and analyse the polarisation of their light. Data from FORS2 are the basis of over 100 scientific studies published every year.

This chart shows the location of the reflection nebula NGC 1788 in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter). The map includes most of the stars visible to the unaided eye under good conditions, and the region of sky shown in this image is indicated. Credit: ESO, IAU and Sky & Telescope

More information

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It has 16 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Links

Space participation, Spaceflight & Parabolic Flight

Space tourism roundup – Mar.13.2019

A quick scan of the status of space tourism:

** Suborbital space tourism should finally get underway this year as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic expect to begin taking “spaceflight participants” to the edge of space and back after they complete the remaining test flights:

Jeff Bezos, when asked about the start of New Shepard commercial flights, says:

This year. This is the first time I’ve ever been saying “this year.” For a few years I’ve been saying “next year.”

The New Shepard will take up to 6 people to over 100 kilometers. The vehicle will be controlled autonomously with no pilots aboard.

George Whitesides wants participants to unbuckle and experience weightlessness as well as a marvelous view of the earth:

Such experiences, of course, don’t come cheap with the price tag at around US$250,000 per trip. From take-off to the return landing will take 90 minutes, and passengers are likely to be at zero gravity for just five minutes. “There will be a section of the flight when passengers will be able to unbuckle their seatbelts and float around, and people can look down on to planet Earth and out into space,” he adds.

The SpaceShipTwo rocketplane is operated by two pilots and can carry up to 6 passengers to an altitude over 90 kilometers.

** Orbital space tourism will resume soon. Visits to the ISS by paying customers were suspended nearly a decade ago due to the disappearance of spare seats in Russian Soyuz spacecraft. All the Soyuz seats were needed for transporting new crew members to the station following the end of the Space Shuttle program. Now with the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the Boeing CST-100 Starliner about to start taking people to the ISS, there will be a several opportunities for paying customers to go to the station each year.

Space Adventures, which has arranged space tourism flights to the ISS for seven people, will resume its orbital space tourism business in 2021: Roscosmos and Space Adventures Sign Contract for Orbital Space Tourist Flight – Space Adventures

State Space Corporation “Roscosmos” and Space Adventures, Inc. signed a contract for the implementation of the short duration space flight of two spaceflight participants on board the same “Soyuz” spacecraft to the Russian segment of the International Space Station. The flight is scheduled to launch in late 2021.

Roscosmos and Space Adventures have been cooperating in space tourism since 2001, when the first space tourist – Dennis Tito – flew on orbit. In total, seven people have visited the space station in the frame of space tourism program with Charles Simonyi visiting the ISS twice.

“Over the last 18 years, our partnership has provided the opportunity for non-professionals to experience life in space. Our clients have spent in total close to three months in space and traveled over 36 million miles,” said Eric Anderson, Chairman and CEO of Space Adventures, Inc. “We look forward to continuing to work with Roscosmos in the pursuit of opening the space frontier to all.”

** Are space tourists astronauts or not? Soon, hundreds of tourists will go to space. What should we call them? | Ars Technica

Until now, it has been fairly easy to call men and women who have gone to space astronauts (or cosmonauts in Russia, and taikonauts in China). About 560 humans have gone to space, nearly all of them into orbit, and a lucky two dozen have gone beyond. Twelve have walked on the Moon.

In 2004, the private SpaceShipOne venture clouded the picture a little bit by making a private suborbital flight. The pilots, Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, had not trained as government astronauts, so the US Federal Aviation Administration created a new designation for them—commercial astronauts. Since then, the five crew members of Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity flights in December and February have also earned that designation. But the FAA will only recognize “crew,” not passengers.

For now, there remains no official word on what to call non-crew members. Are they astronauts, too? Space passengers? Astro-nots? In the hopes of finding a consensus, we put that precise question to the companies, some bonafide NASA astronauts, and some experts in the aerospace community.

** A space tourism guide is available at Popular Mechanics: Everything You Need To Know About Going To Space

Space has it all. Circular mountain ranges! Metallic aster­oids! Geysers of sulfur! Oceans on a steady boil! It may just be the ultimate vacation destination. But how do you pack for the moon? What are you looking at for lodging? Will you get carsick in a rocket? In the era of space tourism, these are things you need to know.

So here’s the first thing: They call it “The Over­view Effect.” It’s what happens when you see the Earth from space, all you’ve ever known just a glitter­ing orb in the cosmic empti­ness. Your sense of humanity grows. Your perception shifts. You are forever changed.

Sounds kind of scary. But then, isn’t it exactly why we travel?

** Public response to space tourism has always been robust even when such trips for the public were not feasible:

In other words, everything was in place for Pan Am’s moon mania. Pistor’s initial moon-flight booking spawned a craze that would ultimately see Pan Am field 100,000 moon reservation requests under its First Moon Flights Club, which finally closed in 1971. All members were given cards with a number—an indication of one’s place on the ever-growing queue of layman astronauts.

A membership card in Pan Am’s “First Moon Flights” Club. Credits: Jeff Gates/National Air and Space Museum

** The SpaceX StarShip flight around the Moon with Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and a group of artists might just make the 2023 target liftoff date for the Super Heavy Booster/StarShip combo considering the rapid progress that the company is making with the StarHopper.

The StarHopper is a low altitude suborbital test vehicle, with nearly the same dimensions as the StarShip, that the company will use to master the vertical takeoff and landing techniques needed to operate the massive reusable StarShip upper stage.

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The Cosma Hypothesis: Implications of the Overview Effect

Space Music

Videos: More space music

A miscellaneous sampling of space music:

** Ariana Grande wants space though it’s primarily about room in a relationship:

More about her song:

**A nicely assembled montage of space clips for Space Song by Beach House:

“Space Song” with footage from NASA and Space X. (Made me so proud to be human I almost cried.) from r/space

** A paean to the Falcon Heavy from Time Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut, on the occasion of the recent one year anniversary of the launch system’s first flight: “27 Merlins” Music composed to Falcon Heavy’s sequence of events:

** An In-Orbit & Ground Duo from a few years ago:

** A medley of filk space music:

** Spotify’s space music at Spotify: Hottest 100 Space Songs – Spotify

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The Cosma Hypothesis: Implications of the Overview Effect

Everyone can participate in space