-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Their proposal calls for a 100-gigawatt (GW) laser beamer boosting thousands of gram-scale space probes with laser sails to relativistic speed (~10-20 percent of light). They also proposed a series of terrestrial light buckets measuring a square kilometer (0.386 mi2) in diameter to catch the light signals from the probes once they are well on…
The Dreamchaser launch is gonna be fun to watch.[SPOILER] Vulcan’s debut was much-anticipated in the US launch community because the rocket provides a potentially viable competitor to the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets flown by SpaceX. The US Space Force, in particular, has been waiting on Vulcan to fly dozens of payloads into orbit.…
the Weinersmiths aren’t anti-space. They aren’t even anti-space-settlement. Rather, they argue that the path to space-based scientific breakthroughs, exploration of our solar system, and a deeper understanding of our moral standing in a vast universe cannot start with space settlements. Landing people on the Moon or Mars any time soon is a stunt – a…
Over promising and under delivering again… SpaceX still has a lot to prove, including achieving a stable orbit, swapping fuel between spacecraft, and of course the ability to make a safe and soft approach to the lunar surface. https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-push-back-moon-landing-spacex-starship How long before Musk sues NASA for…reasons.
As the Peregrine team worked to try and determine the cause of the problem, the situation began to look increasingly dire. All indications pointed to a complication arising from the spacecraft’s propulsion system which, if confirmed, would likely end Peregrine’s mission before it ever came close to landing on the lunar surface. … The failed…
This year’s selectees range from a sample return from the surface of Venus, a fixed-wing aircraft for Mars, a swarm of probes to travel to Proxima Centauri and explore its system of exoplanets, and more. One of the more eye-catching is the Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer (MAGGIE) proposed by Ge-Cheng Zha, a Professor of Aerodynamics at…
NASA’s Ingenuity has racked up important milestones since it detached itself from the Perseverance Rover’s underbelly in April 2021 and got to work. On April 19th, 2021, it became the first aircraft to complete a powered, controlled extraterrestrial flight. Since that day, it has blown away expectations and completed 70 flights. Its most recent flight…
Chinese agencies are funding projects to use the Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) to conduct searches for alien signals. The Far Neighbour Project (FNP) was launched in 2023 and uses some interesting observational techniques to hunt for technosignatures from advanced civilisations. They are targetting nearby stars, exoplanet systems, local globular clusters and much…
Last week, NASA’s Juno spacecraft performed a scintillatingly close flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io — the closest in over 20 years — and captured breathtaking new images of its evershifting surface that could further scientists’ understanding of one of the most volcanic worlds in the Solar System. If Juno had pulled off the maneuver around our planet…
Welcome to Edition 6.25 of the Rocket Report! We hope all our readers had a peaceful holiday break. While many of us were enjoying time off work, launch companies like SpaceX kept up the pace until the final days of 2023. Last year saw a record level of global launch activity, with 223 orbital launch…
Dave5 