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Spacex - Blog Posts
Better safe than sorry!
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157485756070131&id=353851465130
Spacex's rocket landing. Again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=U-y7GpBvU38
07/18/2016: Successful SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launch & First Stage Recovery
Early this morning, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying nearly 5,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station.
SpaceX has plans to send two private citizens around the Moon, CEO Elon Musk announced today.
It will be a private mission with two paying customers, not NASA astronauts, who approached the company. The passengers are “very serious” about the trip and have already paid a “significant deposit,” according to Musk. The trip around the Moon would take approximately one week: it would skim the surface of the Moon, go further out into deep space, and loop back to Earth — approximately 300,000 to 400,000 miles.
The plan is to do the trip in the second quarter of 2018 on the Crew Dragon spacecraft with the Falcon Heavy rocket, which is due to do its maiden launch this summer. Of course, Musk is well-known for his unrealistic deadlines — in 2011, he promised to put people in space in just three years.
The two people going on the trip, who weren’t named, already know each other. They will begin initial training for the trip later this year. Musk declined to comment on the exact cost of the trip, but said it was “comparable” or a little more than the cost of a crewed mission to the International Space Station. For context, one ticket on the Russian Soyuz rocket costs NASA around $80 million.
Continue Reading.
As of now Starship is now the largest rocket ever made!!
Commercial Space & Ocean Worlds: NASA Co-Op #3 Week 14
Did you know that at least one human has inhabited the International Space Station over 16 years?!
NASA even has a Cumulative Crew Time on Orbit clock. Frequent flyers of this blog are familiar with the giant space lab orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes, however, even some of the public within a 20 mile radius of Johnson Space Center think NASA has shut down! It's up to myself, NASA full-timers, NASA interns and the science enthused to educate the public about the continuing efforts in space exploration.
International Space Station (ISS) Program Manager Kirk Shireman hosted an all hands for NASA employees to share about achievements and future goals. NASA is leading the commercialization of space by. The media often portrays NASA as fretting space commercialization when in reality NASA is fueling it. NASA has contracted SpaceX and Orbital ATK to deliver cargo to ISS every couple of months as commercial resuppliers. Launch of ATK April 18th 9:30am-10:30am CT. Boeing and SpaceX are being contracted by NASA to develop the Commercial Crew Vehicles to transport astronauts from Earth to ISS and back. The Commercial Crew Program enables manned launches from American soil. Additionally ISS is working toward attaching station nodes built by private space companies that deploy CubeSats. NASA thinks of the private and public space company research and device developers as customers. NASA is working on making space more accessible to its "customers".
Graduate School Advice
A Co-Op student leader coordinated a graduate panel with folks with NASA experience that also completed grad school. These are some helpful anonymous quotes from the panel...
“So when you roll into my office and say you want to be an astronaut I need a PhD, remember these are seven to eight years of your life”.
“How long it takes depends on how long it takes to do new science”.
“How many papers does it take to graduate? Okay. Spit in your hand and shake”.
Student: I want to get a degree in something very different than undergrad.
Panel member: “You can do anything”.
“Most people are human.”
“The answers aren’t in the back of the book once you start full-time.”
Ocean Worlds in Our Solar System
Evidence of giant water plumes observed on one of Saturn's moon Enceladus and one of Jupiter's Europa has been found. This exploration started in the 1990s when Galileo space craft orbited Jupiter and its moons. The magnetic signature detected on Europa suggests ocean like currents underneath its icy shell. During a 2005 Cassini performed an Enceladus fly by and spotted huge plumes were observed. Recently data from these mission have been analyzed and conclusions have been reached.
Terrestrial oceans have hydro thermal activity feeding life deep 1000s of meters below the ocean. Plumes spotted on extraterrestrial worlds are believed to produce "300 pizzas per hour of energy" in calories. "The statistics tell us that plumes are real by full sigma results". However, Hubble has reached its max to detect these plumes on Europa so scientists cannot be certain yet. Bill Sparks from Goddard expanded on the uncertain of Europa's plumes, "It's not completely unequivocally but in my mind the pendulum has swung from cation to optimism. The evidence is growing. The fact we have saw a repeated the exact same location. That's one of the gold standards for dealing with a repeat phenomenon. It's not proof because we are right at the limit of what Hubble can do." He shared it is evidence rather than proof because spectrometer readings, movies and maps have been taken of Enceladus is high definition compared to the smudge of low resolution observation made by Hubble's max capacity.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
More reading on these ocean worlds!...
Full press conference by NASA scientists about the water plumes: https://youtu.be/3n-0CSCcJuQ
https://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/index.html
https://www.nasa.gov/specials/ocean-worlds/
This week at NASA.
NASA commercial cargo provider Orbital ATK is targeting its seventh commercial resupply services mission to the ISS for 10:11 a.m. CDT Tuesday, April 18. Coverage of the launch begins at 9 a.m. on NASA TV.
Big Day In Space: NASA Co-Op #3 Week 12
Spacewalk
An International Space Station spacewalk with a runaway micrometeorite shield and SpaceX landing of a rocket which has already flown in space marks a busy week in space exploration.
American NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson conducted her eight spacewalk March 30th, 2017. Logging an accumulative 59 spacewalk hours, Peggy has surpassed the current record of female spacewalk hours. Peggy is now the third most experience spacewalker behind Anatoly Solovyev (68 hours) and former astronaut Mike Lopez-Alegria (67 hours). Accompanying Peggy on the spacewalk was current Space Station commander Shane Kimbrough.
The goals of the spacewalk included reconnecting cables and electrical connections to PMA3 on the Harmony node. Peggy and Shane also installed an upgraded computer relay box on Space Station's truss and installed shields to PMA3 and common berthing mechanism.
During the spacewalk, one of the shields was inadvertently lost. Fortunately, the shield floated away safely and does not pose a threat to Space Station nor the crew. However, the device missing a shield still needed to be protected. Mission Control engineers jumped into action with an Apollo 13-esque energy to solve how to replace the cover. They devised a plan for the astronauts to finish covering the port with the PMA-3 cover Whitson removed earlier in the day.
Leading this effort from the ground included light Director Emily Nelson and Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM)/Astronaut Anne McClain. Below you can see circled in green CAPCOM McClain & circled in purple Flight Director Nelson.
SpaceX Reusable Rocket
Falcon 9 rocket will delivered a commercial communications satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). SpaceX is on the road to full and rapid reusability as the world’s first reflight of an orbital class rocket, whereas NASA's Shuttle was a human transport between Earth and Space Station. Falcon 9’s first stage was previously supported a mission in April of 2016.
Rewatch the launch and landing broadcast here.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Science Friday featured NASA Robotics and exploring the galaxy
Apply to be a NASA Intern
Accomplishments this week at NASA
NASA panelists at a Women History Month event
Launch your Aerospace Career
More pictures from the spacewalk...
Dragon & Tech Development: NASA Co-Op #3 Week 5 & 6
Six weeks into my spring at NASA I can finally summarize my role. I am basically a project manager. I am working with a wonderful team of developers and flight controllers to green light an app astronauts may use on the International Space Station to facilitate stowage operations. The app runs on a device that would make stowage operations more hands free and enable monitoring from Earth. Stowage operations include unloading visiting vehicles such as the SpaceX Dragon and reloading Japanese HTV vehicles to burn up in the atmosphere. To get app approval I need to set up user tests in space station node mock-ups with participants familiar with space station procedures such as mission control flight controllers and astronauts. I observe user testing for other stowage tools and instruct team members to integrate those lessons learned into the app. I make sure the right talents are involved in the development including folks who work in human factors and those who train astronauts. So far this has been my favorite work tour responsibility wise. Even as a Co-Op my efforts directly correlate with the success of the app’s progress.
Picture above is from NASA’s exhibits in downtown Houston during Super Bowl week. I am wearing a VR headset that gave a 360 degree view of how rocket engines are constructed. A rocket booster of the same module of those on the Space Launch System was perched in the middle of Houston’s Discovery Green. Standing in the middle of the exhibits you could spin around in the circle and see sky scrapers draped in Super Bowl LI banners.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
SpaceX Dragon, a cargo resupply ship is scheduled to launch Sat Feb 18 9:01amCT, watch here!
Science experiments arriving to Space Station on Dragon to be conducted bu astronauts!
Behind the scenes of the SpaceX Dragon launch and Space Food!
List of launches scheduled at Kennedy Space Center in Florida's Cape Canaveral.
Five minute video of this week's NASA accomplishments.
Real time updates on NASA's missions.
Apply to be a NASA Intern!
Falcon 9 Sticks the Landing
Game changing launch of Iridium Next mission, Land of Falcon 9 first stage landing and deployment of 10 satellites in low earth orbit by SpaceX. These satellites will provide important data to first responders on Earth. The first stage landing was captured entirely by the Falcon 9's point of view. First launch following SpaceX's 2016 explosion. SpaceX worked with NASA, Airforce and other groups to identify the cause and find a solution. The 2016 was caused by carbon dioxide build up between stage 2's layer of aluminum and carbon fiber wrap.
Stage one successfully lands on barge named “Just Read the Instructions”.
Stage carrying the Iridium Next satellites glows red.
Liftoff with critical small one minute launch window.
Falcon 9′s fins adjust for landing on sea barge.
I had the awesome opportunity to have coffee with Johnson Space Center (JSC) Director Ellen Ochoa and Deputy Director Mark Geyer. Above I am pictured to the left of Ochoa in a red blazer and I look pretty serious writing notes. JSC leaders have been striving to hear voices from employees up high, in the trenches, wise, and new. Recently JSC Center and Deputy Directors have hosted coffees to share their goals for JSC and listen to concerns. Ochoa and Geyer shared their vision of JSC 2.016, how NASA can do more with less resources and deliver what is expected and beyond on current missions. Out of all NASA contractors and civil servants I was randomly selected to share my perspective and concerns as a Co-Op.
JSC 2.016
It's no secret that NASA's budget is far less than it was during the Apollo Era. NASA's budget was over 4% of the federal budget during the Space Race to the Moon and now below 1% despite NASA's goals to journey to Mars. Keeping realistic in funds and resources JSC 2.016 is a mantra adopted by NASA employees to do more with the resources they have. At the coffee Ochoa shared that the goals of JSC 2.016 is to ensure our work is pushing forward NASA's current missions, enabling change by listening to and adopting new ideas, removing obstacles that hinder progress, and share NASA's missions with communities.
Concerns
Before attending the coffee I polled JSC interns and Co-Ops to see if they had concerns and questions to share. Within moments of the coffee starting Ochoa and Geyer shared essential insights on how NASA’s mission is evolving in a five, ten and beyond year sense - it was very Carl Sagan Cosmos-esk. Once I was brought to this level of long-term thinking my key concern broadened from specifics. During my opportunity to talk I mentioned the concern about the vagueness of the Journey to Mars mission compared to the solidity of Space Launch System, Orion, Space Station and Commercial Crew missions. I was surprised to hear that fluidity of our Journey to Mars is actually intended. Discoveries and knowledge from Space Launch System, Orion, Space Station and Commercial Crew missions are necessary before solidifying the Journey to Mars. During those missions we will collect a lot of data on the vehicles that will be carrying our astronauts, learn new things we didn’t plan to learn and test the waters with deep space collaboration with private industries and international partners. Fluidity is the nature of NASA’s long-term impact on humanity which is unique to all other forces in the world advocating for short term instant gratification (short term can even mean one year, eight years and even decades compared to humanity as a whole). NASA must deliver what is expected of us and beyond on these current solid missions to ensure more solidified Mars related mission in the future.
We Still Need NASA
With all the SpaceX, Lockheed Martin and general private space industry hype some may have the impression that we no longer need NASA for space exploration. Articles titled "U.S. government should fund private space companies, not NASA" paint false claims of competition between government space missions and private industry. During this coffee this misconception of competition was expunged and I was re-energized about why we still need NASA. NASA, as a subset of the US Government, awards contracts to private space companies that would otherwise not be able to pursue these aerospace endeavors because they do not bring in a profit. The government can risk to make these long-term investments without certainty of short-term instant gratification like profit. There is a tendency to forget that NASA has been contracting work to private companies since the 1960s. Grumman Aircraft was contracted to build the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) in 1962. Being a government agency, NASA can foster a unique relationship between other countries space agencies such as ROSCOSMOS, JAXA and ESA. Through decades NASA is the government agency that has lead the cohesiveness and steady beat of the drum of space exploration progress.
SPACEX STUCK THE LANDING
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket landed on a barge opening doors to reusable rockets on future missions. This is a BIG DEAL as reusable rockets save major moolah. Congrats to all those who worked on it! http://gizmodo.com/spacexs-falcon-9-rocket-just-made-the-first-ocean-barge-1769942283
SpaceX's Grasshopper Rocket
SpaceX's Grasshopper Rocket beautifully perfectly Hovers!
In this recent test, the Grasshopper vertically took-off, ascended to about 12 stories, hovered for few seconds and then deliberately landed back down.
And of course, it's indeed meant to go much, much higher (to space) but progress is progress.
(via "Cesta do vesmíru 14" iPhone Case for Sale by Wartist)
About Living on Mars
More than a year ago, after reading yet one more unrealistic description concerning what living on a Mars colony would be like, I began a serial on Kindle Vella I called Donald of Mars. The reason, to show just what living there might realistically be like.
There is no super technology providing quick fixes. You have to bury everything under the sand after building it for structural and…
Can a Mars colony be profitable?
Many have stated you can not have a profitable mars colony, over all. At best some will make money profiting of those who invest in it. Here are some of those that will profit stetting one up. If it is enough for the Colony to be profitable or not, depends on decision not yet made.
What is your opinion of what will work best on Mars?
There are lots of ideas on how Mars will be governed. Most reflect what people think should be forbidden or controlled. But the purpose of a government is to enable people, and that is what the most successful ones do, they enable the most people. Enabling, not restricting, will be key to having a successful mars Government.
Living on Mars. IT Won't be Like the Movies
When people think of a big colony on mars. Sterile environments like seen in TV series such as space 1999 and many others come to mind. It is unlikely to be that way. People there are going to be critically short nearly every fiber, oil, and other chemical bio mass produced. to even make a noticeable dent in that shortage plant are going to be in every cranny you can put them. There will be other effect.
My view of the @spacex launch of the #falcon9 with #saocom1a payload from Vandenberg AFB which is about 130 miles away. The last image looks like a #comet #canon #rockets #nightsky #space #spacex (at Sunland-Tujunga, Los Angeles) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoqBrcZD7lI/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=j2vduadubtfl
Wish we can be like #starman and say peace out ✌ #earth #bluemarble #redroadster #tesla #heavymetal #falconheavy #spacex #spacegeek