The Space Roundup Feb, 14th 2021
Hello, my dear space lovers!
Are you ready for the space roundup of the week? Let’s go! 5,4,3,2,1…liftoff!
Welcome to Mars!
Both the United Arab Emirates and China’s spacecraft have entered the Martian orbit this week. After a trip of more than six months and 200 million kilometers, UAE’s Hope and China’s Tianwen-1 are now orbiting the red planet.
Mars Hope is going to study all about the martian atmosphere and the martian weather during a whole martian year, measure hydrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere, and why they escape towards space. This information is going to be of vital relevance for humans visiting the red planet in the future.
China’s Tianwen-1 will be studying the surface for a while to locate the perfect landing place for its rover and lander, which will attempt to land by May.
And that’s not all! Next week NASA will also arrive at Mars, with the huge difference that they will directly enter martian orbit and land its rover, all in a single super challenging operation. Exciting!
Indian space innovations
There is a very interesting group of Indian companies opening up thanks to the commercialization of the space industry of the country in recent years. The company that I want to talk about today is called Agnikul Cosmos and it is the first company in the world to successfully print and test a single-piece 3D-printed rocket engine.
What??? Yes! They 3D-printed a full rocket engine capable of taking about 100kgs to low earth orbit, in a single piece, they turned it on and successfully fired it. Each new rocket engine takes ONLY 72 hours to print, so this can boost the rocket production time enormously. This is a massive achievement that many companies have been trying to get to, but they were first! The US company Relativity Space, which is planning to build and launch fully 3D printed rockets also has a 3D-printed engine but it has 3 pieces, not one. Others such as Skyroot Aerospace or Orbex are on their way too but haven’t been able to test their engines just yet.
More commercial progress!
Last week we talked about commercial space travel with SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission and Axiom commercial crew. This week we have heard two important updates about NASA’s new attitude supporting commercial programs: first, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy has been chosen to deliver the first two components of the Gateway to the Moon’s orbit, and then they have announced that the mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa (Europa Clipper) is now open to be delivered by a commercial launcher (although we still don’t know which company will take it to Jupiter). This in my opinion is key to keep making progress: commercial companies can deliver payloads to orbit, Moon, Jupiter, or wherever it is needed, while making a profit that allows them to operate and innovate, and then NASA and other space agencies reduce costs and focus on the science of their missions. A massive win for all!
In future newsletters, I’ll keep sharing progress from other commercial programs that are very exciting and innovative.
Picture of the week
Today, the picture of the week is pretty special, as it was taken by me! :)
Yesterday I got my kids in the car and drove to Robledo de Chavela, a small town close to Madrid where NASA hosts one of the three facilities of the Deep Space Network: the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system in the world.
We wanted to see in person the new DSS-56, a massive 34-meter-wide antenna that has taken four years to be built and is now fully operational. It is the antenna that is “talking” to the spaceships in the solar system such as the Perseverance rover that will arrive on Mars next week or Osiris-REX, and it was the first to confirm the arrival of the HOPE probe to Mars this week.
It was an incredible experience and being there in person changes your perspective: it is as tall as a ten-story building and while you are there you can see how it changes the orientation to communicate with the next spacecraft. If you’re curious, you can see which one it’s “talking to” on this website at any time.
Upcoming launches & events
Very well packed week ahead!
Feb. 15 Space X Falcon 9 • Starlink V1.0-L19
Feb. 15 Roscosmos Soyuz • Progress 77P to the ISS
Feb. 17 Space X Falcon 9 • Starlink V1.0-L17
Feb. 18 NASA Perseverance landing on Mars
Feb. 20 Northrop Grumman Antares • NG-15 to the ISS
Test flights without a clear date for the week:
Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo
SpaceX SN10
And that’s it for this week! :)
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Cheers from sunny Spain!
Juan, the Curious Astronaut