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Tag Archives: Missions
With Helldivers 2 balance patch incoming, the game’s CEO says weapons that score more kills aren’t always “overrepresented” in successful missions – Gamesradar
- With Helldivers 2 balance patch incoming, the game’s CEO says weapons that score more kills aren’t always “overrepresented” in successful missions Gamesradar
- ‘Helldivers 2’ CEO Says Guns Have Hidden Stats, So The ‘Meta’ Is Overblown Forbes
- Helldiver 2’s Gun Stats Don’t Tell The Whole Story When Picking The Best Weapon GameSpot
- Desperate to find out Helldivers 2’s best gun? Stop being a nerd and just “use the one you like the most” VG247
- Helldivers 2 has a balance patch coming, but ‘it mostly consists of simple stat changes’, says senior game designer PC Gamer
Launch Roundup: three back-to-back Starlink missions to cross 5,000 Starlink satellites launched – NASASpaceFlight.com – NASASpaceflight.com
- Launch Roundup: three back-to-back Starlink missions to cross 5,000 Starlink satellites launched – NASASpaceFlight.com NASASpaceflight.com
- SpaceX to launch 2 Starlink missions 5 hours apart tonight and you can watch live online Space.com
- It’s launch day! What you need to know about SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 mission from the Cape Florida Today
- SpaceX to launch Starlink missions from both coasts tonight – Spaceflight Now Spaceflight Now
- SpaceX gearing up on Wednesday to launch Falcon 9 rocket from Florida coast FOX 35 Orlando
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Launch Roundup: Rocket Lab conducts Electron reuse attempt, SpaceX to fly two Starlink v2 missions – NASASpaceFlight.com – NASASpaceflight.com
- Launch Roundup: Rocket Lab conducts Electron reuse attempt, SpaceX to fly two Starlink v2 missions – NASASpaceFlight.com NASASpaceflight.com
- Live Coverage: Rocket Lab launches seven satellites, recovers Electron booster after splashdown – Spaceflight Now Spaceflight Now
- Rocket Lab aiming to advance Electron reusability with tonight’s launch TechCrunch
- Rocket Lab Prepares Mix of NASA and Commercial Satellites, and Takes Next Step in Rocket Reusability Program Yahoo Finance
- Baby Come Back: Rocket Lab Electron parachutes down after Māhia launch Hawkes Bay Today
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Inside Nasa’s new fake Moon created to test out conditions for upcoming human missions
NASA has unveiled an ultra-realistic fake Moon environment that it will use to simulate activities on the lunar surface.
The US space agency has big plans for the Moon within the next decade including putting humans on its surface again.
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The fake Moon is said to have realistic lunar lighting and conditions that astronauts will experience when they stand on the real thing.
Nasa will also be testing out some of its new robots on the fake Moon.
This includes the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), which is Nasa’s latest Moon robot.
The lunar experiment is officially called the Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbed and it’s located in Nasa’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
The fake Moon is technically made up of two large sandy areas filled with simulated lunar dust.
The first lunar “sandbox” has been around for a few years but the second one is brand new and full of 20 tons of lunar dust.
Nasa says both indoor areas can simulate the Moon with high accuracy.
The new testbed can be resized from its current 62 feet by 13 feet shape so it can create a deeper lunar simulation.
Nasa’s original Moon testbed was much smaller at just 13 by 13 feet.
The US space agency said: “Future human and robotic explorers of off-planet polar regions will need to contend with the incredibly abrasive and “sticky” lunar dust, known as regolith.
“Moon dust has grains as fine as powder, as sharp as tiny shards of glass, and a curious capacity to electrostatically cling to everything, due to the way it was formed.
“Add in the lack of an atmosphere and the fact that the Moon is home to some of the coldest places in our solar system, and the lunar environment will pose a challenge to machinery and spacesuits, at best.
“At worst, it could be a hazard.”
NASA’s Revolutionary Propulsion Design for Deep Space Missions
Rotating detonation rocket engine, or RDRE hot fire test at Marshall Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA
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Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and primary collaborator IN Space LLC, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, are confirming data from RDRE hot fire tests conducted in 2022 at Marshall’s East Test Area. The engine was fired over a dozen times, totaling nearly 10 minutes in duration.
The RDRE achieved its primary test objective by demonstrating that its hardware – made from novel additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, designs and processes – could operate for long durations while withstanding the extreme heat and pressure environments generated by detonations. While operating at full throttle, the RDRE produced over 4,000 pounds of thrust for nearly a minute at an average chamber pressure of 622 pounds per square inch, the highest pressure rating for this design on record.
Rotating detonation rocket engine, or RDRE hot fire test at Marshall Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA
The RDRE incorporates the NASA-developed copper-
Thrust propulsion testing and characterization of the University of Central Florida rotating detonation rocket engine is shown in this photo. NASA provided funding for a UCF project focused on rotating detonation rocket engines, which use high-energy explosions to produce more energy with less fuel, improving engine efficiency and cutting down space travel costs and emissions. Credit: UCF
RDRE is managed and funded by the Game Changing Development Program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
NASA to test nuclear rocket engine for possible Mars missions
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A nuclear thermal rocket engine in development could one day transport humans to Mars.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the US Department of Defense, and NASA are setting their sights on a type of rocket engine that could be the holy grail for quickly and safely getting humans to the red planet. The first tests could occur as soon as 2027, according to a Tuesday news release from the space agency.
“DARPA and NASA have a long history of fruitful collaboration in advancing technologies for our respective goals, from the Saturn V rocket that took humans to the Moon for the first time to robotic servicing and refueling of satellites,” DARPA director Dr. Stefanie Tompkins said in a statement. “The space domain is critical to modern commerce, scientific discovery, and national security.”
The US military and NASA sought to develop this type of technology in the mid-20th century, but the program stalled. Now, the initiative is gaining new traction in the modern era as the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO, program.
Research into nuclear thermal rocket engines by NASA began in 1959. A key program in the 1960s, called the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application, even sought to demonstrate the technology in space — but that never came to fruition.
“Funding for NERVA, however, decreased in the late 1960s and the program was cancelled in 1973 before any flight tests of the engine took place,” according to the space agency’s website.
These days, NASA has renewed interest in sending humans to the red planet. The space agency’s Artemis program, which had its inaugural uncrewed test flight to the moon last year, directs the space agency to return humans to the lunar surface as a stepping stone for eventually putting the first humans on Mars.
“Recent aerospace materials and engineering advancements are enabling a new era for space nuclear technology, and this flight demonstration will be a major achievement toward establishing a space transportation capability for an Earth-Moon economy,” Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement.
As the name implies, a nuclear thermal engine would rely on a nuclear reactor, using a process called atomic fission — in which a neutron slams into an atom to rip it apart, setting off a powerful chain reaction — to heat up propellant and provide the thrust needed to propel a rocket through space. (The nuclear fission process is better known in the public consciousness for its role in energy production, and NASA previously signed a deal with the US Department of Energy to research its applications for space travel.)
That process, according to NASA, is three or more times more efficient than the chemical propulsion used by the rockets currently in operation, in which an explosive fuel is mixed with an oxidizer to create a fiery blaze of thrust. The more efficient nuclear process, NASA said, could allow spacecraft to traverse the 140 million-mile (225 million-kilometer) average distance between the Earth and Mars far more quickly than is possible today, greatly reducing the amount of time astronauts are exposed to dangerous levels of radiation on future deep-space missions.
Under the agreement with DARPA — which is perhaps best known for its role in laying the groundwork for the internet — NASA will lead the technological development of the new engine. DARPA will design an experimental spacecraft, as well as lead the overall program, according to the contract.
NASA and DARPA will test nuclear thermal engines for crewed missions to Mars
NASA is going back to an old idea as it tries to get humans to Mars. It is teaming up with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to test a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space with the aim of using the technology for crewed missions to the red planet. The agencies hope to “demonstrate advanced nuclear thermal propulsion technology as soon as 2027,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said. “With the help of this new technology, astronauts could journey to and from deep space faster than ever — a major capability to prepare for crewed missions to Mars.”
Under the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate will take the lead on technical development of the engine, which will be integrated with an experimental spacecraft from DARPA. NASA says that nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) could allow spacecraft to travel faster, which could reduce the volume of supplies needed to carry out a long mission. An NTD engine could also free up space for more science equipment and extra power for instrumentation and communication.
As far back as the 1940s, scientists started speculating about the possibility of using nuclear energy to power spaceflight. The US conducted ground experiments on that front starting in the ’50s. Budget cutbacks and changing priorities (such as a focus on the Space Shuttle program) led to NASA abandoning the project at the end of 1972 before it carried out any test flights.
There are, of course, risks involved with NTP engines, such as the possible dispersal of radioactive material in the environment should a failure occur in the atmosphere or orbit. Nevertheless, NASA says the faster transit times that NTP engines can enable could lower the risk to astronauts — they could reduce travel times to Mars by up to a quarter. Nuclear thermal rockets could be at least three times more efficient than conventional chemical propulsion methods.
NASA is also looking into nuclear energy to power related space exploration efforts. In 2018, it carried out tests of a portable nuclear reactor as part of efforts to develop a system capable of powering a habitat on Mars. Last year, NASA and the Department of Energy selected three contractors to design a fission surface power system that it can test on the Moon. DARPA and the Defense Department have worked on other NTP engine projects over the last few years.
Meanwhile, the US has just approved a small modular nuclear design for the first time. As Gizmodo reports, the design allows for a nuclear facility that’s around a third the size of a standard reactor. Each module is capable of producing around 50 megawatts of power. The design, from a company called NuScale, could lower the cost and complexity of building nuclear power plants.
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New Nuclear Rocket Design to Send Missions to Mars in Just 45 Days
We live in an era of renewed space exploration, where multiple agencies are planning to send astronauts to the Moon in the coming years. This will be followed in the next decade with crewed missions to Mars by NASA and China, who may be joined by other nations before long. These and other missions that will take astronauts beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the Earth-Moon system require new technologies, ranging from life support and radiation shielding to power and propulsion. And when it comes to the latter, Nuclear Thermal and Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NTP/NEP) is a top contender!
NASA and the Soviet space program spent decades researching nuclear propulsion during the Space Race. A few years ago, NASA reignited its nuclear program for the purpose of developing bimodal nuclear propulsion – a two-part system consisting of an NTP and NEP element – that could enable transits to Mars in 100 days. As part of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program for 2023, NASA selected a nuclear concept for Phase I development. This new class of bimodal nuclear propulsion system uses a “wave rotor topping cycle” and could reduce transit times to Mars to just 45 days.
The proposal, titled “Bimodal NTP/NEP with a Wave Rotor Topping Cycle,” was put forward by Prof. Ryan Gosse, the Hypersonics Program Area Lead at the University of Florida and a member of the Florida Applied Research in Engineering (FLARE) team. Gosse’s proposal is one of 14 selected by the NAIC this year for Phase I development, which includes a $12,500 grant to assist in maturing the technology and methods involved. Other proposals included innovative sensors, instruments, manufacturing techniques, power systems, and more.
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Nuclear propulsion essentially comes down to two concepts, both of which rely on technologies that have been thoroughly tested and validated. For Nuclear-Thermal Propulsion (NTP), the cycle consists of a nuclear reactor heating liquid hydrogen (LH2) propellant, turning it into ionized hydrogen gas (plasma) that is then channeled through nozzles to generate thrust. Several attempts have been made to build a test this propulsion system, including Project Rover, a collaborative effort between the U.S. Air Force and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) that launched in 1955.
In 1959, NASA took over from the USAF, and the program entered a new phase dedicated to spaceflight applications. This eventually led to the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA), a solid-core nuclear reactor that was successfully tested. With the closing of the Apollo Era in 1973, the program’s funding was drastically reduced, leading to its cancellation before any flight tests could be conducted. Meanwhile, the Soviets developed their own NTP concept (RD-0410) between 1965 and 1980 and conducted a single ground test before the program’s cancellation.
Nuclear-Electric Propulsion (NEP), on the other hand, relies on a nuclear reactor to provide electricity to a Hall-Effect thruster (ion engine), which generates an electromagnetic field that ionizes and accelerates an inert gas (like xenon) to create thrust. Attempts to develop this technology include NASA’s Nuclear Systems Initiative (NSI). Project Prometheus (2003 to 2005). Both systems have considerable advantages over conventional chemical propulsion, including a higher specific impulse (Isp) rating, fuel efficiency, and virtually unlimited energy density.
While NEP concepts are distinguished for providing more than 10,000 seconds of Isp, meaning they can maintain thrust for close to three hours, the thrust level is quite low compared to conventional rockets and NTP. The need for an electric power source, says Gosse, also raises the issue of heat rejection in space – where thermal energy conversion is 30-40% under ideal circumstances. And while NTP NERVA designs are the preferred method for crewed missions to Mars and beyond, this method also has issues providing adequate initial and final mass fractions for high delta-v missions.
This is why proposals that include both propulsion methods (bimodal) are favored, as they would combine the advantages of both. Gosse’s proposal calls for a bimodal design based on a solid core NERVA reactor that would provide a specific impulse (Isp) of 900 seconds, twice the current performance of chemical rockets. Gosse proposed cycle also includes a pressure wave supercharger – or Wave Rotor (WR) – a technology used in internal combustion engines that harnesses the pressure waves produced by reactions to compress intake air.
When paired with an NTP engine, the WR would use pressure created by the reactor’s heating of the LH2 fuel to compress the reaction mass further. As Gosse promises, this will deliver thrust levels comparable to that of a NERVA-class NTP concept but with an Isp of 1400-2000 seconds. When paired with a NEP cycle, said Gosse, thrust levels are enhanced even further:
“Coupled with an NEP cycle, the duty cycle Isp can further be increased (1800-4000 seconds) with minimal addition of dry mass. This bimodal design enables the fast transit for manned missions (45 days to Mars) and revolutionizes the deep space exploration of our solar system.”
Based on conventional propulsion technology, a crewed mission to Mars could last up to three years. These missions would launch every 26 months when Earth and Mars are at their closest (aka. a Mars Opposition) and would spend a minimum of six to nine months in transit. A transit of 45 days (six and a half weeks) would reduce the overall mission time to months instead of years. This would significantly reduce the major risks associated with missions to Mars, including radiation exposure, the time spent in microgravity, and related health concerns.
In addition to propulsion, there are proposals for new reactor designs that would provide a steady power supply for long-duration surface missions where solar and wind power are not always available. Examples include NASA’s Kilopower Reactor Using Sterling Technology (KRUSTY) and the hybrid fission/fusion reactor selected for Phase I development by NASA’s NAIC 2023 selection. These and other nuclear applications could someday enable crewed missions to Mars and other locations in deep space, perhaps sooner than we think!
Further Reading: NASA
Launch preps underway for first of up to five Falcon Heavy missions this year – Spaceflight Now
SpaceX is set to kick off a busy week of launch preparations at Kennedy Space Center for the first of five planned Falcon Heavy rocket missions this year, targeting a dusk departure no earlier than Thursday evening from Launch Complex 39A on a flight for the U.S. Space Force.
The mission for the Space Force, designated USSF-67, will deploy two military spacecraft into a high-altitude geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator. It will be the fifth flight of a Falcon Heavy rocket, one of the most powerful launchers in the world, and the first of five Falcon Heavy missions on SpaceX’s schedule for 2023.
Technicians inside SpaceX’s rocket integration hangar near pad 39A have mated the three booster cores for the Falcon Heavy, and the transporter-erector needed to carry the rocket to the rocket to the pad rolled into the hangar Saturday. Ground teams plan to lower the Falcon Heavy onto the transporter-erector and roll it to the launch pad in preparation for a test-firing of its 27 Merlin main engines early in the week.
The Falcon Heavy will roll back inside the hangar after the engine test-firing to receive its payload compartment, containing two Space Force satellites encapsulated inside the rocket’s nose cone. Then SpaceX will roll the fully-assembled launcher back to pad 39A and raise it vertical for final countdown preparations.
The launch is scheduled for no earlier than Thursday, during a launch period running from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST (2200-0300 GMT on Thursday into Friday). The exact launch time will be revealed closer to the launch date, but liftoff is expected to occur around 6 p.m. EST, shortly after sunset on Florida’s Space Coast.
The Falcon Heavy will head east from Kennedy Space Center, running on 5.1 million pounds of thrust from its 27 kerosene-fueled engines. The rocket’s two side boosters are reused from the most recent Falcon Heavy launch — the Space Force’s USSF-44 mission on Nov. 1 — and the center core booster is a brand new element.
The side boosters on the USSF-67 mission will jettison from the center core stage about two-and-a-half minutes into the flight. The two rocket boosters will flip around to fly tail first, then reignite a subset of their engines to propel themselves back toward Cape Canaveral. The rockets will return to near-simultaneous landings on SpaceX’s recovery zones at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station about eight minutes after liftoff.
The core stage, which will throttle back its engines for the first phase of the flight, will fire almost four minutes before jettisoning to fall into the Atlantic. SpaceX will not attempt to recover the center core because it will devote all of its propellant to accelerating the USSF-67 payloads into space.
An upper stage engine will finish the task of maneuvering into an equator-hugging geosynchronous orbit. The upper stage is expected to fire its engine three times, with a coast of roughly six hours between the second and third burns. The rocket will climb through the Van Allen radiation belts to reach the mission’s target orbital injection altitude approximately 22,000 miles over the equator, where the upper stage will complete its third and final engine firing.
Then the rocket will release its two satellite payloads into geosynchronous orbit, where the satellites will orbit in lock-step with Earth’s rotation.
There are two main payloads on the USSF-67 mission. Publicly available mission patches from the Space Force suggest one of the satellites is the Space Force’s second Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM, or CBAS, spacecraft. The military’s first CBAS communications satellite — pronounced “sea bass” — launched in 2018 on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.
When the first CBAS satellite launched in 2018, U.S. military officials described it as a communications relay station designed to keep commanders in contact with senior government leaders. “CBAS will augment existing military satellite communications capabilities and broadcast military data continuously through space-based, satellite communications relay links,” the military said in a brief description of the 2018 mission.
CBAS is expected to ride in the forward, or upper, position inside the Falcon Heavy rocket’s payload shroud, which will separate from the launcher a few minutes after liftoff to fall into the Atlantic Ocean for recovery and reuse.
The other payload on the USSF-67 mission is a ring-shaped spacecraft hosting multiple military tech demo experiments. Northrop Grumman developed the spacecraft, called the Long Duration Propulsive ESPA, to accommodate small military payloads onto a single satellite platform, providing “an affordable path to space for both hosted and separable payloads,” said the Space Force’s Space Systems Command.
“This bus carries hardware for five independent missions, eliminating the need for each mission to wait for a future launch opportunity,” Northrop Grumman said. Northrop Grumman assembled the spacecraft at its Gilbert, Arizona, satellite production facility.
The Space Force said the prototypes and experiments on the LDPE 3A platform will “advance warfighting capabilities in the areas of on-orbit threat assessment, space hazard detection, and space domain awareness,” but military officials have released no additional details on the payloads.
The Space Force has launched two previous LDPE missions, one on an Atlas 5 rocket in 2021 and another on the Falcon Heavy’s USSF-44 mission Nov. 1. Northrop Grumman developed the maneuverable LDPE spacecraft by modifying a ring-like structure often used to connect small satellites to their launchers, adding solar panels, computers, rocket thrusters and instrumentation to the adapter.
SpaceX debuted the Falcon Heavy rocket on a test flight Feb. 6, 2018, that sent a red Tesla Roadster into interplanetary space. Two Falcon Heavy missions flew April 11, 2019, and June 25, 2019. Those missions carried into orbit a commercial Arabsat communications satellite and 24 military and NASA spacecraft, respectively.
The next Falcon Heavy launch didn’t take off until three-and-a-half years later, following delays in spacecraft assigned to fly on SpaceX’s heavy-lifter. The USSF-44 mission Nov. 1 was the first SpaceX launch to deploy payloads directly into geosynchronous orbit. The six-hour mission profile required SpaceX to make some changes to the Falcon Heavy rocket, including the addition of gray paint on the outside of the upper stage’s kerosene tank to help ensure the fuel did not freeze as the rocket coasted in the cold environment of space.
SpaceX aims to launch as many as 100 missions this year, which would mark an increase from the 61 flights the company completed in 2022. There are five Falcon Heavy launches planned in 2023, all from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The Falcon Heavy launches are scheduled alongside numerous Falcon 9 rockets and the potential debut of SpaceX’s new Starship mega-rocket.
There are two more Falcon Heavy missions scheduled for launch in the spring. One will launch the first ViaSat 3 internet satellite to beam broadband service over the Americas for Viasat, and the other will launch the USSF-52 mission for the Space Force.
Later in the year, SpaceX plans to launch the Jupiter 3 satellite to provide internet services for EchoStar’s Hughes Network Systems. That launch is expected no earlier than May.
NASA’s robotic Psyche asteroid explorer is slated to depart Earth on a Falcon Heavy rocket during a launch period opening Oct. 10. The Psyche mission, delayed from 2022, will enter orbit around the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in 2029.
SpaceX has a backlog of 12 Falcon Heavy missions over the next few years, including the five launches planned in 2023.
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