June 15, 2024

Massive Solar Storm Hits Mars, Revealing a Risk for Future Astronauts (Source: CNN)
When the sun unleashed an extreme solar storm and hit Mars in May, it engulfed the red planet with auroras and an influx of charged particles and radiation, according to NASA. The most extreme storm occurred on May 20 after an X12 flare released from the sun, according to data collected by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft currently studying the sun.

The massive flare sent X-rays and gamma rays hurtling toward Mars, and a coronal mass ejection released quickly on the heels of the flare, flinging charged particles in the direction of the red planet. The X-rays and gamma rays traveled at the speed of light and reached Mars first, followed by the charged particles within tens of minutes, according to scientists tracking the activity from NASA’s Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office. The energy from the solar particles was so strong that the star camera aboard the Mars Odyssey orbiter, which helps orient the probe as it circles the planet, momentarily shut down. (6/14)

NASA Apologizes for Broadcasting Emergency on ISS (Source: Futurism)
NASA was forced to issue an apology after it accidentally broadcasted the audio of an emergency drill yesterday — which was actually taking place during a training simulation back on Earth — over a routine ISS livestream. "There is no emergency situation going on aboard the International Space Station," NASA tweeted last night from its official space station account, noting that all NASA astronauts onboard the ISS were safely sleeping at the time of the accidental alarm. (6/13)

Scientists on Hunt for Dyson Spheres (Source: CNN)
Using historical data from telescopes that pick up infrared signatures, the research team looked at stars located within less than 1,000 light-years from Earth: “We started with a sample of 5 million stars, and we applied filters to try to get rid of as much data contamination as possible,” said lead study author Matías Suazo. “So far, we have seven sources that we know are glowing in the infrared but we don’t know why, so they stand out.”

There is no conclusive evidence that the seven stars have Dyson spheres around them, Suazo cautioned. “They could be Dyson spheres, because they behave like our models predict, but they could be something else as well.” Among the natural causes that could explain the infrared glow are an unlucky alignment in the observation, with a galaxy in the background overlapping with the star, planetary collisions creating debris, or the fact that the stars may be young and therefore still surrounded by disks of hot debris from which planets would later form. (6/13)

Einstein Telescope Could Launch a New Era in Astronomy (Source: Phys.org)
It's still just a plan, but a new telescope could soon be measuring gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are something like the sound waves of the universe. They are created, for example, when black holes or neutron stars collide. The future gravitational wave detector, the Einstein Telescope, will use the latest laser technology to better understand these waves and, thus, our universe. One possible location for the construction of this telescope is the border triangle of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. (6/12)

Quantum Teleportation Just Got Real: Achieving 90% Fidelity Amidst Noise (Source: SciTech Daily)
A research team led by Academician Guangcan Guo from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with the research team at the University of Turku, Finland, successfully overcame environmental noise to achieve high-fidelity quantum teleportation by utilizing multipartite hybrid entanglement.

Quantum teleportation serves as a crucial protocol in quantum communication, enabling the remote transmission of unknown quantum states through the utilization of quantum entanglement. However, due to the fragile nature of quantum entanglement, quantum teleportation is highly susceptible to noise. Achieving high-fidelity quantum teleportation in noisy environments has been a pressing challenge. (6/13)

SpaceX COO Accused Worker of Having Affair with Her Husband (Source: Business Insider)
Gwynne Shotwell once accused an employee of having an affair with her husband, the Wall Street Journal reported. Shotwell, SpaceX's chief operating officer, reportedly became suspicious of the woman after her husband enlisted her help to plan his wife's surprise 50th birthday party. The employee rang Robert Shotwell to arrange for him to collect boxes for the party from her house, which led to Gwynne Shotwell suspecting the pair of having an affair, the report said.

Robert Shotwell sent the woman an email in November 2013 with the subject line "Trouble," adding: "She accused us of having an affair …Be prepared when she gets in." The employee reportedly told a human resources executive about Shotwell's accusation, which later got back to the COO. The report said that Shotwell appeared to retaliate against the employee. The woman told people close to her that she ended up in a tug-of-war between Shotwell and Musk. While Shotwell tried to push her out, Musk appeared to be trying to pull her in. The woman no longer works for SpaceX. (6/12)

Starship Flight 4 Milestones Drive Changes to Flight 5’s Ship (Source: NSF)
Following the highly successful milestones achieved by Booster 11 and Ship 29 on Flight 4 of SpaceX’s Starship, engineers are already implementing lessons learned from the mission ahead of the next flight, including widescale changes to the Thermal Protection System (TPS). Although Elon Musk thinks the next flight is a month away, the Flight 5 pairing requires the reapplication of stronger tiles ahead of its mission.

The engine out on ascent and the exploded engine on the landing burn will be investigated internally as to the causes. Plasma burned through the flap seals and nearly cut a flap off. SpaceX will need to find a way to reinforce these areas for future flights. Second, while the heat shield allowed the ship to survive, there are still significant issues to be corrected.

Because of these issues, Ship 30 is already getting its heat shield tiles and underlying blankets removed and eventually replaced. The underlying blankets would be replaced by a new ablative material. (6/12)

Florida Factories Busy Building SpaceX's Texas Launch Tower (Source: Florida Today)
Launch tower sections for SpaceX’s Starship have been loaded onto a barge at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport for transport to SpaceX’s facilities in Texas. Click here. (6/12)

3D Printed Rocket Motors Could Restock Missile Arsenals Fast (Source: Forbes)
Suppliers are struggling to rebuild stockpiles and analysts wonder how quickly the U.S. would run out of missiles in a major conflict. 3D printing offers a way to make rocket motors faster at scale, as well as developing new weapons impossible with traditional manufacturing techniques. Colorado-based Ursa Major has a contract from the U.S. Navy to build Mk104 rocket motors which power some of the Navy’s most important weapons. (6/14)

Staged Combustion Engine Fires Up for the First Time, Spits Out 350,000 HP in One Second (Source: AutoEvolution)
It's incredible how many different kinds of rocket engines are being developed at the same time to be used in space exploration. Over the past few years the biggest players in space exploration have begun investing heavily in the R&D of new rockets and ships that can be reused, thus lowering the cost of each launch. You have probably heard about most of the biggest ones by now: SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Space, Axiom Space, and the list can go on indefinitely.

Among them is a crew called Stoke Space, which managed to do something this month that propelled it straight under our spotlight. Stoke Space is a Seattle-based company that was only founded four short years ago. Its main and stated mission is to provide "low-cost, on-demand transport to, through, and from space" by making use of fully and reusable rockets and space vehicles that could be flipped and sent into new missions with the same frequency passenger aircraft operate today. (6/12)

Sonic Booms Rattle SoCal Coast, and More are Coming (Source: LA Times)
Space Force officials previously said that such incidents were rare, and that sonic booms from rocket launches and landings had little effect on the coast. But the Air Force now admits what thousands of residents, from Lompoc to Camarillo, have known for months — sonic booms from Vandenberg Space Force Base regularly rattle a large swath of Southern California, startling residents and wildlife across more than 100 miles of coastline.

The reach of the sonic booms across three Southern California counties was revealed in a new report from the Air Force to the California Coastal Commission, which is reviewing the military’s plan to significantly increase the number of rocket launches from the base. U.S. Space Force officials say rockets from the base recently have been flying a different path, changing the area affected by the sonic booms generated.

“As launches have become safer and more reliable,” Shoemaker said, “the Federal Aviation Administration and Space Force have allowed a wider range of headings that do not pose risks to public safety but inadvertently resulted in sonic booms over land.” For some residents, the sonic booms and the increasing number of rocket blasts have had an effect on their lives. Once rare, they are occurring regularly. (6/11)

'Stellar Dreams' Project Gifting 100 Telescopes to 100 Families (Source: Space.com)
An illuminating new program has stargazers and science educators aglow with inspiration. That program, called Stellar Dreams, is run by the nonprofit organization The Science Haven. It will give away 100 telescopes, with the goal of spurring interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in underrepresented and underprivileged families. (6/14)

What People Don’t Get About Space (Source: Space News)
When people think of space, people think of stars, the infinite universe, the elite club of astronauts that are lucky enough to see the blue marble for themselves. Yet here lies a key issue: the general population imagines space as something far off and unreachable, when it is omnipresent in their daily lives. This lack of awareness is dangerous for the space sector, particularly public space agencies, that increasingly need to justify their existence and funding in an era of commercial space ventures and climate change restrictions. (6/10)

Space Force Boots RTX From MEO Missile Warning/Tracking Program (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force has terminated its contract with RTX (formerly Raytheon) for development of the service’s new missile warning/tracking constellation in medium Earth orbit (MEO) due to cost and schedule overruns, as well as technical issues. “This was done because the RTX Epoch 1 development effort was facing significant cost growth from the original agreement baseline, projecting slips to the launch schedule, and had unresolved design challenges.” (6/14)

No FAA Investigation Needed After Successful Fourth Starship Launch (Source: Valley Central)
The FAA stated it would not require an investigation into the SpaceX Starship Flight 4 mission after assessing the operations. “All flight events for both the Starship vehicle and the Super Heavy booster appear to have occurred within the scope of planned and authorized activities,” the FAA stated. On June 6, SpaceX launched its fourth Starship test flight out of Boca Chica. Around seven minutes after liftoff, the Super Heavy booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.

Starship was successfully launched into orbit and made a successful re-entry and landing burn. The Starship vehicle splashed down in the Indian Ocean. “Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean,” Elon Musk said. This was the quickest turnaround between Starship test launches, with a gap of 84 days. There was a gap of 212 days between the first and second launch, and a 117-day gap between the second and third. (6/12)

XRISM Telescope Aperture Door Stuck (Source: Futurism)
Astronomers are excited to glean new insights into the formation of the universe and dark matter with the help of a space telescope called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), a partnership between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA. The telescope was successfully launched in September 2023. But its rollout didn't go as planned: one of the aperture doors covering its main instrument, a particle-detecting device dubbed Resolve, has remained jammed, causing scientists a great deal of distress.

Several attempts to remotely open the door have failed so far, with NASA confirming to Space.com that the telescope's planned operation of "at least 18 months" is not set in stone yet as officials discuss the "best path forward" — an incredibly unfortunate fate, considering XRISM was meant to provide scientists with a powerful alternative to NASA's aging Chandra X-ray Observatory. (6/12)

Planet Nine: Is the Search for This Elusive World Nearly Over? (Source: Live Science)
The day that we finally find this elusive planet may be coming soon, thanks to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory telescope that will begin scanning the sky next year. Astronomers have predicted how big this hypothetical world could be, how far away it could lie and even where it should be in its orbit around the sun. Yet actually finding Planet Nine, sometimes called Planet X, has eluded scientists for nearly a decade. (6/14)

NASA Delays Landing of Boeing's 1st Starliner to June 22 (Source: Space.com)
Boeing's first crewed Starliner mission, that ferried astronauts to the ISS, will need to wait a little longer before returning its crew to Earth. The mission's objective was to complete a full on-orbit shakedown of the spacecraft, and it was originally set to last about a week. Now, the spacecraft won't return home until June 22, at the earliest. Starliner and its two astronauts are set to land in the New Mexico desert. (6/14)