March 4, 2018

BE-4 Engine Tests Continue as ULA Waits to Make Vulcan Engine Decision (Source: Space News)
As Blue Origin continues tests of its BE-4 engine, United Launch Alliance is keeping quiet about when it might select that engine or an alternative for its Vulcan rocket. Blue Origin started testing of the BE-4 in October 2017 at its West Texas test site. The company has disclosed few details about the status of that test program since then, but a company official said at the 45th Space Congress here Feb. 28 that the company was making “good progress” on tests of the engine.

“We’re getting longer duration burn times. We’re going though validating the turbomachinery very closely,” said Jim Centore, group lead for orbital mission operations at Blue Origin, during a panel discussion on launch systems at the conference.

Blue Origin is developing the BE-4 for its own New Glenn launch vehicle, with seven engines in the rocket’s first stage and one in its second. BE-4 is also under consideration by ULA for use in the first stage of its Vulcan rocket. Company officials have long indicated that that the BE-4 was its preferred choice, but would wait on making a formal decision on whether to use the BE-4 engine until it completed a series of tests. (3/3)

Charged Black Holes Can Erase Your Past And Give You Infinite Number Of Possible Futures (Source: Tech Times)
In our world, the past determines the future. If physicists know the beginning of the universe, it is possible for them to calculate its future for all time and space. A mathematician from the University of California at Berkeley, however, claims that there are black holes in the universe that can press the reset button of history. He said that in an ever-expanding universe, these black holes can completely reset the past and the future.

Peter Hintz said mathematical calculations revealed that for some types of black holes in a universe, which expands at an accelerating rate like ours, there is a possibility to survive passage from a deterministic world into a non-deterministic black hole. This particular black hole is a standard non-rotating black hole with an electrical charge and the so-called Cauchy horizon within the event horizon, the boundary around a black hole beyond which nothing, not even light nor radiation, can escape.

The Cauchy horizon is where determinism break down, which means that here, the past no longer determines the future. If someone sets to venture into one of these black holes with a Cauchy horizon, he could survive but his past would be erased and he faces an infinite number of possible futures. (3/4)

China to Recruit Civilian Astronauts, Boost Crewed Missions (Source: ABC)
China will begin recruiting civilian astronauts for its military-backed space program and plans to increase the number of crewed missions to around two a year, a top official with the country's space program said. China's third batch of astronaut trainees will include recruits from industry, research institutions and universities who will help build and crew China's independent space station, said Yang Liwei, deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office.

New astronauts will include maintenance engineers and payload specialists as well as pilots, Yang, who became China's first man in space in 2003, said Saturday. China selected 14 astronauts, or yuhangyuan in Chinese, in the late 1990s and another seven in 2010, including two women. A total of 11 have been sent on six missions. (3/4)