A large rocket landing on the moon will blow the dust like regolith all over the place. The dust and regolith could damage the rocket landing and the material could even fly off into space causing damage and hazard to satellites. A NASA NIAC study is looking at putting materials into the fuel of a …
Doug Plata wrote an article on the Space Review that indicates that Starship to Orbit should be a policy tipping point. Orbital Starship is a historic transformation. It is the vehicle which will let us spread beyond Earth. Super Heavy Starship is not only developing the largest and most powerful rocket in history, but SpaceX …
Intuitive Machines is developing the Nova-C lander which they want to send to the surface of the moon in early 2022. It will be powered by their VR900 engine, and replete with innovative avionics for advanced guidance, navigation and control. “IM-1” is capable of carrying 130kg of cargo, and will ferry numerous experiments to the …
The $2.9 billion NASA funding for the SpaceX Lunar Starship means that a Starship will get man-rated for four astronauts. This means getting the chance of loss of crew less than one in 500 for a lunar landing. SpaceX Lunar Starship will only initially support four astronauts because the launch will be performed by SLS …
Unlocking water and resources on the moon and asteroids will be a huge breakthrough for space development. It will give us water, building materials, and propellants. Water is the most critical component in the near-term and is therefore the focus of many studies. However, being able to mine other resources with the same system will …
Lunar Resources, Inc has a NASA NIAC grant to perform an end-to-end system-level study of how to build a very large low frequency (5-40 MHz) radio observatory. Lunar Resources’ novel lunar resource extraction and space manufacturing technologies are enabling more than 95% of the observatory’s mass to be extracted and then manufactured on the moon. …
NASA has selected SpaceX to continue development of the first commercial human lander that will safely carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface. NASA is still going to use the overpriced Space Launch System rocket to launch four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft for their multi-day journey to lunar orbit. There, two …
Space Telescope Design That Will Be 400 Times Better at Finding Asteroids
3 Mile Wide Lunar Crater Radio Telescope for the Far Side of the Moon
Limitless Space Institute gave out nine interstellar space-related grants for about $1 million to 2 million each. Phil Lubin’s direct laser propulsion group received a grant and they will use to prove out their directed laser propulsion system at the 10-20 watt level. They are also working on components at the kilowatt to tens of …
Could space tourism enable lunar and orbital colonization to reach critical mass? I view colonization critical mass to be over 300k people. Around 1745, the American colonies passed a population of 1 million. This population had doubled twice from 250,000 people in 1700 and nearly tripled by 1780 to 2.7 million. SpaceX Super Heavy Starship …
