1. Universe Today – ‘A City on Mars’ is Elon Musk’s Ulitmate Goal Enabled by Rocket Reuse Technology
How often will SpaceX recover the rockets ?
“I think that we’re going to get quite a few rockets back, so I imagine we’re going to have a whole fleet of booster rockets accumulating quite rapidly because we’re building them right now at about one every three weeks,” Musk stated.
“Over time we expect to get back over 99% of the rockets. So we will figure out how to make the reuse as easy as possible. So that really no work is required between reuses, apart from refilling the propellant tanks.”
“So it will take us a few years to iron all that out and make sure it all works well.”
How much does it cost to build the Falcon 9?
“The Falcon rocket costs about $60 million to build,” Musk said. “It’s kind of like a big jet, but the cost of the propellant, which is mostly oxygen and the gases, is only about $200,000. So that means that the potential cost reduction over the long term is probably in excess of a factor of a hundred.”
Up close post landing ocean view of SpaceX Falcon 9 at Landing Zone 1 the day after first stage touchdown at Landing Zone 1 on Dec 21, 2015 at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Credit: Jeff Seibert/AmericaSpace
3. Universe Today – The Top 101 Astronomical Events for 2016
– Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina continues to perform as a binocular comet through January.
– Mars reaches opposition on May 22nd.
-Mercury transits the Sun on May 9th, the first time it has done so since 2006.
-A close grouping of Venus and Jupiter on August 27th.
Chandra Finds Remarkable Galactic Ribbon Unfurled
5. Brown Spaceman – Top 10 astronomy discoveries in 2015! What a great year it’s been for science.
7. Huffington Post – 8 Reasons We Should Care About Light
9. Planetaria – 2015 in review: a year of spectacular planetary missions and discoveries
A principal objective of the new design was to facilitate booster reusability for a larger range of missions, including delivery of large commsats to geosynchronous orbit.
Modifications included liquid oxygen subcooled to −206.7 °C and RP-1 cooled to −7 °C for density (allowing more fuel and oxidizer to be stored in a given tank volume), several size and volume changes to the first- and second-stage propellant tanks, and several small mass-reduction efforts. The modified design gained an additional 1.2 meters of height, stretching to exactly 70 meters including payload fairing.
Two key improvements were the replacement of the first-stage engine with the full-thrust variant of the Merlin 1D and the replacement of the second-stage engine with the Merlin Vacuum (1D).
The commercial spaceflight company succeeded Dec. 21 in making its first-stage rocket, which is usually discarded after reaching space, return safely to Earth and land upright at a predetermined location nears its launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The researchers began with a vat of resin containing silicon, carbon and oxygen. They shone a pattern of ultraviolet light beams onto this resin, causing it to harden where the light shone through it. In 30 to 60 seconds, an item 0.5 to 1 inches (1.27 to 2.54 centimeters) thick can form, with a lattice or honeycomb shape, Schaedler said. The researchers then heat these objects to convert the material into silicon oxycarbide ceramic. This new method is 100 to 1,000 times faster than previous 3D-ceramic-printing techniques, the researchers said.
ALMA is capable of precise observations at short microwave wavelengths, typically emitted by cold gas and dust. But objects on the edge of our solar system also emit light in this range, and would be too cool and distant to be observed by infrared telescopes. In 2014, ALMA found a faint object in the direction of Alpha Centauri A and B. The object was again observed in May of this year, this time more clearly
the object is most likely part of the solar system, in prograde motion, albeit at a distance too far to be detectable at other wavelengths,
* an ETNO [Extreme Trans Neptunian Object] (≫ 100 AU)
* a hypothesized Super-Earth (∼ 300 AU)
* a super-cool brown dwarf (∼ 20 000 AU)“
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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