Carnival of Space 522

1. Universe Today – Musk Says Maiden Falcon Heavy to Launch in November, Acknowledges High Risk and Releases New Animation

“Side booster rockets return to Cape Canaveral,” explains Musk on twitter. “Center lands on droneship.”

The two side boosters will be recycled from prior Falcon 9 launches and make precision guided propulsive, upright ground soft landings back at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Each booster is outfitted with a quartet of grid fins and landing legs. The center core is newly built and heavily modified.

“Sides run high thrust, center is lower thrust until sides separate & fly back. Center then throttles up, keeps burning and lands on droneship. If we’re lucky!” Musk elaborated.

The center booster will touch down on an ocean going droneship prepositioned in the Atlantic Ocean some 400 miles (600 km) off of Florida’s east coast.

2. Universe Today – NASA Voyager Probes Still Going Strong After 40 Years

3. Universe Today – Bad News For Proxima b: An Earth-Like Atmosphere Might Not Survive There

4. The Space Review – Cislunar Suspense 2: The Cynthianing. A round-up of fiction stories from the last seven decades set in cislunar space in the near future.

5. Huffington Post – A brief introduction to just a few of the many women who have chased the Sun for the benefit of all, from antiquity through present day.

6. Chandra X-Ray Space Telescope Blog – IC 10: A Starburst Galaxy with the Prospect of Gravitational Waves

7. Planetaria – ‘Strange Life’ on Titan? New organic molecule discovery could mean it’s possible

8. Planetaria – Ancient waterworld? New evidence that Venus may have once had oceans

9. Nextbigfuture – Moon Express want to launch missions to the moon for less than $10 million including the launch.

Moon Express is printing their lander engines for less than $2000 in two weeks.

All Moon Express robotic spacecraft are environmentally green, use eco-friendly fuels, advanced carbon composites and silicates and a Moon Express PECO rocket engine.
MX-1 – A single engine robotic spacecraft. The MX-1 has a 30 kg payload capacity.
MX-2 – A two-stage robotic spacecraft with a 30 kg payload capacity.
MX-5 – A 5-engine, platform configuration that can include MX-1 or MX-2 staged system. The MX-5 has a 150 kg payload capacity.
MX-9 – A 9-engine platform configuration, designed for sample return. The MX-9 has over a 500 kg payload capacity.