Using low-bandgap III-V materials such as InAsSb in nanostructured arrays to limit potential loss mechanisms, a 25x improvement in mass specific power and ten thousands times decrease in volume from a MMRTG is an early estimate, with higher performance possible depending on operating conditions. TRC technology will allow a proliferation of small versatile spacecraft with …
Larger telescopes are better because we can see better and capture more light, so NASA is developing liquid based space telescopes that would let us build 50 meter telescopes for the cost of 10 meter telescopes. The future of space-based UV/optical/IR astronomy requires ever larger telescopes. The highest priority astrophysics targets, including Earth-like exoplanets, first …
The moon has one-sixth the gravity of the earth so magnetic levitation can use 35 times less power to do the same work. NASA will leverage this to make thin sheets that can rolled out to make lunar railway systems. They will provide reliable, autonomous, and efficient payload transport on the Moon. A durable, long-life …
A breakthrough pulsed plasma rocket is getting NASA phase 2 innovative concepts funding. It will have 15 times the efficiency of chemical rockets and with high levels of thrust at the level of a medium sized chemical rocket. Howe Industries is currently developing a propulsion system that may generate up to 100,000 Newtons of thrust …
Boeing is still struggling with problems with the Starliner. After years and years of continued delays and problems can we ever be confident that Boeing Starliner is reliably safe for human flight? Major operational and safety problems keep surfacing after years of rework. After it was fully reworked twice and it still has physical and …
Boeing Starliner’s CFT (crewed flight test) is delayed again. They are now targeting no earlier than May 21st which is a push by another 4 days. There is a helium leak in the spacecraft. Starliner will launch atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, on Florida’s Space …
SpaceX had a successful static fire test and is ready for the fourth orbital flight of the Super Heavy Starship. Static fires for the third launch were about 2-3 weeks before the actual launch. Static fire of Flight 5 Starship’s six Raptor engines pic.twitter.com/UiF5UG432F — SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 8, 2024 Brian WangBrian Wang is a …
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was scheduled to launch tonight to get certification. The mission was scrubbed for today. Atlas valve issue. The scrub was recommended after launch control teams detected anomalous behavior by the pressure regulation valve in the liquid oxygen tank of the Centaur upper stage of the ULA Atlas V launch vehicle. Engineers are …
Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require millions of spacesuits. The development of many new suit and the execution of the spacewalk will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions as life becomes multiplanetary. This EVA suit evolve from the Intravehicular Activity (IVA) …
According to Kshatriya, SpaceX will perform a Starship-to-Starship cryogenic propellant transfer test in 2025. According to Kshatriya, SpaceX will perform a Starship-to-Starship cryogenic propellant transfer test in 2025. pic.twitter.com/S6f17Rr6zy — Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) April 26, 2024 We have known that fuel transfer capability is critical for the $3.5 billion NASA-SpaceX Lunar Starship program. SpaceX will …
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be sensitive to even lower-mass rogue planets since it will observe from space. It will have wide field of view and sharp vision which will allow us to study the objects it finds in more detail than we can do using only ground-based telescopes. In 2023, researchers estimate it …