NASA’s rolled out the new X-59 Quesst supersonic aircraft live from Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. Quesst is NASA’s mission to demonstrate how the X-59 can fly supersonic without generating loud sonic booms, and then survey what people hear when it flies overhead. Reaction to the quieter sonic thumps will be shared …
Jessica Jensen, vice president of customer operations and integration at SpaceX, said securing an updated Federal Aviation Administration launch license was the key factor driving the schedule for the third Starship test flight. The third flight should be sometime in February 2024. “From a hardware readiness perspective, we are targeting to be ready in January,” …
A NASA NIAC phase 1 grant has been given to Geoffrey Landis to develop innovative concepts for a sample return from the surface of Venus. The project description is vague. At 450°C and 92 atmosphere pressure, the surface of Venus is the most hostile environment to explore in the solar system. This project will pioneer …
One crucial area to enable trips to Mars is the long-duration storage of cryogenic propellants in various space environments. Relevant propellants include liquid Hydrogen (LH2) for high specific impulse Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) which can be deployed in strategic locations in advance of a mission. Such LH2 storage tanks could be used to refill a …
There is a proposal to use the SpaceX lunar starship as a rapidly deployable moonbase. It could be completed 180 days after the SpaceX lunar Starship lands on the moon. UPDATE SOURCE FOUND: The source for this work is Team Project “Solutions for Construction of a Lunar Base” is the product of 9 intense weeks …
Dark Energy is inferred based upon distance and other measurements which could have 10% errors. Measurements of the distance to extragalactic sources allow us to infer the major energy constituents of our Universe. Two decades ago such measurements revealed that most of the energy in the Universe is in `dark energy’ — a discovery that …
NASA NIAC is funding Coflow Jet to analyze a novel global mobility Mars exploration platform, Mars Aerial and Ground Intelligent Explorer (MAGGIE). MAGGIE is a compact fixed wing aircraft with ultra-high productivity efficiency powered by solar energy to fly in the Martian atmosphere with vertical take-off/landing (VTOL) capability, which is enabled by advanced deflected slipstream …
NASA NIAC willl investigate the details of building a high-resolution, long-baseline, optical imaging interferometer on the lunar surface in conjunction with the Artemis Program. A lunar infrastructure can happen over the next few years through the NASAArtemis Program and the SpaceX Lunar Starsihp. The study of a lunar surface-based interferometer will be a huge step …
A new approach would use a magnetohydrodynamic electrolytic cell to extract and separate oxygen and hydrogen gas without moving parts in microgravity. This removes the need for a forced water recirculation loop and associated ancillary equipment such as pumps or centrifuges. Preliminary estimations indicate that the integration of functionalities leads to up to 50% mass …
A trope in science fiction is for advanced space missions to use suspended animation for long space missions. In fiction, they usually assume that suspended animation stops aging. This will be full on cryonics. In reality, we can safely induce a hibernation like state where metabolic processes are slowed. Minimal nutrients and water would be …
Tiny gram-scale interstellar probes pushed by laser light are likely to be the only technology capable of reaching another star this century and a NASA NIAC phase 1 study wants to work out the additional issues to coordinate several thousands one gram solar sails into a coordinated mission that can communicate back to Earth from …