- In-ear integrated sensor array for the continuous monitoring of brain activity and of lactate in sweat Nature.com
- Researchers developed 3D-printed sensors that can record brain activity on earbuds Engadget
- Pair of standard earbuds ‘can be turned into device able to record brain activity and exercise levels’ Conway Daily Sun
- These Screen-printed, Flexible Sensors Allow Earbuds to Record Brain Activity and Exercise Levels University of California San Diego
- Screen-printed, flexible sensors allow earbuds to record brain activity and exercise levels Medical Xpress
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Sensor
Cognitive functional therapy with or without movement sensor biofeedback versus usual care for chronic, disabling low back pain (RESTORE): a randomised, controlled, three-arm, parallel group, phase 3, clinical trial – The Lancet
- Cognitive functional therapy with or without movement sensor biofeedback versus usual care for chronic, disabling low back pain (RESTORE): a randomised, controlled, three-arm, parallel group, phase 3, clinical trial The Lancet
- Innovative therapy brings hope to chronic lower back pain sufferers New Atlas
- Study offers fresh hope for people living with chronic back pain Medical Xpress
- New drug-free treatment offers long-term hope for Australians struggling with back pain | 7NEWS 7NEWS Australia
- Curtin University researchers say back pain treatment trial gives hope to millions ABC News
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Watch live: SpaceX counting down to launch of Intelsat satellite with NASA air quality sensor – Spaceflight Now – Spaceflight Now
- Watch live: SpaceX counting down to launch of Intelsat satellite with NASA air quality sensor – Spaceflight Now Spaceflight Now
- Watch SpaceX launch an Intelsat satellite with NASA’s TEMPO experiment tonight Space.com
- SpaceX: 10 things to know before Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral Florida Today
- SpaceX to launch Intelsat 40e with NASA’s TEMPO instrument – NASASpaceFlight.com NASASpaceflight.com
- SpaceX sets up overnight Space Coast launch while Starship attempt from Texas could come soon Orlando Sentinel
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Samsung announces Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 200MP camera sensor with improved low-light focus
Samsung has finally unveiled the ISOCELL HP2 camera sensor. The same sensor will be used in the upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone. The ISOCELL HP2 is the South Korean firm’s third 200MP camera sensor, and the company claims that it offers greatly improved image and video quality.
The ISOCELL HP2 is a 1/1.3-inch sensor with 0.6-micron pixels, making it smaller than the ISOCELL HP1 (1/22-inch with 0.64-micron pixels) that was launched in 2021. However, Samsung still claims that the ISOCELL HP2 is its most advanced camera sensor as it features the D-VTG (Dual Vertical Transfer Gate) technology that boosts each pixel’s full-well capacity by more than 33%, resulting in enhanced color reproduction and reduction in overexposure. This means you can say goodbye to overexposed and washed-out images in bright conditions.
ISOCELL HP2 has faster autofocus, improved colors, and better HDR
The new image sensor has TetraPixel, Samsung’s binning technology that can capture 50MP images with 1.2μm pixels (4-in-1 pixel binning) or 12.5MP images in 2.4μm pixels (16-in-1 binning), depending on the ambient light. It can also capture up to 8K 30fps videos with a wider field of view in its 1.2μm 50MP mode, which means it uses bigger pixels than previous-generation Galaxy S series phones in 8K mode.
The ISOCELL HP2 offers faster and more reliable autofocus in low-light conditions, thanks to Super QPD. This new autofocus technology uses all its 200 million pixels as focusing agents. Four adjacent pixels on the sensor are grouped together to recognize both horizontal and vertical pattern changes even in very dim conditions. It can also capture 15 full-resolution 200MP images in one second, making it the company’s fastest 200MP sensor.
For improved HDR, Samsung is using the DSG (Dual Signal Gain) technology in the 50MP mode. It is a technique that captures short and long exposures simultaneously, which means it can capture HDR images and videos on a pixel level. It also features Smart ISO Pro, allowing the phone to capture 12.5MP images and 4K 60fps HDR videos simultaneously.
JoonSeo Yim, Executive Vice President of the Sensor Business Team at Samsung Electronics, said, “The Samsung ISOCELL HP2 harnesses Samsung’s high-resolution image sensor technologies and know-how at the cutting edge for epic details. Our leadership comes from innovative pixel technologies that allow our sensors to go beyond the number and size of pixels. We will continue to open new horizons and solidify our presence in the expanding ultra-high-resolution sensor market.”
The ISOCELL HP2 is already in the mass production phase, which almost certainly means that we can see it inside the Galaxy S23 Ultra that will be unveiled on February 1, 2023, during the Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event.
Samsung Introduces the 200-Megapixel Image Sensor for the Ultimate High Resolution Experience in Flagship Smartphones – Samsung Global Newsroom
The new Samsung ISOCELL HP2 boosts capacity for maximum pixel performance, allowing for detailed and seamless photos in any light condition
Samsung Electronics today introduced its latest 200-megapixel (MP) image sensor, the ISOCELL HP2, with improved pixel technology and full-well capacity for stunning mobile images in tomorrow’s premium smartphones.
“The Samsung ISOCELL HP2 harnesses Samsung’s high-resolution image sensor technologies and know-how at the cutting edge for epic details,” said JoonSeo Yim, Executive Vice President of Sensor Business Team at Samsung Electronics. “Our leadership comes from innovative pixel technologies that allow our sensors to go beyond the number and size of pixels. We will continue to open new horizons and solidify our presence in the expanding ultra-high-resolution sensor market.”
The ISOCELL HP2 packs 200-million 0.6-micrometer (μm) pixels in a 1/1.3” optical format, a sensor size that is widely used in 108MP main smartphone cameras. This enables consumers to enjoy even higher resolutions in the latest high-end smartphones without larger camera bumps in their devices.
With Samsung’s advanced pixel-binning technology, Tetra2pixel, the HP2 adds more versatility to the camera as it simulates different pixel sizes to accommodate varying lighting levels. When in low-lit environments, the sensor transforms either into a 1.2μm 50MP or 2.4μm 12.5MP image sensor by binding four to 16 neighboring pixels. For fuller 8K video, approximately at 33MP, the HP2 switches to 1.2μm 50MP mode to minimize cropping and capture more of the scene. Filming 8K at 30 frames-per-second (fps), a wide field of view along with bigger pixel size can produce sharp cinematic videos.
Washed out pictures from brightly lit environments can be significantly reduced with the HP2, thanks to Samsung’s new Dual Vertical Transfer Gate (D-VTG) technology. In a photo diode within each pixel, a voltage transfer gate is placed on the bottom to transport electrons from the pixels to the logic layer. With high precision, D-VTG adds a second transfer gate in the pixel, boosting the pixel’s full-well capacity by more than 33 percent. With more electrons stored and efficient signal transfers, this method can reduce overexposure and enhance color reproduction, especially in bright light conditions.
In low-lit settings, the HP2’s auto-focusing is taken to the next level with Super QPD, which allows the sensor to use all its 200-million pixels for focusing agents. The ample amount of focusing agents are grouped by four adjacent pixels to recognize both horizontal and vertical pattern changes that delivers faster and more accurate auto-focusing. Utilizing the rich pattern data along with the sheer number of reference points, the new sensor is capable of fast auto-focusing, even in a dimly lit environment.
For superb HDR performance, Samsung is introducing the DSG feature for the first time in 50MP mode which applies two separate conversion values to the analog signal received at the pixel level. In addition, the Smart-ISO Pro, an HDR solution that merges different levels of ISO readouts from a single exposure, allows the camera to take 12.5MP images and 4K at 60fps video in HDR.
The Samsung ISOCELL HP2 has entered mass production.
Withings’ Toilet Sensor Scans Your Pee to Measure Your Health
Most smart devices that measure your health are wearables — smartwatches like the Apple Watch, or Oura’s Ring series. Instead, imagine getting health data by carrying out a bodily function you do multiple times a day: urinating. Soon you’ll be able to do just that with Withings’ U-Scan, a sensor that attaches to your toilet bowl and analyzes your urine each day you use it. Withings unveiled the censor this week during CES 2023, the world’s largest consumer tech trade show.
Anyone who’s ever offered up a urine sample at a doctor’s office knows that urine can tell us important things about our health: if we’re dehydrated, if we’re pregnant, if we have an infection and even the health of some of our organs. Withings is homing in on some of these biomarkers with two different versions of its consumer device, available in Europe in the first half of 2023, with plans for US availability following clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Read more: The Wonders of CES 2023: 3D Laptops, Wireless TV and Shape-Shifting Screens
One cartridge made for the U-Scan is meant to monitor nutrition and metabolic information by measuring ketone and vitamin C levels, and testing your urine’s pH (low or high pH can be associated with kidney health and more).
The second is made for people who want to better track their menstrual cycles, by measuring surges of LH, or luteinizing hormone. LH peaks when ovulation is right around the corner and fertility is likely highest. This cycle cartridge will also measure urine pH.
At-home urine test strips have already been available to track things like LH surges and ketone levels. And urine tests such as Vivoo’s also pair with an app to give people more insight into their health and education on what measurements may mean. But these are more hands-on than the attach-and-go sensors Withings has developed.
“You don’t think about it and you just do what you do every day,” Withings CEO Mathieu Letombe told CNET.
The future of health tracking was right in front of you all along.
Marlene Ford/Getty Images
To use it, Withings says the device works best if you attach it to the front of your toilet bowl (which means people who normally pee standing up might also have to sit, or at least get creative). Urine will flow to a small collection inlet, which the company says can differentiate between urine and external liquid, such as toilet water. A thermal sensor detects the presence of urine, and it’s moved to a test pod. When the analysis is finished, waste is released from the device and disappears with a flush.
Results will be routed to your phone via Wi-Fi, and you can read your health insights daily on the Withings’ Health Mate app.
The device contains a cartridge filled with test strips that’ll last you roughly three months. Oh, and the sensor will be able to tell your “stream” apart from that of visitors, because the U-Scan is able to differentiate based on the “distance and speed of the flow,” Letombe said.
Because it is not cleared by the FDA in the US yet, there is no price point for the U-Scan right now. You’ll be able to get either the U-Scan Nutri Balance or Cycle Sync cartridges — or both if you want to get even more data — in Europe for 500 euros (approximately $527 at present) later this year. Withings is confident that the first two consumer sensors are just the beginning: The company has hopes for more medical devices in the future, adding to the long list of smartwatches, wearable sensors and other devices that funnel our health into data points.
This product has been selected as one of the best products of CES 2023. Check out the other Best of CES 2023 award winners.
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
NASA Says SLS Moon Rocket Exceeded Expectations
NASA has conducted a preliminary review of the inaugural Space Launch System launch, saying the rocket met and even exceeded all expectations.
On Wednesday, NASA released its initial analysis of SLS’ performance as it lifted off on November 16, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to the Moon for the space agency’s Artemis 1 mission. “The first launch of the Space Launch System rocket was simply eye-watering,” Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, said in a statement. “While our mission with Orion is still underway and we continue to learn over the course of our flight, the rocket’s systems performed as designed and as expected in every case.”
NASA’s 5.75-million-pound rocket took off from Launch Pad 39B at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 1:47 a.m. ET on November 16. The space agency released a stunning supercut of the launch (see the video below), which includes dramatic POVs from the rocket as it soared into the dark Florida skies.
As it fired up its engines, the rocket’s booster motors produced more than 7 million pounds (3.1 million kilograms) of thrust at liftoff. The rocket and its accompanying spacecraft traveled at a speed of more than 4,000 miles per hour (8,000 kilometers per hour) in just two minutes before the booster separated from the rocket. The rocket’s core stage and four RS-25 engines burned through the stage’s 735,000 gallons of propellants in just over eight minutes, NASA reported.
SLS delivered the Orion capsule within about 3 miles (6 kilometers) of its planned orbital altitude and at speeds reaching 17,500 miles per hour (28,160 kilometers per hour), according to NASA. That’s when the rocket’s upper stage performed two burns to first raise Orion’s orbit and then propel it toward the Moon. Afterwards, the upper stage’s single RL-10 engine fired for more than 18 minutes—setting a single duration burn record—to send Orion on its journey to the Moon. “Performance was off by less than 0.3 percent in all cases across the board,” Sarafin said in the statement.
Engineers will continue to study SLS’ performance during the Artemis 1 launch over the next several months as NASA prepares to build the next rocket for the launch of Artemis 2 (currently scheduled for 2024). “With this amazing Moon rocket, we’ve laid the foundation for Artemis and for our long-term presence at the Moon,” John Honeycutt, SLS program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said in the statement. The performance of the rocket and the team supporting its maiden voyage was simply outstanding.”
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SLS’ journey to liftoff was bumpy, with the rocket enduring several delays and two scrubbed launch attempts. The first scrub was due to a faulty sensor, while the second scrub was the result of an unmanageable hydrogen leak.
More: Watch NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Attempt to Break Free From Lunar Orbit
Leica’s “Leitz Phone 2” has a giant 1-inch camera sensor, magnetic lens cap
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The Leica Leitz Phone 2.
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a full shot of the back.
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The lens cap, applied.
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It does look nice.
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A real-life shot, probably taken with a Leica camera.
Leica
Meet the Leica Leitz Phone 2, a phone from the famous German camera manufacturer that is exclusive to… Japan? If smartphones are eating into the camera market, it makes sense that some camera companies would try to go the other way.
Leica is not a smartphone company, though, so the company actually building this phone is Sharp! Now the Japan exclusivity makes sense. If you have to base your branded smartphone on somebody else’s hardware, it’s hard to go wrong with using the Sharp Aquos R7, a stunningly unique Android phone that dumps a lot of the dumb phone trends other manufacturers mindlessly stick to. The R7 went out the door with Leica-branded optics, so this is apparently the other half of that deal.
Sharp is no stranger to unique smartphone designs, and the Leica and its R7 sister phone make a lot of good decisions. Instead of a bunch of questionably useful tiny rear cameras, you get one giant camera: a 1-inch Sony IMX989 sensor. That’s the biggest currently available on a smartphone. Normally the IMX989 is 50 MP, but Leica is cropping it a bit and lists a “47.2-megapixel effective pixel count.” The display is flat, a great change from the senselessly curved and distorted screens that companies typically put on flagship Android phones. The curved screen gimmick is driven by Samsung, display supplier to most of the world’s smartphones, but here the display is made by Sharp, a 6.6-inch 2730×1260 OLED with a definitely overkill 240 Hz refresh rate.
The other unique feature Sharp brings to the table is that it is seemingly the only company interested in Qualcomm’s giant 3D Sonic Max in-screen fingerprint sensor. The biggest problem with in-screen fingerprint sensors is that there’s no tactile guidance for where to stick your finger, so it’s easy to miss the sensor slightly and get a bad read. Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Max sensor is huge, though—big enough to fit two fingers, so you won’t miss it. This sensor came out in 2019, but no one uses it because it’s expensive.
Enlarge / The screen corners don’t match the body corners, leading to this two-tone bezel look.
Leica
As for the actual Leica contributions to this phone, it has a redesigned aluminum frame with 90-degree corners and a grippy, knurled texture running down the side of the frame. The display design could be better. The 90-degree corners make the front a bit awkward, since the display is still pulled from the rounded-cornered Aquos R7, so the phone now has a screen that doesn’t match the body corners. You get rounded display corners with a matching black bezel, and then the 90-degree aluminum corners, which give the front an odd, dual-bezel look. Some phones, like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, have 90-degree corners, but they do better in the looks department thanks to matching screens.
Leica naturally paid a lot of attention to the rear camera design. The 1-inch camera sensor needs a big rear camera bump, but not as big as Leica decided to go with, and the circular camera bump now extends to cover the LED flash and the non-photography 2 MP distance-measurement sensor. To replicate the “real camera” feeling, the Leica Leitz Phone 2 has a big, magnetic camera lens cover that clips overtop of the whole rear camera bump. There’s even a black case for it, which sort of looks like it’s trying to replicate the traditional black and silver camera design, but it doesn’t seem to be textured.
Enlarge / The lens cap and black case really give off that “real camera” vibe.
Leica
Leica is not the camera manufacturer here, but it did make a “proprietary software engine” that “brings this typical ‘Leica look’ to smartphone photography.” It has three filters named after Leica lenses that try to replicate bokeh and various focal lengths. There’s a “Golden Hour widget” that presumably tells you when it’s an hour before sundown and a widget that shows images from the Leica Fotografie International Gallery.
The spec sheet is the same as the Aquos R7: a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage (that’s actually double the R7), a 5000 mAh battery, IP68 dust and water resistance, and Android 12. There’s even a headphone jack.
You’re going to pay a premium for that red dot (and the storage bump), though. The price in Japan is 225,360 yen (~$1,580), while the normal R7 is 189,360 yen, or ~$1,365.
Listing image by Leica
NASA Declares Tanking Test of SLS Megarocket a Success
A demonstration to confirm a repaired hydrogen leak appears to have gone well, with NASA declaring Wednesday’s cryogenic tanking test a success. Engineers still need to review the results, but the space agency could be on track to perform its third launch attempt of its SLS megarocket in just six days—a mission that would officially kick off the Artemis lunar program.
Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson declared a “go” for tanking at 7:30 a.m. (all times Eastern), around 30 minutes after the intended start time. Ground teams began the process of loading more than 700,000 gallons of propellant into the megarocket, beginning with the core stage. Today’s cryogenic tanking test, as it was called, happened as the 321-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket stood at Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The test follows two previous launch attempts, both of which ended in scrubs, for different reasons. The first scrub, on August 29, was the result of a faulty sensor that recorded erroneous engine temperature readings, while the second scrub, on September 3, was the result of a significant hydrogen leak, which NASA subsequently traced to damaged seals at the quick disconnect fitting between a liquid hydrogen fuel line and the core stage. SLS uses a mixture of oxygen and liquid hydrogen, the latter of which has a propensity to leak due to its small atomic stature.
Not willing to attempt a third launch attempt just quite yet, NASA officials decided to run a cryogenic tanking test, the primary objective of which was to “look at the two new seals,” as Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for common exploration systems development at NASA, told reporters on Monday. NASA officials refrained from calling today’s test a wet dress rehearsal, as key wet dress objectives, such as going into the terminal count phase of the countdown and powering the Orion spacecraft and side boosters, were not included in Wednesday’s test.
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For today’s test, a key strategy was for ground teams to employ a “kinder, gentler” approach to tanking. Engineers felt that a slower approach would lessen the chance of thermal shock, as components come into contact with ultra-cold propellants at temperatures reaching -423 degrees Fahrenheit (-217 degrees Celsius). It’s possible that thermal shock, or an unintended over-pressurization, resulted in the hydrogen leak on September 3, but the true cause of the faulty 8-inch seal, which exhibited a possible indentation mark less than 0.01 inches in size, is not yet known.
At around 9:45 a.m., ground teams transitioned from slow fill to fast fill. An hour later, the teams reported a hydrogen leak at the quick disconnect between the rocket and the tail service mast umbilical, in what was an ominous sign. Blackwell-Thompson signed off on the ensuing plan to warm the line and reset the connection point, and the teams were back in business about an hour later. Speaking to Blackwell-Thompson after the test, Derrol Nail, launch commentator for NASA, said, “you could kind of feel the room deflate a bit, but as [the ground teams] got past it, you could feel a certain lifting of the room.”
The tanking moved quickly and smoothly after that, with the completion of the thermal conditioning of the rocket’s four RS-25 engines happening shortly before 1:00 p.m. The teams managed to fully fill the core stage and the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), otherwise known as the upper stage, with propellants. By 3:45 p.m., launch controllers had completed the pre-pressurization test, with de-tanking activities starting shortly thereafter. “All objectives for the Artemis 1 cryogenic demonstration have been met,” tweeted NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems at 4:33 p.m., and the test was declared complete 20 minutes later.
“I think the test went really well,” Blackwell-Thompson told Nail. “We wanted to learn, we wanted to evaluate the [tail service mast umbilicals] under cryogenic conditions.” She said teams were also working with a new loading operation, the so-called kinder, gentler approach, which Blackwell-Thompson described as being “very purposeful.” Ultimately, “all test objectives were accomplished today,” she said.
NASA will need to review today’s test results and decide how to move forward. Ideally, the engineers will like what they saw, setting the stage for launch in just six days. Assuming the test is as much of a success as it appears to be, NASA could launch SLS as early as September 27, with a 70-minute launch window opening at 11:37 a.m. ET. For that to happen, however, the space agency still needs to receive a waiver from the Space Force’s Eastern Range, which manages launches along the Florida east coast. NASA is currently attempting to launch the Artemis 1 mission, in which the SLS rocket will deliver an uncrewed Orion capsule on journey to the Moon and back.
A successful launch would be the start of the Artemis era, in which NASA is seeking a sustainable and sustained presence in the lunar environment. Artemis 1 is a demonstration mission that would set the stage for Artemis 2, in which a crewed Orion spacecraft will attempt a similar journey in late 2024.
NASA Opts to Fix SLS Megarocket Hydrogen Leak on Launch Pad
NASA is preparing to replace a faulty seal linked to a hydrogen leak that resulted in the second scrubbed launch attempt of SLS on Saturday. The repairs will happen at the launch pad, which is ideal from a testing perspective, but NASA still needs to cart the jumbo rocket back to the assembly building to meet safety requirements.
Technicians will replace a seal on the quick disconnect, an interface that joins the liquid hydrogen fuel line on the mobile launcher to the Space Launch System core stage, according to a brief NASA statement. The teams will also check plate coverings on other umbilicals to rule out hydrogen leaks at those locations. “With seven main umbilical lines, each line may have multiple connection points,” NASA explained.
NASA is attempting an uncrewed mission to the Moon and back, in preparation for a human lunar landing later this decade. But during the early stages of the launch attempt on September 3, an inadvertent command briefly raised the pressure within the system, possibly damaging some components. An unmanageable hydrogen leak resulted in the scrub—the second in a week. The earlier scrub, on Monday, August 29, was also marred by a hydrogen leak, though engineers were able to resolve it. Ultimately, it was a faulty sensor that doomed the first launch attempt.
The unflown SLS rocket remains in a safe configuration, standing tall on Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA is seeking to launch the Artemis 1 mission, in which the rocket will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a journey around the Moon and back. The first launch period, which ran from August 23 to September 6, has ended, forcing a pause in the action. The space agency must now prepare the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket for the third Artemis 1 launch attempt, the date of which has not yet been announced.
Technicians are planning to set up a temporary enclosure around the base of the rocket to protect the hardware from the Florida weather. A benefit of working directly on the pad is that engineers will be able to test the fix under cryogenic conditions. During launch preparations, liquid hydrogen gets pumped through the system at ultra-cold temperatures reaching -423 degrees Fahrenheit (-253 degrees Celsius). This, plus the added high pressure, has the effect of contracting and warping components, which can lead to unwanted and dangerous leaks, particularly around seals.
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As a propellant, hydrogen is efficient but notoriously difficult to reign in. Hydrogen leaks were an all-too-frequent source of scrubs during the Space Shuttle era, and now SLS, which is likewise powered by a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen mixture, appears to be suffering from the same technical hardship.
Engineers mulled returning SLS to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for the required repairs but opted instead to work on the pad. The VAB would’ve presented a more controlled environment to work in, but without the ability to replicate the desired cryogenic conditions for testing (tests inside the VAB have to be run at ambient temperatures). “Performing the work at the pad also allows teams to gather as much data as possible to understand the cause of the issue,” NASA added.
SLS will likely have to return to the VAB, fix or no fix. The Eastern Range, a branch of the U.S. Space Force, requires periodic certification of the rocket’s flight termination system. NASA already received a waiver that extended certification from 20 to 25 days, but it’s not clear if the space agency will request a second waiver, which would be irregular. The Eastern Range oversees launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and works to ensure the public’s safety.
At a press briefing on Saturday, Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, said “it’s not our decision—it’s the Range’s decision.” He added that a waiver from the Range could keep the rocket on the pad, “but that’s not likely.” So, under the Eastern Range restrictions, and until we hear otherwise from NASA about a second waiver, the rocket must return to the VAB prior to the next launch period.
A third launch attempt in late September or early October remains a distant possibility. The next period opens on September 19 and closes on October 4, with no opportunities to launch on September 29 and 30. For this to work, however, NASA would have to complete its latest fix, run tests, cart SLS back to the VAB for recertification (which involves a very short confidence test), and then cart it back to the launch pad. It’s possible, but ground teams will have to haul ass to make this happen.
Failing this, the third launch period opens on October 17 and closes on October 31, with launch exclusions on October 24, 25, 26, and 28. Two other periods, one in November and one in December, exist within the current calendar year.
There’s still plenty of time for SLS to launch in 2022, but it all depends on how quickly engineers can get a handle on this complex system. SLS is the most powerful rocket that NASA has ever built and is a key component of the space agency’s Artemis program, which seeks a sustained and prolonged human presence at and around the Moon.
More: What to Know About Lunar Gateway, NASA’s Future Moon-Orbiting Space Station.