Space

The launch of the new SLS rocket for the mission Artemis I was scrubbed earlier today due to valve issues.  Rocket engines, especially multi engine systems are very complex and dynamic systems in which any sign of a problem means the best policy is to abort.  Especially before launch.  These engines run on hydrogen and oxygen which must be kept at near absolute zero Kelvin.  As such an engine being the wrong temperature can indicate a leak.   Furthermore, a hydrogen leak, can mean a possible hydrogen fire.  Hydrogen burns with a flame that would be invisible…

The first flurry of images from the James Webb Space Telescope have given the world a glimpse of the birth of the universe. The telescope is a new era in space observation. The project has taken decades to go from idea to space observatory, overcome years of delays, and cost billions of dollars, and will transform how we see the universe.  What is the James Webb Space Telescope? The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s largest and most powerful space-based optical telescope. Whereas its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope circled the Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope…

We have entered into a new age of space exploration, in which the commercialization of space travel has opened up the possibility that within a generation, space tourism will become a normal part of human existence. Yet, space travel does not come without a price. According to Futurism, astronauts are not able to recover their bone strength and trabecular microarchitecture at the distal tibia a year after returning from a long duration spaceflight.  What Was the Study? The study was conducted by Gabel Leigh and a team of other researchers from the University of Calgary in Canada. The…

The pixels of the James Webb Space Telescope's first image just released today, that are the least interesting to the public, will be the most instructive to astronomy and astrophysics. The tinest faintest dot you see is a distant billions of years old galaxy. If an ordinary picture is worth 1000 words when that picture is of a ordinary looking scene here on a single planet, then every pixel of this image from the James Webb Space Telescope will be worth 1000 x1000 words. Without careful analysis of each pixel there is not much that can be said scientifically right off the bat. Not more than…

Forbes reports that the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) will be launched from the RocketLab’s Electron rocket and Photon spacecraft by June 27, from the LC-1 launch site in New Zealand. The NASA lunar orbiter will text and verify the Gateway space station’s calculated orbital stability. The 12-unit CubeSat will also test a new navigation system by measuring its distance relative to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).  What is the Gateway Space Station The Gateway is a space station currently being developed through a…

Forbes reports that the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) will be launched from the RocketLab’s Electron rocket and Photon spacecraft by June 27, from the LC-1 launch site in New Zealand. The NASA lunar orbiter will text and verify the Gateway space station’s calculated orbital stability. The 12-unit CubeSat will also test a new navigation system by measuring its distance relative to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).  What is the Gateway Space Station The Gateway is a space station currently being developed through a…

Since E.E. “Doc” Smith’s 1934 novel, Triplanetary, people have dreamed about performing the first space dive. As we make our first steps toward commercialising space travel, many people have started to wonder if we are any closer to achieving the first space dive.  Where Does Space Begin? When Jeff Bezos and Sir Richard Branson were celebrated for travelling to “space”, some people questioned whether they had actually gone to space, or simply reached the edge of space. This opened up a debate about where space really begins.  According to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale…

About 94 percent of the universe is not detectable matter and the universe is expanding. Those two facts alone are how scientists recognize that gravity as we know it does not work at the very large scale. It also does not work at the very small. Various bits of speculation, hypothesis, and science-fiction have tried to account for macro effects and they get lumped under generic blanket terms like 'dark matter' and 'dark energy' but experimental physics leads the charge in turning science from fantasy into reality. A new paper has made a step closer to understanding the quantum excitation…

The birth and ultimate fate of the 13.7 billion year old universe is a subject that has intrigued scientists since the dawn of civilization. We know that the universe is expanding, although there is a disagreement over how fast. We also know that the universe can only expand so far, and that ultimately, it will slow its expansion. However, there is no consensus on what happens after. Two Argentine cosmologists, Daniela Pérez and Gustavo Romero of the Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía, have a developed a new theory, which suggests that the universe is in a permanent state of expansion…

This was an opportunity for the public to give your feedback to NASA about their Mars sample return mission plans - can submit your comments to NASA here as a public comment. This is for their draft environmental impact statement which they plan to submit later this year. My comment is here . Comment Submitted by Robert Walker Comments were open to 11:59 May 15, ET, 2022. They got 170 comments (with some duplication). I THEY WILL KEEP EARTH SAFE If there is validity to what I or the others there say they have to take account of it in a legal process of at least 6 years likely far more - it's…