NASA Marshall to Lead
Artemis Program’s Human Lunar Lander Development (Source:
NASA)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine was joined Friday by U.S.
Representatives Mo Brooks and Robert Aderholt of Alabama and Scott
DesJarlais of Tennessee at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Alabama, to announce the center’s new role leading the
agency’s Human Landing System Program for its return to the Moon by
2024.
“Marshall Space Flight Center is the birthplace of America’s space
program. It was Marshall scientists and engineers who designed, built,
tested, and helped launch the giant Saturn V rocket that carried
astronauts on the Apollo missions to the Moon,” Brooks said. “Marshall
has unique capabilities and expertise not found at other NASA centers.
I’m pleased NASA has chosen Marshall to spearhead a key component of
America’s return to the Moon and usher in the Artemis era. Thanks to
Administrator Bridenstine for travelling here to share the great news
in person.” (8/16)
Northrop Grumman Becomes
First Commercial Partner to Use VAB (Source: NASA)
After spending more than 50 years supporting NASA’s human spaceflight
programs, the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), a landmark at the
agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is getting its first
commercial tenant. Northrop Grumman will assemble and test its new
OmegA rocket inside the massive facility’s High Bay 2, one of four high
bays in the building. Officials with NASA, Northrop Grumman and the
U.S. Air Force gathered in High Bay 2 on Aug. 16 to celebrate the
partnership with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by legislative
representatives and spaceport employees. (8/16)
SpaceX’s First
Super-Heavy Hardware is Already Being Built at Florida Starship Campus
(Source: Teslarati)
Based on some basic analysis of recent photos of SpaceX’s East Coast
Starship facility, situated in Cocoa, Florida, SpaceX has almost
certainly begun fabricating and staging hardware that will eventually
become part of the company’s first Super Heavy booster prototype. This
is by no means surprising but it does confirm the reasonable assumption
that SpaceX is already working hard to ensure that the first Super
Heavy booster(s) can be assembled as quickly as possible.
Additionally, SpaceX appears to have started clearing brush in the
process of preparing to transport the Florida orbital Starship
prototype (“Mk2”) to SpaceX’s Pad 39A launch facilities, dozens of
miles away. In August alone, Cocoa has effectively doubled the height
of the barrel section of its Mk2 orbital Starship prototype, jumping
from 7-8 to 15 steel rings. The barrel section is now ~28m (90 ft) tall
and Starship Mk2’s pointed nose section is still approximately 20-22m
(65-70 ft) tall, adding up to a stacked height of 48-50m, approximately
10% shy of its final 55m (180 ft) height.
Assuming that SpaceX hasn’t stretched Starship further since CEO Elon
Musk’s September 2018 update, this leaves Starship Mk2 around 2-4 rings
and a small nose cap shy of its full height (excluding legs). Musk says
Super Heavy will likely perform its first flight tests with
approximately 20 Raptor engines, eventually arriving at a full 31-37
engines depending on the configuration. Musk also believes that
Starship could be ready for its first orbital flight tests as early as
December 2019. (8/16)
Why Stowaway Creatures on
the Moon Confound International Space Law (Source: The
Verge)
The recent Israeli moonship crash that left tardigrades on the lunar
surface raises many questions about the protocols surrounding how
space-bound payloads are approved. Technically, international
guidelines on interplanetary contamination don’t prohibit sending
biological matter and organisms to the lunar surface, since most living
creatures can’t survive there. But no governing body had a say in the
tardigrade matter at all. The tardigrades were added to the lander by a
US nonprofit called the Arch Mission Foundation, whose goal is to
create a digital and biological “backup of planet Earth” out in space.
The team had approval to add a digital library on the lander, but they
didn’t inform Israel or the United States about the added water bears.
“We didn’t tell them we were putting life in this thing,” Nova Spivack,
co-founder of the Arch Mission Foundation, tells Mashable. “Space
agencies don’t like last-minute changes. So we just decided to take the
risk.” Spivack did not want to give further comment to The Verge.
Now, some are wondering if new international guidelines should be put
in place to prevent copycat missions in the future. “It sets a
dangerous precedent that it’s in some way acceptable to do this without
a broader scientific consultation,” Christopher Newman, a professor of
space law and policy at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom,
tells The Verge. While the Arch Mission Foundation didn’t violate any
official international regulations for space contamination, the
nonprofit may have put Israel and the US in a vulnerable position by
not explicitly asking for permission first. (8/16)
NASA Chief Alienates
Senators Needed to Fund the Moon Program (Source: Ars
Technica)
By handing Alabama's Marshall Space Flight Center leadership of the
lander program as well as oversight of its "transfer" and "descent"
elements. Houston-based Johnson Space Center, which managed the lunar
lander during the Apollo Program and historically has designed human
spacecraft for NASA, would lead development of the "ascent" part of the
lander and report to Marshall. It appears that neither Bridenstine nor
his staff bothered to tell the US Senators from Texas—Republicans John
Cornyn and Ted Cruz—about this decision.
Although the Texas lawmakers asked Bridenstine to delay his
announcement, the administrator pressed on Friday regardless. During an
event at Marshall, Bridenstine announced the division of work between
the Marshall and Johnson centers. "This is not a decision that was made
lightly," he said. According to NASA's news release, Babin had been
scheduled to appear at the event alongside several Alabama lawmakers.
However, Babin decided not to attend. “I am disappointed by the
decision from NASA to not place the lunar lander program management at
the Johnson Space Center," he later said in a statement. (8/16)
No comments:
Post a Comment