Space Warfare, Technology and Exploration

[jamahir]

So this brings up as to how it can be powered.
If it was batteries and solar power then well that might not be practical as you'd need a HUGE solar array to charge a vehicle that size every day. They may have to go nuclear like the rovers...not sure how dangerous it is.

Kilopower - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Fantastic ! Seems a simple enough system to be reliably used on Mars for many purposes. The vid is from 2018, I wonder how far they have come on this.

And isn't Stirling Engine used in one of the Mars rovers ?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Fantastic ! Seems a simple enough system to be reliably used on Mars for many purposes. The vid is from 2018, I wonder how far they have come on this.

And isn't Stirling Engine used in one of the Mars rovers ?

I don't think there any moving parts in the power supply of the rovers. The RTG creates electricity and charges batteries.

Perseverance Rover Components - NASA Science

The Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance, is based on the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover configuration, with an added science and technology toolbox. An important difference is that Perseverance can sample and cache minerals.

mars.nasa.gov

"The power source is called a "Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator" or MMRTG for short. The MMRTG converts heat from the natural radioactive decay of plutonium into electricity. This power system charges the rover's two primary batteries. The heat from the MMRTG is also used to keep the rover's tools and systems at their correct operating temperatures."



Hmm...this second part may be a deal breaker for other power supply ideas. Although we do have vehicles in the arctic which can run at the same -60C.

 

[jamahir]

Jul 12, 2021

NASA’s Mars Helicopter Reveals Intriguing Terrain for Rover Team

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captured this image of tracks made by the Perseverance rover during its ninth flight, on July 5. A portion of the helicopter’s landing gear can be seen at top left.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ingenuity’s ninth flight provided imagery that will help the Perseverance rover team develop its science plan going forward.

Images snapped on July 5 by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on its ambitious ninth flight have offered scientists and engineers working with the agency’s Perseverance Mars rover an unprecedented opportunity to scout out the road ahead. Ingenuity provided new insight into where different rock layers begin and end, each layer serving as a time capsule for how conditions in the ancient climate changed at this location. The flight also revealed obstacles the rover may have to drive around as it explores Jezero Crater.

During the flight – designed to test the helicopter’s ability to serve as an aerial scout – Ingenuity soared over a dune field nicknamed “Séítah.” Perseverance is making a detour south around those dunes, which would be too risky for the six-wheeled rover to try crossing.

The color images from Ingenuity, taken from a height of around 33 feet (10 meters), offer the rover team much greater detail than they get from the orbiter images they typically use for route planning. While a camera like HiRISE (the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter can resolve rocks about 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter, missions usually rely on rover images to see smaller rocks or terrain features.

“Once a rover gets close enough to a location, we get ground-scale images that we can compare to orbital images,” said Perseverance Deputy Project Scientist Ken Williford of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “With Ingenuity, we now have this intermediate-scale imagery that nicely fills the gap in resolution.”

Below are a few of Ingenuity’s images, which completed the long journey back to Earth on July 8.

Raised Ridges

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter spotted this location, nicknamed “Raised Ridges,” during its ninth flight, on July 5. Scientists hope to visit “Raised Ridges” with the Perseverance rover in the future.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ingenuity (its shadow is visible at the bottom of this image) offered a high-resolution glimpse of rock features nicknamed “Raised Ridges.” They belong to a fracture system, which often serve as pathways for fluid to flow underground.

Here in Jezero Crater, a lake existed billions of years ago. Spying the ridges in images from Mars orbiters, scientists have wondered whether water might have flowed through these fractures at some point, dissolving minerals that could help feed ancient microbial colonies. That would make them a prime location to look for signs of ancient life – and perhaps to drill a sample.

The samples Perseverance takes will eventually be deposited on Mars for a future mission that would take them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

“Our current plan is to visit Raised Ridges and investigate it close up,” Williford said. “The helicopter’s images are by far better in resolution than the orbital ones we were using. Studying these will allow us to ensure that visiting these ridges is important to the team.”

Dunes

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flew over this dune field in a region of Jezero Crater nicknamed “Séítah” during its ninth flight, on July 5, 2021. A portion of the helicopter’s landing gear can be seen at top left.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sand dunes like the ones in this image keep rover drivers like JPL’s Olivier Toupet awake at night: Knee- or waist-high, they could easily cause the two-ton rover to get stuck. After landing in February, Perseverance scientists asked whether it was possible to make a beeline across this terrain; Toupet’s answer was a hard no.

“Sand is a big concern,” said Toupet, who leads the team of mobility experts that plans Perseverance’s drives. “If we drive downhill into a dune, we could embed ourselves into it and not be able to get back out.”

Toupet is also the lead for Perseverance’s newly tested AutoNav feature, which uses artificial intelligence algorithms to drive the rover autonomously over greater distances than could be achieved otherwise. While good at avoiding rocks and other hazards, AutoNav can’t detect sand, so human drivers still need to define “keep-out zones” around areas that could entrap the rover.

Bedrock

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flew over these sand dunes and rocks during its ninth flight, on July 5, 2021. While the agency’s Perseverance Mars can’t risk getting stuck in this sand, scientists are still able to learn about this region by studying it from Ingenuity’s images.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Without Ingenuity, visible in silhouette at the bottom of this next image, Perseverance’s scientists would never get to see this section of Séítah so clearly: It’s too sandy for Perseverance to visit. The unique view offers enough detail to inspect these rocks and get a better understanding of this area of Jezero Crater.

As the rover works its way around the dune field, it may make what the team calls a “toe dip” into some scientifically compelling spots with interesting bedrock. While Toupet and his team wouldn’t attempt a toe dip here, the recent images from Ingenuity will allow them to plan potential toe-dip paths in other regions along the route of Perseverance’s first science campaign.

“The helicopter is an extremely valuable asset for rover planning because it provides high-resolution imagery of the terrain we want to drive through,” said Toupet. “We can better assess the size of the dunes and where bedrock is poking out. That’s great information for us; it helps identify which areas may be traversable by the rover and whether certain high-value science targets are reachable.”

More About the Mission

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages the technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science, Aeronautics Research, and Space Technology mission directorates. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. Lockheed Martin Space designed and manufactured the Mars Helicopter Delivery System.

JPL manages the MRO mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado.

For more about Perseverance:

mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

nasa.gov/perseverance​

Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
2021-143

Last Updated: Jul 13, 2021
Editor: Naomi Hartono

 

[jamahir]

Speeding at 94,000 Kmph, asteroid bigger than Burj Khalifa to pass by Earth tonight : All you need to know

News Desk
Sat 21 August 2021, 4:09 PM

A massive asteroid that is bigger than the world’s tallest skyscraper Burj Khalifa will soar past Earth on Saturday, August 21. The “potentially hazardous” asteroid is a cluster of 1,000 rocks and has been named as “2016 AJ193” by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The fast-moving block is travelling through space at 94,208 km per hour, the US space agency, which is keeping a close eye on it, recorded. At this speed, the asteroid is likely to pass within 3,427,903 km of Earth.

Asteroid ‘2016 AJ193’ Classified As Near-Earth Object:

NASA has classified it as a Near-Earth Asteroid and is currently on course to miss Earth by 212,971,5 miles at 3:10 pm GMT (8:40 pm IST) today. This visit of 2016 AJ193 will be the asteroid’s closest approach to planet Earth for at least the next 65 years, Sputnik news reported.

Size of the Asteroid:

The 2016 AJ193 is around 1.4 km wide and 4,500 feet in diameter. The asteroid is so massive that its size is 1.5 times of the Burj Khalifa, and over 4.5 times the size of the Eiffel Tower.

The space agency predicted its orbital track and has said that the asteroid will not do any harm on Earth this time.

Will the Asteroid Be Visible to Naked Eye?

The asteroid will not be visible to the naked eye. Astronomers will be able to spot it by using telescopes for their study and research.

In January 2016, it was spotted by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) facility, which is part of Hawaii’s Haleakala Observatory in the US. According to scientists, 2016 AJ193 orbits the Sun. While traveling towards Earth’s orbit, it goes in Jupiter’s direction.

NASA started observing the asteroid on August 20 and will continue till August 24 by using radar. NASA is currently tracking over 26,000 near-Earth asteroids including over 1,000 potentially hazardous.

What Are Asteroids?

Asteroids are rocky fragments left over from the origin of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. The majority of asteroids orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter in a belt. Scientists estimate that there are millions of asteroids in the universe, ranging in size from hundreds of kilometres to less than one kilometre (a little more than half mile).

Asteroids’ orbital routes are occasionally impacted by the gravitational pull of planets, causing their paths to change. Scientists believe that wayward asteroids or pieces from previous collisions slammed into Earth in the past, having a significant role in our planet’s evolution.

What are Near-Earth Objects (NEOs)?

Some asteroids and comets travel in orbits that bring them significantly closer to the Sun — and so to Earth — than is typical. We call a comet or asteroid a near-Earth object if its approach puts it within 1.3 astronomical units of the Sun. An astronomical unit is roughly 150 million kilometres (93 million miles) – the average distance between the Sun and Earth.

Near-Earth objects might be able to furnish the raw ingredients needed for future interplanetary exploration. Some should be rather simple to land on in the future for investigation.

What Are Potentially Hazardous Objects?

Asteroids that are potentially hazardous are around 150 metres (almost 500 feet) in diameter or larger, roughly twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. They are within 7.5 million kilometres of Earth’s orbit (about 4.6 million miles). Mars and Earth are about 53 million kilometres (about 33 million miles) distant when they are at their closest.

---

Jamahir's comment : Since this particular asteroid was detected in 2016 by NASA and maybe the path was also know so why couldn't NASA devise a robotic lander to land on the asteroid when it was conveniently near Earth ?

@ps3linux @Hamartia Antidote

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

within 3,427,903 km of Earth.

Well luckily that is 10x the distance from the Earth to the moon..

 

[jamahir]

Well luckily that is 10x the distance from the Earth to the moon..

Lucky indeed, and oops, I somehow read the distance as being in the 300,000 range hence my comment about why NASA did not build a robotic lander to land on it.

 

[jamahir]

Space pens, pencils, and how NASA takes notes in space
by Mike DiCicco and Naomi Seck for Spinoff News
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 27, 2021

​

NASA astronaut Walter Cunningham writes with a Fisher Space Pen during the flight of Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo flight and the Space Pen's first trip to space. The pens have been used on every NASA human spaceflight mission since.

The Space Pen has captured the American imagination in more ways than one. It's appeared repeatedly in pop culture and even worked as a plot device in a "Seinfeld" episode titled "The Pen," and in 2021 was inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame. It's also the subject of a myth that the space agency spent millions to invent a pen that can write in zero gravity, while cosmonauts simply used a pencil.

Let's get to the facts about the Space Pen, pencils in space, and how NASA astronauts write aboard the space station.

Is the Space Pen a real thing?

Yes, it is. The Fisher Space Pen made its television debut in October 1968, as Apollo 7 mission commander Walter Schirra demonstrated weightlessness by blowing on a pen to control its movement as it floated about the capsule. It was one of the first live video transmissions from an American spacecraft. Since then, Space Pens have appeared in television shows from "Mad Men" and "Gilmore Girls" to "How it's Made." The pens are on display in space museums and in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In 2021, the technology was recognized by the Space Foundation as an innovation developed for space that now improves life on Earth, joining around 80 other technologies in the organization's Hall of Fame.

Why not just use a pencil?

NASA wanted an alternative to pencils because the lead could easily break off and float away, creating a hazard to astronauts and sensitive electronics on the spacecraft. Cosmonauts also have been using Space Pens since 1969.

Did it cost taxpayers millions?

No. Paul Fisher at the Fisher Pen Company had already been working on a pressurized pen. That said, it likely would never have reached the heights it did, in orbit or in popularity, without NASA's testing.
"The original ballpoints were terrible," said Cary Fisher, Paul's son, and current president of the company, which is now located in Boulder City, Nevada. He notes that the early ballpoints tended to leak, skip, and dry up.

To solve the problem, his father, who had already invented the first universal ink cartridge refill, was working on a sealed cartridge with pressurized nitrogen at the top pushing a tiny piston against the ink. But the pressure caused the pens to leak.

When NASA reached out to him looking for a pen that didn't require gravity, he knew this pressurized ink cartridge could be just the thing - if he could solve the leaks. With NASA's interest spurring him on, he finally succeeded when he added resin to the ink to make it "thixotropic" - almost solid until friction with the ball at the point of the pen liquefied it. He called the result the AG7, for anti-gravity, and sent several to NASA.

NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, now Johnson Space Center in Houston, tested the pens extensively. The space agency found the pens worked in all positions, in extreme heat and cold, and in atmospheres ranging from pure oxygen to vacuum. And they held enough ink to draw a solid line more than three miles long - well beyond NASA's half-kilometer (.3-mile) ink requirement.

That testing accelerated the pen's development from a prototype to a safe, reliable product.

Once it had flown in space, Paul decided on the name Space Pen. "I thought it was a terrible name," his son recalled. "I said it's going to sound like a toy. But my father was right, as he often was."

The pens are known in part for their reliability, but they also came to symbolize American ingenuity: an inventor and small business owner stepped up and solved the pen problem while NASA focused on safely landing American astronauts on the Moon.
Paul and his son continued perfecting the technology and designing new models.

Do astronauts still use them?

The pens have been used on every crewed NASA mission since Apollo 7 - dozens are currently aboard the International Space Station.

Is it only for space?

The Space Pen line now comprises about 80 models.
While they are popular gift items, Cary said, they are especially in-demand among members of the military and law enforcement, as well as outdoor enthusiasts, plane manufacturers, and oil workers, all of whom, like astronauts, appreciate their ability to write in any conditions.

Fisher Pen Company has distributors in 52 countries but still makes all its pens in Boulder City, where more than 60 employees turn out over a million pens a year.

NASA has a long history of transferring technology to the private sector. The agency's Spinoff publication profiles NASA technologies that have transformed into commercial products and services, demonstrating the broader benefits of America's investment in its space program. Spinoff is a publication of the Technology Transfer program in NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

---

@ps3linux @Hamartia Antidote @fitpOsitive

 

[fitpOsitive]

Space pens, pencils, and how NASA takes notes in space
by Mike DiCicco and Naomi Seck for Spinoff News
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 27, 2021

​

NASA astronaut Walter Cunningham writes with a Fisher Space Pen during the flight of Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo flight and the Space Pen's first trip to space. The pens have been used on every NASA human spaceflight mission since.

The Space Pen has captured the American imagination in more ways than one. It's appeared repeatedly in pop culture and even worked as a plot device in a "Seinfeld" episode titled "The Pen," and in 2021 was inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame. It's also the subject of a myth that the space agency spent millions to invent a pen that can write in zero gravity, while cosmonauts simply used a pencil.

Let's get to the facts about the Space Pen, pencils in space, and how NASA astronauts write aboard the space station.

Is the Space Pen a real thing?

Yes, it is. The Fisher Space Pen made its television debut in October 1968, as Apollo 7 mission commander Walter Schirra demonstrated weightlessness by blowing on a pen to control its movement as it floated about the capsule. It was one of the first live video transmissions from an American spacecraft. Since then, Space Pens have appeared in television shows from "Mad Men" and "Gilmore Girls" to "How it's Made." The pens are on display in space museums and in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In 2021, the technology was recognized by the Space Foundation as an innovation developed for space that now improves life on Earth, joining around 80 other technologies in the organization's Hall of Fame.

Why not just use a pencil?

NASA wanted an alternative to pencils because the lead could easily break off and float away, creating a hazard to astronauts and sensitive electronics on the spacecraft. Cosmonauts also have been using Space Pens since 1969.

Did it cost taxpayers millions?

No. Paul Fisher at the Fisher Pen Company had already been working on a pressurized pen. That said, it likely would never have reached the heights it did, in orbit or in popularity, without NASA's testing.
"The original ballpoints were terrible," said Cary Fisher, Paul's son, and current president of the company, which is now located in Boulder City, Nevada. He notes that the early ballpoints tended to leak, skip, and dry up.

To solve the problem, his father, who had already invented the first universal ink cartridge refill, was working on a sealed cartridge with pressurized nitrogen at the top pushing a tiny piston against the ink. But the pressure caused the pens to leak.

When NASA reached out to him looking for a pen that didn't require gravity, he knew this pressurized ink cartridge could be just the thing - if he could solve the leaks. With NASA's interest spurring him on, he finally succeeded when he added resin to the ink to make it "thixotropic" - almost solid until friction with the ball at the point of the pen liquefied it. He called the result the AG7, for anti-gravity, and sent several to NASA.

NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, now Johnson Space Center in Houston, tested the pens extensively. The space agency found the pens worked in all positions, in extreme heat and cold, and in atmospheres ranging from pure oxygen to vacuum. And they held enough ink to draw a solid line more than three miles long - well beyond NASA's half-kilometer (.3-mile) ink requirement.

That testing accelerated the pen's development from a prototype to a safe, reliable product.

Once it had flown in space, Paul decided on the name Space Pen. "I thought it was a terrible name," his son recalled. "I said it's going to sound like a toy. But my father was right, as he often was."

The pens are known in part for their reliability, but they also came to symbolize American ingenuity: an inventor and small business owner stepped up and solved the pen problem while NASA focused on safely landing American astronauts on the Moon.
Paul and his son continued perfecting the technology and designing new models.

Do astronauts still use them?

The pens have been used on every crewed NASA mission since Apollo 7 - dozens are currently aboard the International Space Station.

Is it only for space?

The Space Pen line now comprises about 80 models.
While they are popular gift items, Cary said, they are especially in-demand among members of the military and law enforcement, as well as outdoor enthusiasts, plane manufacturers, and oil workers, all of whom, like astronauts, appreciate their ability to write in any conditions.

Fisher Pen Company has distributors in 52 countries but still makes all its pens in Boulder City, where more than 60 employees turn out over a million pens a year.

NASA has a long history of transferring technology to the private sector. The agency's Spinoff publication profiles NASA technologies that have transformed into commercial products and services, demonstrating the broader benefits of America's investment in its space program. Spinoff is a publication of the Technology Transfer program in NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

---

@ps3linux @Hamartia Antidote @fitpOsitive

Well, I often wonder about exploring space. So far, we are talking about space based on our observations only. We have not reached anywhere livable yet. The nearest liveable planets are around light years away.
So if space scientists concentrate more on the technologies where we can reach, in big numbers, to distant planets in significantly less time, that my friend, will be a great achievement. Otherwise, I call it a mare circus.

 

[jamahir]

The nearest liveable planets are around light years away.

I don't know the details but such faraway livable planets are just hypothesized to be livable based on their position which is not too far from their sun to be too cold for human / animal life ( like beyond Mars and Jupiter ) and not too close to their sun to be too hot for human / animal life ( like Mercury ) and an additional possibility of there being liquid water on the surface of the planet. The position must be just right like Earth and Mars. This position is called Life Zone.

I think humans will have two or three settlements on Mars by the mid-2030s. I read some months ago SpaceX saying that it will send out an uncrewed Starship to do a round of Mars orbit in 2024 and then a crewed round Mars orbit in 2026. Its Starship spaceship and the Super Heavy booster rocket that will carry it off Earth seem to be developing at a good rate. The company speaks about the first orbital test of the Starship to come by December this year and actually the first human landing to Mars by the mid-2020s :

SpaceX is gearing up to launch the Starship into orbit, the biggest test yet for the ship designed to send humans to Mars and beyond.

The firm is aiming to send the first humans to Mars by the mid-2020s, before establishing a self-sustaining city on Mars as early as 2050.

It could all start with the Starship — and at around 400 feet when paired with the Super Heavy booster that lifts it away from the Earth, this thing is huge. It greatly eclipses the Falcon 9, which measured less than 230 feet tall. It’s also powerful, with liftoff thrust of 16 million pounds.

If successful, it will become the tallest and most powerful rocket ever. For comparison, the current record holder on both counts is NASA’s Saturn V, which measured 363 feet tall and offered 7.6 million pounds of thrust at launch.

SPACEX STARSHIP ORBITAL FLIGHT: WHAT IS THE PLAN?

In May 2021, a document from the Federal Communications Commission revealed the plan for the first flight.

The ship will take off from the firm’s Starbase, Texas, launch facility. Around two minutes after liftoff, at 171 seconds, the Super Heavy booster will separate from the Starship. The ship will continue to complete a targeted landing around 60 miles northwest of the coast of Hawaii. The whole flight will last around 90 minutes.

The flight plan for the Starship.FCC

SpaceX will not land the booster or the ship on land. The booster will land in the Gulf of Mexico, around 20 miles offshore, at 495 seconds or eight minutes after launch. The ship will complete a targeted powered landing in the sea.

SPACEX STARSHIP: WHEN IS THE ORBITAL FLIGHT?

It’s unclear. The firm’s application to the FCC requested a launch window of June to December 2021.

In August 2021, Musk suggested on Twitter that the flight is just around the corner:

“First orbital stack of Starship should be ready for flight in a few weeks, pending only regulatory approval”

So if space scientists concentrate more on the technologies where we can reach, in big numbers, to distant planets in significantly less time, that my friend, will be a great achievement. Otherwise, I call it a mare circus.

I agree, so at least to travel within our own solar system there is an American company called Ad Astra Rocket Company which for years have been developing an in-space-usage plasma rocket engine called VASIMR which the company claims that it can propel a spaceship from Earth to Mars in just 39 days at the speed of 197,949 kmph and be fuel ( neutral gas ) efficient ! But the main issue they say is that the engine requires lot of electricity which can only, ATM, come from a very large solar cell array or a nuclear reactor. And a space nuclear reactor AFAIK has neither been tested in space nor is it free of political difficulties. But please do look at this Wikipedia description of the VASIMR engine and go through the company website. A simple description from here :

Chang-Diaz has been working on the development of the VASIMR concept since 1979, before founding Ad Astra in 2005 to further develop the project. The technology uses radio waves to heat gases such as hydrogen, argon, and neon, creating hot plasma. Magnetic fields force the charged plasma out the back of the engine, producing thrust in the opposite direction. Due to the high velocity that this method achieves, less fuel is required than in conventional engines. In addition, VASIMR has no physical electrodes in contact with the plasma, prolonging the engine's lifetime and enabling a higher power density than in other designs.

A private Indian company, Bellatrix Aerospace, that is also developing an in-space electric rocket engine seems to have derived inspiration from the VASIMR engine but note their use of water as pre-fuel :

Bellatrix Aerospace, is an Indian private aerospace manufacturer and small satellite company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. The company was established in 2015.[2] It plans to launch its own rocket named Chetak in 2023.[3] The two-stage Chetak rocket is powered by a number of their own Aeon engines. The Chetak rocket will use liquid methane as fuel.[4] In 2019 it announced plans to use water as propellant for an electric propulsion system.[2][5] On 8th February 2021 they announced that they partnered with Skyroot Aerospace.

So they use water because, I am guessing, it is more widely available than neutral gases like xenon and argon. I suppose the feed subsystem to the engine will electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen and feed the hydrogen to the engine and there bombard the hydrogen with microwaves and expel it out at high speed :

Bellatrix had earlier won an order from ISRO for developing the world’s first commercial microwave plasma thruster which uses water as its fuel.

But I don't think Bellatrix's in-development engine is as powerful as the VASIMR but their use of water as pre-fuel is a wonderful concept.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Space pens, pencils, and how NASA takes notes in space
by Mike DiCicco and Naomi Seck for Spinoff News
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 27, 2021

​

NASA astronaut Walter Cunningham writes with a Fisher Space Pen during the flight of Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo flight and the Space Pen's first trip to space. The pens have been used on every NASA human spaceflight mission since.

The Space Pen has captured the American imagination in more ways than one. It's appeared repeatedly in pop culture and even worked as a plot device in a "Seinfeld" episode titled "The Pen," and in 2021 was inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame. It's also the subject of a myth that the space agency spent millions to invent a pen that can write in zero gravity, while cosmonauts simply used a pencil.

Let's get to the facts about the Space Pen, pencils in space, and how NASA astronauts write aboard the space station.

Is the Space Pen a real thing?

Yes, it is. The Fisher Space Pen made its television debut in October 1968, as Apollo 7 mission commander Walter Schirra demonstrated weightlessness by blowing on a pen to control its movement as it floated about the capsule. It was one of the first live video transmissions from an American spacecraft. Since then, Space Pens have appeared in television shows from "Mad Men" and "Gilmore Girls" to "How it's Made." The pens are on display in space museums and in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In 2021, the technology was recognized by the Space Foundation as an innovation developed for space that now improves life on Earth, joining around 80 other technologies in the organization's Hall of Fame.

Why not just use a pencil?

NASA wanted an alternative to pencils because the lead could easily break off and float away, creating a hazard to astronauts and sensitive electronics on the spacecraft. Cosmonauts also have been using Space Pens since 1969.

Did it cost taxpayers millions?

No. Paul Fisher at the Fisher Pen Company had already been working on a pressurized pen. That said, it likely would never have reached the heights it did, in orbit or in popularity, without NASA's testing.
"The original ballpoints were terrible," said Cary Fisher, Paul's son, and current president of the company, which is now located in Boulder City, Nevada. He notes that the early ballpoints tended to leak, skip, and dry up.

To solve the problem, his father, who had already invented the first universal ink cartridge refill, was working on a sealed cartridge with pressurized nitrogen at the top pushing a tiny piston against the ink. But the pressure caused the pens to leak.

When NASA reached out to him looking for a pen that didn't require gravity, he knew this pressurized ink cartridge could be just the thing - if he could solve the leaks. With NASA's interest spurring him on, he finally succeeded when he added resin to the ink to make it "thixotropic" - almost solid until friction with the ball at the point of the pen liquefied it. He called the result the AG7, for anti-gravity, and sent several to NASA.

NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, now Johnson Space Center in Houston, tested the pens extensively. The space agency found the pens worked in all positions, in extreme heat and cold, and in atmospheres ranging from pure oxygen to vacuum. And they held enough ink to draw a solid line more than three miles long - well beyond NASA's half-kilometer (.3-mile) ink requirement.

That testing accelerated the pen's development from a prototype to a safe, reliable product.

Once it had flown in space, Paul decided on the name Space Pen. "I thought it was a terrible name," his son recalled. "I said it's going to sound like a toy. But my father was right, as he often was."

The pens are known in part for their reliability, but they also came to symbolize American ingenuity: an inventor and small business owner stepped up and solved the pen problem while NASA focused on safely landing American astronauts on the Moon.
Paul and his son continued perfecting the technology and designing new models.

Do astronauts still use them?

The pens have been used on every crewed NASA mission since Apollo 7 - dozens are currently aboard the International Space Station.

Is it only for space?

The Space Pen line now comprises about 80 models.
While they are popular gift items, Cary said, they are especially in-demand among members of the military and law enforcement, as well as outdoor enthusiasts, plane manufacturers, and oil workers, all of whom, like astronauts, appreciate their ability to write in any conditions.

Fisher Pen Company has distributors in 52 countries but still makes all its pens in Boulder City, where more than 60 employees turn out over a million pens a year.

NASA has a long history of transferring technology to the private sector. The agency's Spinoff publication profiles NASA technologies that have transformed into commercial products and services, demonstrating the broader benefits of America's investment in its space program. Spinoff is a publication of the Technology Transfer program in NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

---

@ps3linux @Hamartia Antidote @fitpOsitive

 

[jamahir]

Nice ! And they even engraved his name on it.

 

[fitpOsitive]

I don't know the details but such faraway livable planets are just hypothesized to be livable based on their position which is not too far from their sun to be too cold for human / animal life ( like beyond Mars and Jupiter ) and not too close to their sun to be too hot for human / animal life ( like Mercury ) and an additional possibility of there being liquid water on the surface of the planet. The position must be just right like Earth and Mars. This position is called Life Zone.

I think humans will have two or three settlements on Mars by the mid-2030s. I read some months ago SpaceX saying that it will send out an uncrewed Starship to do a round of Mars orbit in 2024 and then a crewed round Mars orbit in 2026. Its Starship spaceship and the Super Heavy booster rocket that will carry it off Earth seem to be developing at a good rate. The company speaks about the first orbital test of the Starship to come by December this year and actually the first human landing to Mars by the mid-2020s :







I agree, so at least to travel within our own solar system there is an American company called Ad Astra Rocket Company which for years have been developing an in-space-usage plasma rocket engine called VASIMR which the company claims that it can propel a spaceship from Earth to Mars in just 39 days at the speed of 197,949 kmph and be fuel ( neutral gas ) efficient ! But the main issue they say is that the engine requires lot of electricity which can only, ATM, come from a very large solar cell array or a nuclear reactor. And a space nuclear reactor AFAIK has neither been tested in space nor is it free of political difficulties. But please do look at this Wikipedia description of the VASIMR engine and go through the company website. A simple description from here :



A private Indian company, Bellatrix Aerospace, that is also developing an in-space electric rocket engine seems to have derived inspiration from the VASIMR engine but note their use of water as pre-fuel :

So they use water because, I am guessing, it is more widely available than neutral gases like xenon and argon. I suppose the feed subsystem to the engine will electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen and feed the hydrogen to the engine and there bombard the hydrogen with microwaves and expel it out at high speed :

But I don't think Bellatrix's in-development engine is as powerful as the VASIMR but their use of water as pre-fuel is a wonderful concept.

All current technologies are not sufficient to explore distant parts of our galaxy and other parts of universe.
And that my friend I know very well

 

[jamahir]

All current technologies are not sufficient to explore distant parts of our galaxy and other parts of universe.
And that my friend I know very well

You are correct and so to take spacecraft to such distances there is the concept of Warp Drive whose first proposal came in the 1957 novel Islands of Space ( I haven't read this one ) and then further used in the sublime book series Dune by Frank Herbert starting 1965 and in it called the Fold Space technique where vast spaceships called heighliners use Fold Space engines to travel to worlds across the many star systems where humanity has spread out. To safely navigate these spaceships across these vast distances the ships are piloted by Navigators of the Spacing Guild and these beings ingest a material called Space which gives them ( and a few others in the series ) the ability to predict future which in the series is called Prescience. In case of the Navigator the Spice allows them to guide the spaceships without crashing into suns and other space objects.

Spice is available on only one world in the entire known universe and this world is called Arrakis aka Dune hence the name of the book series. The importance of this world makes it the center of political, economic and cultural plots and engagements.

You should read this series ( I have read all of them I think ). It is the best science fiction work ever written, in fact one of the best books ever written and covers every aspect of human engagement ( politics, family life, economics, religion, scientific accomplishment, military technology etc ) and planetary subsystems and how planets shape human culture. All detailed in sophisticated, detailed yet simple manner. You will be happy to know that Dune has Islamic and Muslim themes and elements ( like the concept of Mahdi ). I read the first three books ( Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune ), an all-in-one hardback trilogy, many years ago and was simply entranced by it. After reading I gave the trilogy to a friend and even he was entranced. I then in coming years read the remaining five books in the series by Frank Herbert ( who died in 1986 ) and then the Dune books by his son and a co-writer, built by gathering notes left over by Herbert Sr. You should read it.

See this Wiki description for the first book.

There is a new Dune film coming out later this Dune but from the trailer it doesn't appeal to me. Not very nice. In fact the three-episode Dune ( 2000 ) TV miniseries seems to be better than this new full scale film. But I will ask you to read the first series book - Dune - and then I will ask you to watch the miniseries.

BTW, Star Wars is a silly derivation of Dune.

@ps3linux, read Dune ?

@Indos, If you haven't please read them.

 

[jamahir]

A 150-Year Old Idea Could Lead To A Breakthrough In Space Travel

Editor OilPrice.com
Tue, September 7, 2021, 5:30 AM·7 min read

The increasing frequency of both natural and man-made catastrophes such as worldwide pandemics and climate catastrophes has re-validated the urgency to establish humanity as a multi-planet species. Indeed, the founding ethos of Elon Musk's private spaceflight company SpaceX was to make life multi-planetary, partly motivated by existential threats such as large asteroid strikes capable of wiping out life on our planet. However, one of the biggest challenges to making this dream a reality is how to get to distant stars and planets within a human lifetime.

Consider that with conventional fuel rockets, it takes about seven months just to get to Mars, and a ridiculous 80,000 years to get to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, using our fastest rockets. This means that ordinary rockets are simply out of the question for interstellar travel, and something a little bit more out there is needed.

Luckily, we might now have the answer to this space travel conundrum.

Once the exclusive province of science fiction films, space colonization has been moving closer to becoming a reality thanks to major advances in astronautics and astrophysics; rocket propulsion and design, robotics and medicine. Trekkies, along with the otherworldly technology featured in the Star Trek series, have helped define the science fiction universe. One of the most mind-boggling of these technologies from those shows is the "Impulse Drive," a propulsion system used on the spaceships of many species to get across the galaxy in amazingly short timeframes measured in months or a few years rather than centuries or millennia.

And now scientists have unveiled the Holy Grail of Space Travel: A real-life Impulse Drive system able to achieve sub-light velocities using zero fuel propellants. After 30 years of tinkering and fine-tuning, a pair of scientists might finally be close to turning science fiction into science fact.

And, NASA is taking the idea seriously.

MEGA Drive

Conventional spaceships burn rocket fuel to achieve escape velocities, maneuver, and even land, in the case of SpaceX rockets. But what if you could build a spaceship that runs entirely on electricity?

That's exactly what the Mach Effect Gravity Assist (MEGA) drive does.

Jim Woodward, a physics professor emeritus at California State University, Fullerton, and Hal Fearn, a physicist at Fullerton, have developed the Mach Effect Gravity Assist (MEGA) Drive propulsion based on what they say is peer-reviewed, technically credible physics.

With the help of a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grant, the two scientists have developed MEGA Drive based on the physics described in Einstein's theory of relativity. MEGA Drive--which is showing excellent promise in early testing and is already in phase two testing--is pretty much the holy grail of space travel and space science because it could power not only local travel within our solar system, but also interstellar travel that is currently undoable using available technologies.

So, how does MEGA Drive work?

It's a well-known Newtonian law that an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion at a constant speed unless an external force acts on it. All objects resist changes to their state of motion or rest due to inertia.

In 1872, Austrian physicist Ernst Mach made a conjecture that these forces of inertia result from the gravity of objects in the distant universe. This became known as the controversial Mach's principle. While most experts have now dismissed it, Woodward and Fearn think the idea is simply misunderstood and have built their impulse engine based on it.

The MEGA Drive applies the Mach principle. There are several textbook definitions of the Mach principle; however, the two scientists think of it as the ability of distant matter to influence things up close. To get your head around it, they use this old analogy of how matter bends space-time.

If you put a heavy object on a trampoline, it falls in and curves the rubber sheet. Now, if you roll a ball on the trampoline, it will keep orbiting the heavy mass in the center. That's how a planet behaves when it's attracted by the gravity of a star. The thing is, for the rubber sheet to act that way, it has to be stretched or under tension. So these scientists are basically saying that the distant matter of the universe is what's pulling the space-time and making it taut and causing it to act like a stretched rubber sheet loaded with potential energy. And according to the team's understanding of the Mach principle, so is space-time, meaning they think there's a big gravitational potential out there, and the MEGA Drive can actually tap into that potential energy.

The MEGA Drive works by making a stack of piezoelectric crystals alternately heavier and lighter by applying electric current to them. Actually, this is not some kind of New Age healing crystals; piezoelectric crystals do expand and contract under the influence of electricity, essentially interacting with what Einstein says are universal inertial fields in the universe, caused by gravity. By making an object heavier one instant and lighter the next, you can create thrust by using the very same Newtonian every-reaction-causes-an-equal-and-opposite-reaction principle used by rocket engines by throwing matter behind them to move forward.

MEGA Drive's main kicker: Unlike a conventional rocket that ejects burnt gases to create thrust, the MEGA Drive does not permanently lose its energy-producing crystals by actually throwing them away; You simply push them when heavy, and pull them back when light, thus creating momentum to move forward.

"If you now have a double frequency mechanical oscillation, you can push on it when it's more massive and pull it back when it's less massive. You've got propelling, but you don't have to throw it over and say goodbye. You get to throw it over when it's more massive and then because of this interaction with this inertial gravitational field, you can let it become less massive and then pull it back in," says Woodward.

Woodward says each Mach Effect drive unit can generate about a hundred millinewtons of force. As currently built, the Mach Effect engines are six-centimeter cubes just over two inches per side. By making them more efficient, Woodward says you'd get more power from each. And, by stacking as many of them as you want on your ship, you can generate enough forward momentum to power your ship.

Then it's just a question of how much electricity you can feed the drives, with a nuclear power plant mooted as a possible source of electricity.

According to Woodward, you can generate ~10 newtons of force for every kilowatt of electricity fed into the Mach Effect engines. Early applications would be in satellites used in chemical rockets to maintain orbits and alignment with the engines fueled by electricity, vastly extending their useful lifespans. Indeed, in this case, solar panels could provide all the necessary energy to power the drives.

Another interesting finding: The team has calculated that the smaller the device, the larger the force it can generate. So instead of scaling up, they hope that arrays of thousands of tiny MEGA Drives powered by a nuclear battery could one day be deployed to accelerate large probes into interstellar space. Indeed, the scientists claim that the drives are sufficient to power a human-crewed starship to nearby stars such as Proxima Centauri located some 4.25 light-years away from the sun and back in some reasonable fraction of the human lifetime.

That sounds pretty futuristic, of course, and relies on peer review and replication of Woodward's results. To be clear, it will take a healthy dose of dogged persistence to replicate Woodward's feat. Indeed, Mike McDonald, an aerospace engineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory contracted by NASA to verify Woodward's work, gives it a rather unnerving 1 in 10 to a 1 in 10 million chance --but it's a shot, nevertheless.

And if MEGA Drive proves viable, it will become one of the rare instances when science fiction is vindicated and transformed into scientific fact.

By‌ ‌Alex‌ ‌Kimani‌ ‌for Oilprice.com

---

@fitpOsitive, one way for your wish for faster travel to the nearest stars has come true.

 

[fitpOsitive]

A 150-Year Old Idea Could Lead To A Breakthrough In Space Travel

Editor OilPrice.com
Tue, September 7, 2021, 5:30 AM·7 min read

The increasing frequency of both natural and man-made catastrophes such as worldwide pandemics and climate catastrophes has re-validated the urgency to establish humanity as a multi-planet species. Indeed, the founding ethos of Elon Musk's private spaceflight company SpaceX was to make life multi-planetary, partly motivated by existential threats such as large asteroid strikes capable of wiping out life on our planet. However, one of the biggest challenges to making this dream a reality is how to get to distant stars and planets within a human lifetime.

Consider that with conventional fuel rockets, it takes about seven months just to get to Mars, and a ridiculous 80,000 years to get to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, using our fastest rockets. This means that ordinary rockets are simply out of the question for interstellar travel, and something a little bit more out there is needed.

Luckily, we might now have the answer to this space travel conundrum.

Once the exclusive province of science fiction films, space colonization has been moving closer to becoming a reality thanks to major advances in astronautics and astrophysics; rocket propulsion and design, robotics and medicine. Trekkies, along with the otherworldly technology featured in the Star Trek series, have helped define the science fiction universe. One of the most mind-boggling of these technologies from those shows is the "Impulse Drive," a propulsion system used on the spaceships of many species to get across the galaxy in amazingly short timeframes measured in months or a few years rather than centuries or millennia.

And now scientists have unveiled the Holy Grail of Space Travel: A real-life Impulse Drive system able to achieve sub-light velocities using zero fuel propellants. After 30 years of tinkering and fine-tuning, a pair of scientists might finally be close to turning science fiction into science fact.

And, NASA is taking the idea seriously.

MEGA Drive

Conventional spaceships burn rocket fuel to achieve escape velocities, maneuver, and even land, in the case of SpaceX rockets. But what if you could build a spaceship that runs entirely on electricity?

That's exactly what the Mach Effect Gravity Assist (MEGA) drive does.

Jim Woodward, a physics professor emeritus at California State University, Fullerton, and Hal Fearn, a physicist at Fullerton, have developed the Mach Effect Gravity Assist (MEGA) Drive propulsion based on what they say is peer-reviewed, technically credible physics.

With the help of a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grant, the two scientists have developed MEGA Drive based on the physics described in Einstein's theory of relativity. MEGA Drive--which is showing excellent promise in early testing and is already in phase two testing--is pretty much the holy grail of space travel and space science because it could power not only local travel within our solar system, but also interstellar travel that is currently undoable using available technologies.

So, how does MEGA Drive work?

It's a well-known Newtonian law that an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion at a constant speed unless an external force acts on it. All objects resist changes to their state of motion or rest due to inertia.

In 1872, Austrian physicist Ernst Mach made a conjecture that these forces of inertia result from the gravity of objects in the distant universe. This became known as the controversial Mach's principle. While most experts have now dismissed it, Woodward and Fearn think the idea is simply misunderstood and have built their impulse engine based on it.

The MEGA Drive applies the Mach principle. There are several textbook definitions of the Mach principle; however, the two scientists think of it as the ability of distant matter to influence things up close. To get your head around it, they use this old analogy of how matter bends space-time.

If you put a heavy object on a trampoline, it falls in and curves the rubber sheet. Now, if you roll a ball on the trampoline, it will keep orbiting the heavy mass in the center. That's how a planet behaves when it's attracted by the gravity of a star. The thing is, for the rubber sheet to act that way, it has to be stretched or under tension. So these scientists are basically saying that the distant matter of the universe is what's pulling the space-time and making it taut and causing it to act like a stretched rubber sheet loaded with potential energy. And according to the team's understanding of the Mach principle, so is space-time, meaning they think there's a big gravitational potential out there, and the MEGA Drive can actually tap into that potential energy.

The MEGA Drive works by making a stack of piezoelectric crystals alternately heavier and lighter by applying electric current to them. Actually, this is not some kind of New Age healing crystals; piezoelectric crystals do expand and contract under the influence of electricity, essentially interacting with what Einstein says are universal inertial fields in the universe, caused by gravity. By making an object heavier one instant and lighter the next, you can create thrust by using the very same Newtonian every-reaction-causes-an-equal-and-opposite-reaction principle used by rocket engines by throwing matter behind them to move forward.

MEGA Drive's main kicker: Unlike a conventional rocket that ejects burnt gases to create thrust, the MEGA Drive does not permanently lose its energy-producing crystals by actually throwing them away; You simply push them when heavy, and pull them back when light, thus creating momentum to move forward.

"If you now have a double frequency mechanical oscillation, you can push on it when it's more massive and pull it back when it's less massive. You've got propelling, but you don't have to throw it over and say goodbye. You get to throw it over when it's more massive and then because of this interaction with this inertial gravitational field, you can let it become less massive and then pull it back in," says Woodward.

Woodward says each Mach Effect drive unit can generate about a hundred millinewtons of force. As currently built, the Mach Effect engines are six-centimeter cubes just over two inches per side. By making them more efficient, Woodward says you'd get more power from each. And, by stacking as many of them as you want on your ship, you can generate enough forward momentum to power your ship.

Then it's just a question of how much electricity you can feed the drives, with a nuclear power plant mooted as a possible source of electricity.

According to Woodward, you can generate ~10 newtons of force for every kilowatt of electricity fed into the Mach Effect engines. Early applications would be in satellites used in chemical rockets to maintain orbits and alignment with the engines fueled by electricity, vastly extending their useful lifespans. Indeed, in this case, solar panels could provide all the necessary energy to power the drives.

Another interesting finding: The team has calculated that the smaller the device, the larger the force it can generate. So instead of scaling up, they hope that arrays of thousands of tiny MEGA Drives powered by a nuclear battery could one day be deployed to accelerate large probes into interstellar space. Indeed, the scientists claim that the drives are sufficient to power a human-crewed starship to nearby stars such as Proxima Centauri located some 4.25 light-years away from the sun and back in some reasonable fraction of the human lifetime.

That sounds pretty futuristic, of course, and relies on peer review and replication of Woodward's results. To be clear, it will take a healthy dose of dogged persistence to replicate Woodward's feat. Indeed, Mike McDonald, an aerospace engineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory contracted by NASA to verify Woodward's work, gives it a rather unnerving 1 in 10 to a 1 in 10 million chance --but it's a shot, nevertheless.

And if MEGA Drive proves viable, it will become one of the rare instances when science fiction is vindicated and transformed into scientific fact.

By‌ ‌Alex‌ ‌Kimani‌ ‌for Oilprice.com

---

@fitpOsitive, one way for your wish for faster travel to the nearest stars has come true.

The problem is, even if we transport some humans on some nearby planet. These humans will not be able to make such delivery such on their own, as making such things requires a large industrial complex. Science has to start from almost zero again. But I highly doubt that man will ever be able to leave the earth.