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SpaceX’s orbital Starship launch debut could still happen this year

Despite the spectacular demise of a full-scale prototype just days ago, a senior SpaceX engineer and executive believes that Starship could still be ready for its first orbital launch attempt before the end of the year.

Even if the first launch attempt fails, that milestone – if realized – would be one of the single biggest upsets in the history of spaceflight, proving that Saturn V-scale orbital-class rockets can likely be built in spartan facilities with common materials for pennies on the dollar. Much like Falcon 1 suffered three launch failures before successfully reaching orbit, there’s a strong chance that Starship’s first shot at orbit will fall short, although each full-up launch failure would likely cost substantially more than the current prototypes being routinely tested to destruction in South Texas.

Most recently, what CEO Elon Musk later described as a “a minor test of a quick disconnect” went wrong in a spectacular fashion, causing a major liquid methane leak that subsequently ignited and created a massive explosion. Although Starship SN4 did technically complete its fifth Raptor engine static fire test just a minute or so prior, the ship and its immediate surroundings were obliterated by the violent explosion, leaving little more than steel shrapnel and the broken husk of a launch mount behind. It’s in this context that one of SpaceX’s most levelheaded, expert executives believes that an orbital launch could still happen this year.

 
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Ceres is a dwarf planet and the largest known object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

And now we know it may be an ocean world with intriguing geologic activity taking place on and just below its surface, according to new research.

While this global ocean beneath the planet's surface likely froze over time, remnants of it may still be present beneath a large impact crater on Ceres.

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False color was used to highlight the recently exposed brine, or salty liquids, that were pushed up from a deep reservoir under Ceres' crust in the Occator Crater. (CNN)

The presence of salts may have preserved the liquid as a brine, despite cold temperatures.

The suite of seven studies were published in the journals Nature Astronomy, Nature Geoscience and Nature Communications.

READ MORE: NASA launches Mars rover to look for signs of ancient life

Between 2011 and 2018, NASA's Dawn mission embarked on a 6.9 billion-kilometre journey to two of the largest objects in our solar system's main asteroid belt.

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Bright pits and mounds in Occator Crater were formed by salty liquid released as Occator's water-rich floor froze after the crater-forming impact about 20 million years ago. (CNN)

Ceres is about 953 km across, 14 times smaller than Pluto.

NASA's Dawn mission visited Vesta and Ceres, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit two deep-space destinations.

False colour was used to highlight the recently exposed brine, or salty liquids, that were pushed up from a deep reservoir under Ceres' crust in the Occator Crater.

This new research is based on observations made during Dawn's orbit of Ceres between 2015 and 2018, including close passes it made of the dwarf planet just 35 km above the surface toward the end of the mission.


During that time, Dawn was focused on the 93-km-wide Occator Crater, a 22-million-year-old feature that appeared to showcase bright spots.

These eye-catching characteristics were discovered to be sodium carbonate, or a compound including oxygen, carbon and sodium.

But it was unclear how those bright spots came to be in the crater.

Data from the end of Dawn's mission revealed an extensive and slushy reservoir of brine, or salty liquid, beneath the crater.

It's 40 km deep and extends out for hundreds of miles.

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An artist's impression of Ceres. (Supplied)

When the impact that created the crater struck Ceres, it may have allowed the reservoir to deposit bright salts visible in the crater by fracturing the planet's crust.

As the fractures reached the salty reservoirs, the brine was able to reach the surface of the crater floor.

When the water evaporated, a bright, salty crust remained behind.

Brines still forming today
Brines may still be rising to the surface today which suggests the activity on Ceres is not due to melting that may have occurred when the planet was impacted.

In fact, Dawn's data also indicated the presence of hydrated chloride salts at the centre of the largest bright area at the crater's centre, called Cerealia Facula.

This hydrohalite compound is common in marine ice on Earth, but it's the first time hydrohalite has been found outside of our planet.

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Ceres, Eris, Haumea, Pluto (L-R) (Getty, Wikipedia)

Bright pits and mounds in Occator Crater were formed by salty liquid released as Occator's water-rich floor froze after the crater-forming impact about 20 million years ago.

The salts appear to dehydrate quickly on the surface, at least, astronomically speaking.

This dehydration occurs over hundreds of years.

But the measurements taken by Dawn showed water was still present.

This suggests brine may still be rising to the surface of the crater and salty liquid could still exist inside of Ceres.

"For the large deposit at Cerealia Facula, the bulk of the salts were supplied from a slushy area just beneath the surface that was melted by the heat of the impact that formed the crater about 20 million years ago," Dawn's principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion

Laboratory in California, Carol Raymond said in a statement.

"The impact heat subsided after a few million years; however, the impact also created large fractures that could reach the deep, long-lived reservoir, allowing brine to continue percolating to the surface."

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3D visualisation of a mountain on the dwarf planet Ceres based on data from Nasa's Dawn satellite. (NASA)

There are also mounds and hills visible in the crater, likely created when flows of water froze in place, suggesting geologic activity on Ceres.

These conical hills are similar to pingos on Earth, or small mountains made of ice found in the polar regions.

Although features like this have also been found on Mars, it's the first time they've been spotted on a dwarf planet.

An unusual dwarf planet

The pingo-like structures and the water that pushes up through fractures in the crater revealed that Ceres experienced cryovolcanic activity, or ice volcanoes, beginning around 9 million years ago and the process is likely ongoing.

This kind of cryovolcanic activity has been witnessed on icy moons in the outer solar system, with plumes of material ejecting into space.

But it was never expected to occur on dwarf planets or asteroids in the asteroid belt, which are thought to be waterless and inactive.

Ceres changes that theory because it has proven to be water-rich and active.

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An artist's concept shows the Dawn spacecraft approaching the dwarf planet Ceres. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

A survivor from the earliest days of the solar system as it formed 4.5 billion years ago, Ceres was more of an "embryonic planet"; essentially, it started to form, but never finished.

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, and the force of its gravity likely stunted Ceres' growth.

So around 4 billion years ago, Ceres found its home in the asteroid belt along with all of the other leftovers from the formation of the solar system.

The idea that liquid water can remain preserved on dwarf planets and asteroids is an intriguing one for scientists.

Unlike other icy ocean worlds in our solar system, such as Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's moon Europa, asteroids and dwarf planets don't experience internal heating.

Enceladus and Europa benefit from internal heating that occurs when they interact gravitationally with the massive planets they orbit.

The Dawn mission ended in 2018 when the spacecraft ran out of fuel and could no longer communicate with NASA.

It was placed into long-term orbit around Ceres to prevent impact, protecting its organic materials and subsurface liquid.

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The unidentified bright spots snapped from the Dawn probe on approach to Ceres. (Associated Press)

The findings made possible by the Dawn mission have scientists eager to explore the dwarf planet and its potential for life in greater detail in the future.

While there is not currently another mission planned for exploring Ceres, two upcoming missions will explore Jupiter and its icy moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

"Dawn accomplished far more than we hoped when it embarked on its extraordinary extra-terrestrial expedition," Dawn's mission director at JPL, Marc Rayman said in a statement.

"These exciting new discoveries from the end of its long and productive mission are a wonderful tribute to this remarkable interplanetary explorer."

https://www.9news.com.au/world/nasa...f-planet/87abc746-ae10-4baa-833a-2bc409d19cdd
 
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Blue Origin Engineers Deliver Full-Scale Prototype Moon Lander to NASA

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The vision of returning American astronauts to the Moon by 2024 is looking more real than ever.

The Blue Origin-led Human Landing System (HLS) National Team just delivered to NASA a full-scale prototype of a lander that could one day carry American astronauts to the surface of the Moon.


The 40-foot, full-scale mockup is made out of two different components: the Ascent Element (AE) and Descent Element (DE). The mockup will primarily serve as a platform to test out crew operations, i.e. how to get astronauts, equipment and supplies off and on the vehicle.

It could also help the teams at NASA to evaluate things like cabin ergonomics, viewing angles from the cabin, and what the experience is like entering and leaving the vehicle while wearing a bulky spacesuit, according to SpaceNews.

“The most interesting part of doing this kind of mockup assessment is finding the stuff that you didn’t think of,” Brent Sherwood, vice president of advanced development programs at Blue Origin, told SpaceNews. “There are going to be surprises that are revealed by this kind of physical environment, when you can be in it and see it and feel it.”


In April, NASA awarded contracts to three companies as part of its human landing systems (HLS) project. Apart from Blue Origin, which scored by far the biggest chunk of the total $967 million, Alabama-based aerotech company Dynetics as well as SpaceX were also awarded $253 million and $135 million respectively.

SpaceX was awarded funding to develop the Starship, a massive spacecraft meant to carry astronauts to the Moon’s surface using the company’s Super Heavy rocket.

A next round of contracts are due in late fall. It’s still unclear how many landers NASA will be able to support, especially considering a tight budget squeeze. “All we can control is the work that we need to do,” Sherwood told SpaceNews.

“Testing this engineering mockup for crew interaction is a step toward making this historic mission real,” Sherwood said in a statement. “The learning we get from full-scale mockups can’t be done any other way.”


In addition to Blue Origin, the project is a collaboration with a number of other avionics heavyweights, including Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, each of which are drawing experience from a number of other projects, including NASA’s deep-space Orion vehicle and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus vehicle, an expendable aircraft that has resupplied the International Space Station.

This is only the start; Blue Origin still has its work cut out before the lander will get even close to launching, including the development of the rocket engines powering the different stages.
 
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In 1955 Disney produces "Man in Space" seen by President Eisenhower leading to the creation of NASA.




Disney then gets von Braun to speak about it (and shows the prototype Space Shuttle design with a glide landing)




Space Shuttle launch animation and landing (remember this is back in 1955 before even Sputnik)


It was supposed to be Space Shuttle then Moon landing.
It ended being Moon landing then the Space Shuttle.
 
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NASA underwater training for the Artemis moon mission is underway

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NASA underwater training for the Artemis moon mission is underway

NASA is currently conducting training for the Artemis moon mission that will see the next man and the first woman land on the moon. Mission training underway at the Johnson Space Center using the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL). The NBL is a massive pool of water with sand and rocks at the bottom used to simulate weightlessness.

During the testing, astronauts wear evaluation versions of the spacesuit to be worn on the moon to get used to how they move and function wearing the modern spacesuit. Engineers participate in the project using “hardhat” dive equipment to simulate different tasks crew could do on the moon’s surface. NASA notes that early testing will help determine the best compliment of hardware development facilities and requirements for future Artemis training and missions.

Tests are currently focusing on evaluating Johnson’s facilities for Artemis spacewalk testing, development, and crew training. Astronauts perform various tasks such as picking up samples of lunar regolith, examining a lunar lander, and planting the American flag. NASA expects the tests to inform future mission planners on various subjects, including how many spacewalks to conduct during a mission, how long the spacewalks will be, and how far away from a lander the crew can travel.

NASA extravehicular activity test lead Daren Welsh is in charge of the testing. He notes that tools can be evaluated in the lab or the rock yard, but there’s more to be learned by putting astronauts into a pressurized spacesuit. During the testing, the team is working on some of the mission basics, such as how the crew might get up and down a ladder safely, how to conduct safe missions in different lighting conditions than the Apollo crew operated in, and other tasks.

The testing is paying dividends already. According to NASA, the team is becoming more familiar with the service operation concepts. Testing will continue, and as it does, the scope of testing will be expanded with plans to complete full lunar spacewalk timelines. NASA plans to launch the Artemis mission in 2024.
 
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