Tag: Artemis Program

Space News for September 2022: Big News for the future of Manned Spaceflight

NASA’s Artemis program continues to have problems getting off the ground while China slowly but surely moves forward with the construction of a space station. I’ll begin with the troubles of Artemis. Indeed, because of the unending problems and schedule changes happening day by day associated with the Space Launch System I’ve had to rewrite this post four times now.

How many novels would get written if the author stopped to rewrite each sentence seven times??? (Credit: TextCortex AI)

Artemis is the name given to NASA’s long, and I do mean long anticipated program for returning human beings to the Moon. I have written several posts about both Artemis and the Space Launch System (SLS), the rocket that is going to be the main launch vehicle for the entire program. See post of 23 July 2022. In fact the space agency had originally expected that the SLS’s first launch would take place way back in 2016 but an almost unending string of problems has led to delay after delay.

Break down of Block one of the Space Launch System (SLS) which will be the backbone of the Artemis program taking humans back to the Moon. (Credit: NASA Blogs)

It was no surprise therefore when the originally scheduled launch date of August 29th had to be cancelled once again. The SLS was standing on its launch pad, the countdown was underway but during the rocket’s fueling process two small problems were discovered. The first was a leaky vent valve in the inner fuel tank caused by a tiny crack. Even as the first problem was being dealt with another issue came to light as one of the rocket’s four main engines could not be cooled to it proper temperature. In addition the weather at Cape Kennedy was unsuitable for a launch so NASA quickly decided to scrub the lift off.

Mission plan for the Artemis 1 spaceflight. The mission will be unmanned, if it ever gets off the ground! (Credit: NASA)

A second launch date of September 3rd was soon announced even as NASA engineers sought to resolve the two problems while still keeping the SLS at the launch pad. If it were found that major repair efforts were necessary that would require rolling the rocket back into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Such a rollback is a major process that would add weeks of delay to the mission. With fingers crossed the engineers made their preparations for a launch on the 3rd of September.

Artemis 1 on the launch pad ready to go. Well not quite! (Credit: The Verge)

The problems that plagued the SLS weren’t finished however for as fueling began on the 2nd another leak was found on a quick-disconnect hydrogen intake valve that just couldn’t be fixed while fueling was underway. Once again the launch had to be scrubbed, once again the engineers tired to fix the problem as the rocket stood on the launch pad.

A quick disconnect valve for Hydrogen fueling. Such a thing is a bitch to engineer because hydrogen is the smallest of all atoms so it can easily leak through the tiniest crack. (Credit: Reddit)

Hoping that they had finally fixed the problem of the leaky valve the SLS was subjected to a full fueling test on the 21st of September. You could imagine the sigh of relief at both NASA and Boeing when the huge rocket passed the fueling test without a single hitch. Hoping that ‘third time is the charm’ NASA set a third launch date of the 27th of September.

Not Always. (Credit: Meme Generator)

Now things begin to get a little spooky because starting around the 20th of September a low-pressure storm cell off the northern coast of South America began to intensify and grow. That storm system became hurricane Ian as it moved through the Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico and was scheduled to slam into Florida as a major hurricane on, you guessed it, the 26th, the day before Artemis 1 was scheduled to lift off.

Hurricane Ian slamming into Florida. Needless to say NASA wasn’t going to launch a rocket into this! (Credit: NPR)

NASA quickly canceled that launch date; even if Ian gave Cape Kennedy a miss the winds will certainly be too high to permit a lift off. And to protect the $4.1 billion dollar rocket NASA, after several delays decided to roll the SLS back into the VAB.

NASA waiting until the last moment before deciding to roll the SLS back into the VAB to protect it from Hurricane Ian. (Credit: Hindustan Times)

So, with the SLS having to endure another round trip to the VAB the question becomes, how much inspection and possible repair will the rocket have to undergo before NASA will be willing to try, once again, to launch it? One thing for certain is that a launch will not be possible until late October at the earliest. Just another in a continuing series of delays in a program that almost seems to be cursed.

Back during WW2 accidents and problems were blamed on Gremlins. I guess the Artemis program must have more than its fair share of the little stinkers. (Credit: Wikipedia)

On the other hand things are going a bit smoother for the Chinese space agency in its efforts to construct that nation’s first space station. On July 24th the Chinese space agency launched the second module of its planned three-module space station from its Wenchang launch facility on the island of Hainan.

Lauch of the second module in China’s Space Station, named Wentian. (Credit: Global Times)

Christened Wentian the new module will connect with the already orbiting Tianhe module. Tianhe was designed to serve as the main living quarters for the three member permanent crew of the station while Wentian is a multi-purpose module that includes labouratory space and an airlock for Extra Vehicular Activities (EVAs). Wentian will also provide some living space during crew transfer periods when there could be as many as six people aboard the station for a day or two.

What China’s space station will look like when completed, perhaps as early as the end of this year. (Credit: Space.com)

The final module, named Mengtian is expected to be launched in October and when it is connected the Tee shaped space station will be completed. At that time Tiangong will be about 20% the size and mass of the International Space Station (ISS) but it will enable China to maintain a permanent manned presence in Earth Orbit.

Though small compared to the International Space Station above, China’s station will still give that nation a permanent presence in Low Earth Orbit (LOE). (Credit: European Space Agency)

And, as happened with the launch of the first station module, the Long march rocket that lifted Wentian into orbit circled the Earth for several days before making an uncontrolled re-entry over the Indian Ocean. The fact the China seems completely unconcerned that their 30 meter tall, 23 ton rocket could land in a populated area is a real problem going forward. The first launch of the Long March resulted in slight damage but fortunately no injuries to a small village in Ivory Coast and sooner or later some real harm will surely occur somewhere.

Re-entry of China’s Long March rocket. Sooner or later a piece of one of these rockets is going to land on top of somebody and do some real damage. (Credit: NewsBytes)

The Tiangong space station is visible on occasion at night over most of the United States, I’ve seen it a dozen times now including with its new Wentian module. Where and when the Chinese station, and the ISS are visible from your location can be found at the website .https://www.n2yo.com/passes/?s=48274#

Space News for April 2022     

It’s on the launch pad, years late and billions of dollars over budget but the Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket since the venerable Saturn 5 that took astronauts to the moon is finally at Pad 39B at Cape Kennedy, ready for lunch. Well almost ready because the engineers and scientists at both NASA and prime contractor Boeing still have a long list of tests and safety checks to perform before the actual first flight in the space agency’s Artemis program begins. The biggest test, known as the Wet Dress Rehearsal or WDR, is now scheduled for the 1-3 of April.

NASA made a big deal out of the rollout of the SLS to its launch pad, even streaming the entire event. The rocket still has problems however and will soon be taken back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs. (Credit: Forbes)

The rollout of the massive SLS with its Orion, man capable capsule took place on March 17th as the door of the Vehicle Assembly Building opened and the SLS began its long, slow journey to the launch site. The current schedule is for launch to take place no earlier than sometime in May. That first flight will be unmanned, with the second Artemis mission, and the first mission that will actually take astronauts back to orbiting the Moon, coming no sooner than 2024.

The Orion Capsule on top of the SLS. NASA plans to use Orion to take astronauts back to the Moon and even beyond but without the SLS its going nowhere fast. (Credit: EarthSky)

Update: The SLS was on its launch pad but after failing to complete the WDR three times NASA has decided to return the rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs. Just another in a long series of delays and problems for the Artemis program that is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

The rollback of the SLS itself been delayed by weather, just more delays. The current schedule is for a rollback on 26April. (Credit: Spaceflight Insider)

And even as NASA begins the Artemis program to take human beings back to the Moon the space agency is making plans to also return to a destination much further away, the outer planets of Uranus and Neptune. The only space probe to have visited those cold, dark worlds was Voyager 2, which flew past them in the late 1980s. At the time the data sent back by Voyager taught us more about the two outermost planets in our Solar System than we’d learned in more than a hundred years of observing them by Earth bound telescopes. In the years since Voyager however astronomers have come up with thousands of questions about conditions on Uranus and Neptune that they’d love to see answered.

Currently the Voyage 2 probe is the only spacecraft to visit the planet Uranus. Now NASA has made the decision to return to this icy world in the next decade. (Credit: Drew Ex Machina)

So plans are now being discussed for a joint NASA-ESA mission to the outer planets. Details are sketchy at the moment, even so far as to which planet will be visited, or maybe both. The best upcoming launch window for Uranus is 2030-2034 while that for Neptune is 2029-2030 so the particulars for the mission along with the basic space probe design will probably have to be finalized in the next year or so. One thing that has been decided is that the main probe will carry with it a smaller ‘entry probe’ like the Huygens probe that landed on Titan after being carried to Saturn by the Cassini spacecraft. 

Conceptual design for the proposed Uranus probe. The spacecraft will include a separate probe to be dropped into the atmosphere of Uranus. (Credit: Spaceflight Now)

The journey to Uranus or Neptune will be a long one, anywhere from 11 to 15 years depending on the specifics of both the probe and the mission. Because the journey will take so long, and will take the probe so far away from the Sun, using solar arrays to power the spacecraft will be impossible, sunlight simply isn’t strong enough that far from the Sun. So therefore the Uranus / Neptune probe will have to get it’s power from radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) just as both Voyagers along with Cassini and the Galileo probe to Jupiter did.

Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) have powered many space probes but they have also been used here on Earth to power instruments in very isolated areas. (Credit: Bellona.org)

Sounds like an exciting mission, wouldn’t it be nice if they could find the money to send identical probes to each planet!

The planet Neptune hasn’t had a visitor for a long time either. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could send a probe to both of them! (Credit: NASA)

A sad note before I sign off. Eugene Parker died on March 15th at the age of 94. The highly regarded NASA astrophysicist is best remembered for his 1957 prediction of the solar wind, the stream of charged particles that are constantly being emitted from the Sun’s atmosphere. That prediction was confirmed just five years later when the Mariner 2 space probe was constantly bombarded during its journey to Venus by just the sort of radiation that Parker had predicted.

In many ways the life of Eugene Parker was a mission to touch the Sun. That’s why it’s so appropriate for NASA’s solar probe to be named for him. (Credit: SciTechDaily)

Eugene Parker is also remembered as the namesake of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe which since its launch in 2018 has now approached closer to the Sun than any other man made object. The Parker probe was the first, and thus far only space probe to be named for a living scientist. A fitting tribute to a man who advanced our knowledge of the Sun so much.

Space News for June 2021: The Space launch System is being readied for its maiden, unmanned mission. Is this finally the return of manned space exploration to deep space, back to the Moon and then beyond?

Ever since the last of the Apollo missions to the Moon back in December of 1972, manned space exploration has been completely trapped in Low Earth Orbit (LOE). Over the last almost 50 years our robotic probes have gone on to explore every large body in the Solar System and a lot of smaller bodies. However no human being has gone further than 1000 kilometers from the surface of the Earth.

The Crew of Apollo 17, Eugene Cernan (seated), Ronald Evans (r) and Harrison Schmitt (l) were the last human beings to go further into space than Low Earth Orbit (LOE) way back in 1972. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

There have been a lot of proposals from NASA engineers, with plans pretty much alternating between returning to the Moon to establish a permanent base or else heading straight on to Mars. The most elaborate plan was developed during the George W. Bush administration with the ‘Constellation Program’ a scaled up version of the first Moon landings sometimes called Apollo on steroids. Constellation however was projected to be so expensive, and remember we were fighting a war on terror at that time, that it was quickly cast aside when the Obama administration took office.

Referred to as ‘Apollo on Steroids’ the Constellation Program during the George W. Bush Administration would have had a budget on steroids as well! It got canceled as soon as Obama took office! (Credit: YouTube)

Faced with the cancellation of their main human spaceflight program NASA regrouped and decided to just try and coax enough money out of congress to develop a heavy lift vehicle that could take humans back into deep space. A rocket so powerful that it would rival the Apollo Saturn V and once that was built, tested and flying it could be used for a Moon return or Mars program, whichever they could talk the politicians into. This new ‘Space Launch System’ (SLS) would be cheap to develop, the engineers assured congress, because it would be based on designs from, and actually use hardware from the now cancelled Space Shuttle program.

Much of the engineering for the Space Launch System (SLS), Block 1 (l) and Block 2 (c) is derived from the space shuttle (r). That was supposed to keep development costs low. Didn’t work out that way! (Credit: How Stuff Works)

The new mega-rocket would be designed like this. A core section consisting of tanks for liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen would be an elongated version of the big orange fuel tank used on the space shuttle. At the bottom of the core stage would be four RS-25 shuttle engines to provide 980 thousand kilograms of thrust for eight minutes. NASA actually had 16 of these engines left over at the end of the shuttle program so the first four SLSs will not even be required to have engines built for them. Then, attached to each side of the core section will be two, five section solid fuel boosters based upon the four section solid fuel boosters used for the space shuttle. With so much reuse of equipment and technology it was expected that the SLS would take very little time to develop and could be done at a reasonable cost.

Artists Impression of the SLS as it will appear on pad 39A at Kennedy before its launch. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Congress approved the SLS in 2011 with a planned first launch to occur in 2017 at a total price tag of $18 billion dollars, of which $6 billion would go to the development of a manned capsule named Orion and $2 billion for upgrades to the launch pad. In other words the SLS itself was only supposed to cost $10 billion to develop.

Developed in tandem with the SLS the Orion manned capsule had also had its share of technical problems. (Credit: Ars Techica)

It didn’t work out that way. Because of both engineering difficulties as well as dithering by congress with the appropriations the SLS has been subjected to an ongoing series of delays and cost overruns. Currently the program is four years behind schedule and will end up costing more than $18 billion dollars and we still haven’t had a single flight.

Even worse, thanks to the amazing success of Space X with their reusable Falcon 9 launch vehicle, the entire rational for a super heavy, and very costly SLS has been called into question. The SLS program has so far been saved from the budget ax however thanks to strong support from the senators and congresspersons in whose states the majority of the work is being accomplished.

The first stage of the Space X Falcon 9 launch system has now been successfully landed 81 times with 63 reuses considerably lowering the cost of getting into orbit! (Credit: Space Flight Now)

And we are now at least coming close to seeing the results of all that effort. In January of 2020 the first core stage of an SLS was completed and delivered to NASA’s test range. Again a series of minor problems caused delays so that the whole test program took nearly twice what was scheduled. The final ‘Hot Fire Test’ of the core stage of the SLS was only completed on March 18 of 2021.

The vehicle has since been sent to Kennedy Space Center to begin full assembly with first the side boosters and then an Orion capsule and service module. That first assembly step has now been completed and the most powerful rocket since the Saturn V is presently taking shape in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Kennedy. The first launch of an SLS, officially designated as the ‘Artemis 1’ mission, is scheduled to take place no earlier than (NET) the 4th of November this year. That initial launch will be unmanned but it will send the man capable Orion capsule on a trans-Lunar trajectory.

The massive core stage of the SLS being lifted inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Kennedy for insertion between its two solid fuel boosters. (Credit: Space Flight Now)
Assemble completed on the core stage and boosters of the SLS. (Credit: Space Flight Insider)

The first manned launch of the SLS, designated as ‘Artemis 2’ is scheduled to take place NET September 2023. Artemis 2 will carry astronauts back to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years on a mission that will resemble Apollo 8, orbiting but not landing on the Lunar surface. The actual first landing of the Artemis program is scheduled for NET October 2024 with the Artemis 3 mission but considering construction of the Artemis Lunar landing module has not even begun that date can best be described as tentative.

The Artemis 1 mission scheduled for later this year will be unmanned but will return a manned capable spacecraft to Lunar orbit for the first time in 49 years. (Credit: SciTech daily)

And over the next several years there is the potential for more changes, more deviations from NASA’s planned path for the SLS. The space agency still wants to build the Lunar Gateway space station in orbit around the Moon but it is quite possible that most of the modules for Gateway may be launched on commercial rockets rather than the SLS.

NASA still hopes to build its Lunar Gateway Space Station as a part of its Artemis program. (Credit: YouTub)

And Mars? Well that’s so far down the road that the SLS could be totally obsolete by then. In fact, if you want my opinion the odds are that in the end the thirteen launches of the Saturn V will outnumber those of the SLS.

The 13 launches of the Saturn 5 rocket. Will the SLS succeed in eclipsing that number? (Credit: Space Exploration Stack Exchange)

Still, come this fall, cross your fingers, we will get to see a sight that hasn’t been seen for nearly 50 years, the launch of a really big, Moon capable rocket!

Space News for September 2019.

There have been several interesting developments is the exploration of space this past month. Most deal with the discoveries made by unmanned probes but one deals with NASA’s Artemis program, the space agency’s plan for returning astronauts to the Moon. I think I’ll start with Artemis.

NASA’s logo for its planned Artemis Program back to the Moon. (Credit: NASA)

You’ll recall that in several posts I have mentioned that NASA intends to build a space station called the Lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon to use as a depot and waystation for lunar exploration. See posts of 30Sept2017, 24Mar2018, 14Oct2018, 31Dec2018, 6Mar2019 and 29May2019. Additionally NASA hopes to use the Gateway as a platform for studying long-term human occupation of deep space, i.e. space outside of Low Earth Orbit (LOE).

Planned configuration of the Lunar Gateway. (Credit: Spacenews.com)

Currently NASA intends to use a mixture of rocket types to construct the Gateway and the proposed Lunar Lander. This plan would include the massive Space Launch System (SLS) still under development as well as Space X’s Falcon Heavy reusable rocket. The use of reusable rockets as much as possible is thought to be essential for a program that is already grossly underfunded.

Unlike the SLS, Space X’s Falcon Heavy is a reusable rocket and therefore MUCH CHEAPER!!!! (Credit: The Verge)

Well it is starting to appear that some members of congress may not be such big supporters of the Gateway and for once there’s bipartisan agreement. At a recent meeting of the House subcommittee on space both committee chair Oklahoma democrat Kendra Hall and Alabama republican Mo Brooks strongly questioned NASA’s planned use of private rockets at all.

Instead Hall and Brooks want NASA to accelerate the development of the SLS’s ‘Exploration Upper Stage’ (EUS), which is planned to increase the payload that the SLS can deliver to Lunar orbit from 26 to 37 tons. This EUS is a part of NASA’s long term goals for the SLS but it is scarcely beyond the design stage and its development would cost billions and add years to a program that is already well over budget and behind schedule. However the use of the EUS would allow NASA to send a crew directly to the Moon’s surface without the need of a Lunar Gateway. Exactly the way the Apollo program did it back in 1969.

NASA is Currently developing the SLS as configured in the two versions on the left. The EUS would allow the four versions on the right which are capable of delivering much more payload into lunar orbit. (Credit: Vox)

None of this has anything to do with science or engineering or even budget, it’s all about corporate rivalry. You see Boeing is the prime contractor of the current version of the SLS, and would be prime on the development of the EUS. Add to that the fact that Boeing is getting tied of Space X grabbing its market share just because reusable rockets are so much cheaper and you have Boeing trying to use a little political muscle to push Space X out of the Artemis program.

With every bit of news I hear about the Artemis program the more convinced I become that it will achieve nothing except a huge waste of resources. I’m very much afraid that the manned space program will achieve nothing until either the Chinese or perhaps private space companies like Space X are about to land on the Moon. We Americans don’t actually care about exploring space; we just have to be first.

NASA continues to have more success with its unmanned space probes. I suppose that’s because, since they are lower profile than manned missions the agency is allowed to make its decisions based on science and engineering not politics.

One of these successes is the Juno space probe currently studying the planet Jupiter. Recently the spacecraft made its 22nd close approach to the giant planet and was in the right position to take a photo of a very impressive event, an eclipse of the Sun on Jupiter caused by its innermost moon Io. See image below.

Image taken by the Juno Space probe of an eclipse of the Sun on Jupiter caused by it’s innermost moon Io. (Credit: NASA)

Now it turns out that eclipses occur on Jupiter considerably more often than they do here on Earth, after all Jupiter has four large moons all of which are capable of producing eclipses. The eclipses on Jupiter are not as impressive as ours are however because by sheer coincidence the angular size of our Moon and the Sun as seen here on Earth are nearly identical. This means that the Moon just covers the Sun’s disk leaving the entire solar corona visible. See my post of 24August 2017 for the story of my first total eclipse.

On Jupiter however the Sun is about five times further away so it’s angular diameter in Jupiter’s sky is much smaller, only about 0.1º instead of the 0.5º in our sky. That makes the Sun look smaller than any of Jupiter’s four big Moons.

Because it’s the closest, Io looks largest on Jupiter, about as large as our Moon does here on Earth. That means that Io can completely cover not only the Sun’s disk but the entire corona as well. Ganymede and Europa would probably do the same since each of them looks more than two and a half times the diameter of the Sun on Jupiter.

Only Callisto, the farthest of the four from Jupiter, would produce a show similar to that of an Earthly eclipse. Its angular diameter, as seen on Jupiter is only about 40% larger than the Sun’s so under the right conditions a good deal of the corona could probably be seen.

One more interesting fact, since Jupiter has four moons capable of producing eclipses it is quite possible for Jupiter to experience several eclipses, caused by different moons at the same time. I happened to come across an image of Jupiter, taken from Earth in 2009 of three eclipses happening at once! The moons involved are Io, Ganymede and Callisto.

Three eclipses on Jupiter happening at the same time! (Credit: NASA)

The moon Io is in the news for another reason as well. You may recall that the voyager space probes discovered that Io is the most volcanically active place in the solar system. This is because Io is being constantly pulled not only by huge Jupiter itself but by its three brother moons as well. This tugging and squeezing heats up the moon’s interior, heat that is released through volcanoes.

The largest volcano on Io, and the largest known active volcano in the solar system is called Loki after the Norse god of fire. Planetary scientists have been studying this powerful beast as best they could ever since it was first discovered. According to a paper published back in 2002 with lead author Julie Rathbun, Loki erupts on a regular basis about every 500 days.

Jupiter’s moon Io with the monster volcano Loki dead center. (Credit: NASA)

Now Rathbun, who is currently with the Planetary Science Institute, has presented at poster at the current 51st meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. Posters at conferences are a common technique for scientists to announce results of research before a formal paper is written. Doctor Rathbun’s announcement was in fact a prediction that Loki will erupt sometime in the next few days.

Doctor Julie Rathbun has predicted an eruption of Loki within the next few days. (Credit: Twitter)

Now predicting a volcanic eruption is a very risky business. Volcanologists here on Earth have been trying to find some technique for predicting eruptions for centuries now. Doctor Rathbun is confident however and thanks to her warning both telescopes here on Earth and the Juno space probe should be ready to study the event when, and if it occurs.  

Photographing eclipses and predicting eruptions halfway across the solar system, we have come a long way!

Space News for August 2019.

We generally think of a story in the news as a report of some sort of dramatic occurrence, a story about an event full of action and yes, even danger. Space news therefore would consist primarily of accounts about rocket launches and space probes landing on distant worlds.

Of course we know that isn’t quite true. In space exploration the calm, deliberate decisions that are made in engineering conferences are every bit as vital to accomplishing the mission as the more spectacular moments. In this post I will be discussing three such stories illustrating the kind of planning and decision making that will make future space missions possible.

Many ideas are developed, and problems solved, in Engineering Meetings (Credit: PSM.com)

One such important decision announced by NASA on August 19 was to give a go ahead to begin construction of their ambitious Europa Clipper space probe, named for it’s target, Jupiter’s moon Europa. The intended mission of the Europa Clipper is to study that icy world in an effort to determine if the moon is actually a possible home for life. Some 40 close flybys of Europa are planned during which the probe will measure of thickness of the moon’s ice surface along with confirming the existence of a liquid ocean beneath the ice.

The Europa Clipper Space probe will make 40 flybys of the icy moon of Jupiter (Credit: ABC57.com)

The decision by NASA means that the design phase of the mission is now over and construction will now begin at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with a planned launch date of 2023 or 2025. One decision about the Europa Clipper still remains to be made however. What launch vehicle will be used to send the probe on it’s way to Jupiter?

Currently congress has ordered NASA to use the Space Launch System (SLS) as the launch system but that massive rocket is still not ready for it’s first test launch, and there is the real possibility that the SLS might not be ready by 2025. Also, launching the Europa Clipper with the SLS will cost over a billion dollars.

After many delays and budget overruns NASA’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) still has not flown (Credit: NASA)

NASA on the other hand would prefer to launch the Europa clipper using a commercial launcher such as Space X’s Falcon Heavy. Launching the space probe with a commercial rocket would not only save hundreds of millions of dollars but also firm up the launch schedule since the Falcon Heavy has already successfully flown three times. Unfortunately the decision here may be made by politics because the SLS is being built at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama and some very important republican senators are strongly supporting it.

The Space X Falcon Heavy rocket has already flown successfully three times (Credit: The Verge)

Speaking of the Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA has made another decision naming them as the lead management center in the development of the Lunar Lander for the space agency’s big Artemis program. Artemis is the name that NASA has now given to its plans for returning astronauts to the Moon’s surface by 2024. Since Marshall is already developing the SLS as the Artemis launch vehicle their choice as lead for the Lander now puts two big pieces of the Artemis pie on Alabama’s plate.

The Marshall Space Flight Center is where NASA has developed rockets like the Saturn V and Space Shuttle (Credit: Wikipedia)

Again the decision here was made on the basis of political, not engineering grounds and that’s never a good thing. In fact the decision could very well be changed. You see the Johnson Manned Space Flight Center is in Houston Texas and there are a couple of powerful Texas senators, also republican by the way, who think the Johnson center would be a much better selection as management lead for the lander’s development.

The Johnson Space Flight Center in Texas is Where NASA’s Manned Space Missions are developed (Credit: Wikipedia)

None of this arguing back and forth will make the lander perform any better, or be built any faster or cheaper. Indeed that sort of political infighting is more likely to stall funding appropriations that could lead to schedule delays and cost overruns.

On a more hopeful note NASA has also decided to team up with Space X in order to develop the technology necessary for the refueling of spacecraft in space! Again the idea is to reuse spacecraft rather than just throw them away after one use and build another. In space refueling has long been considered essential towards developing a space infrastructure that will enable longer and more difficult space missions.

Refueling in space would extent the operational life of satellites, thereby reducing their cost (Credit: Engadget)

Take for example the communications satellites that are now in geostationary orbit 35,000 km above the earth’s equator. These multi-million dollar radio relays must keep their antennas pointed very precisely at Earth in order to perform their job at all. To do this the satellites have small, station keeping rocket engines that keep the satellite exactly where they’re supposed to be. After about 5-7 years however those engines run out of fuel and the craft soon begins to drift until the antennas are no longer directed at Earth. Once that happens the satellite becomes nothing more than a very expensive piece of junk up in space. If you could refuel those satellites while in orbit however you could extend their useful life by years and save billions of dollars.

For manned spaceflight in space refueling would allow the development true spaceships that could travel back and forth to the Moon or Mars multiple times. Such spaceships would be refueled at the end of each mission in exactly the way you refuel your car after a long trip.

Developing the technology for refueling in space won’t be easy however. Most of the chemicals used as rocket fuel, liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen or liquid methane have to be kept cryogenically cold, requiring both refrigeration equipment and power. And everything has to be kept airtight or that fuel that you spent so much money getting into orbit will simply boil off into space. That’s why NASA teaming up with Space X makes sense. While Space X is the leader in reusable spacecraft NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio and Marshall Space Flight Center are the recognized experts in handling and storing various kinds of rocket fuel. Hopefully this teaming up of skills will solve the problems of refueling in space and one day soon in addition to orbiting space stations we will see orbiting gas stations as well. 

Will there soon be a ‘Gas Station’ in orbit above the Earth? (Credit: Ars Technica)

Space News for May 2019: Are we on our way back to the Moon?

Hopefully it’s not just because the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing is coming up in a few months but I’m certain that you’ve noticed there’s been a lot of talk about humans returning to the Moon recently. With that in mind I think I’ll use this month’s installment of Space news to offer my two cents worth.

Back in March NASA was officially tasked by the Trump administration with developing a plan for returning American astronauts to the Lunar surface by the year 2024, hardly enough time to prepare a robotic mission let alone a manned one. That detailed plan has now been released and the new Lunar program has a name at least, Artemis the Greek Goddess of the Moon and the twin sister of Apollo.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announces the Artemis program to take America back to the Moon (Credit: Daily Mail)

Now to be honest, this time NASA doesn’t have to start from scratch as they did back in the 1960s. With the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion crew vehicle the space agency has two of the three major components of an updated Apollo program almost ready to fly. Almost ready, as in both programs have encountered significant delays already and are several years behind schedule.

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) is nearlt ready for its first test launch (Credit: NASA)

NASA’s Orion Crew vehicle is also nearly ready for its first test (Credit: Wikipedia)

Still, the SLS and Orion are expected to undertake their first missions in 2020 so really all NASA needs to put astronauts back on the Moon is a new version of the Lunar Module (LM). You would think that if they concentrate their efforts on producing a LM five years should be enough time to develop one. In fact Lockheed Martin has already prepared some initial designs for just such a Lunar lander so there would be no need to start from scratch.

Lockheed Martin’s concept for a Lunar Lander (Credit: Space News)

Problem is that NASA also wants to construct a space station in Lunar orbit called the Deep Space Gateway and building that could require several times the effort needed for just a new LM. The idea is for the Gateway to serve as a place to park a reusable LM module as well as conduct long-duration missions in deep space. See my post of 31Dec2018.

NASA’s proposed Deep Space Gateway, with an Orion Capsule docked on the left (Credit: Wikipedia)

The complete Artemis program proposed by NASA is both boldly ambitious in scope and detailed in its planning. In addition to meeting Trump’s goal of a manned landing by 2024 the plan continues beyond that with one manned landing each year and concludes in 2028 with the establishment of a semi-permanent Lunar base. The total plan requires 37 launches in all, a mixture of SLS and Commercial Launch Vehicles (CLVs) like the Space X Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy. Most of the missions will not in fact be manned but rather robotic spacecraft that will place equipment in either Lunar orbit or on the Moon’s surface.

The only thing missing now is of course the MONEY! While the full Artemis program should not cost as much as the Apollo program did, adjusting for inflation, it’s still going to require a major increase in NASA’s budget. All at a time when the Federal Government has virtually ground to a halt due to partisan bickering, a time when the yearly federal deficit is over a trillion dollars, and next year is an election year!

Recent and projected yearly Federal budget deficits (Credit: FactCheck.org)

In order to get the ball-rolling Trump has promised to add another $1.6 Billion to NASA’s 2020 budget. That could pay for perhaps one of the 37 missions but hold on, he needs congressional approval even for that small increase.

A better sign of progress was NASA’s awarding of a contract to begin construction of the first of the Gateway modules to Maxar corporation. The $375 million dollar contract is for the design and development of the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), obviously a critical section of the planned space station.

The first section of the Deep Space Gateway to be constructed will be the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) (Credit: Daily Mail)

Still I have to admit that I don’t hold much hope for Artemis. In terms of an outline for an engineering project it’s first rate but there simply isn’t the political will in this country to get it done. We’ve been down this road before; George H. W. Bush directed NASA to go to Mars but never funded it. George W. Bush wanted to go back to the Moon but never funded it. Bill Clinton just wanted to build a Space Station but at least that got built.

Large-scale scientific project like manned exploration beyond Earth orbit require a long-term commitment by the politicians holding the purse strings. With our present political mess I see little hope of the kind of commitment needed any time soon!

What I’m most afraid of is that a year or so from now, when the hoopla and nostalgia of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 is past the current plans for a return to the Moon will all be forgotten and nothing will have been accomplished.