Hello, hello, my dear space lovers!
Get ready for another week of space awesomeness!
Quick note: if you haven’t subscribed yet, don’t miss an issue by subscribing below to receive your weekly dose of space awesomeness:
Ah! And if you want to sponsor this newsletter, drop me an email.
3, 2, 1, zero! Lift-off!
Webb Updates
The space telescope’s sunshield and mirrors are now fully deployed!
This sunshield, which by the way is as big as a tennis court - no kidding - is now fully deployed and ready to help control temperature and light reaching the telescope. It is super important, as temperature ranges at the Lagrange point 2 are so extreme that can literally destroy the super-sensitive sensors that Webb carries.
What’s next? The alignment of each one of the telescope mirrors. You can see the full deployment sequence simulation in the video below:
Commercial updates
SpaceX started the year with a successful launch of another set of Starlink satellites on January 6th.
They have also been testing the rocket-catching arms for the first time at Starbase (although in super slow motion!)
Lockheed Martin shared this week it will be testing Amazon’s Alexa and Cisco’s Webex during the upcoming Artemis 1 mission.
Voice recognition would be of great help for astronauts onboard a rocket flying to deep space, and using commercial products to do so seems smart: this test is extremely interesting!
China updates
China has been testing its new robotic arm this week. They undocked, repositioned, and re-docked a cargo spaceship at the Tiangong Space Station during a 45 minutes test that went just fine. Important achievement!
They are planning more than 40 launches this year, and six of those will be bringing two labs, two crews, and two cargo spaceships to this station that is scheduled to operate for 15 years. Amazing.
Yutu-2 lunar rover reached a key milestone: its first kilometer on the far side of the moon. By the way: do you remember the weird cubic object it spotted a couple of weeks ago? Disappointing: it was just a rock, although an adorable rabbit-shaped rock XD
Martian updates
Some challenges this week on Mars!
The Perseverance rover is experiencing some trouble with debris that is preventing it from collecting samples in sealed tubes. The team is looking for a solution that will help it clean it so that it can continue with its scientific mission.
Very close to the rover, the Ingenuity helicopter is ready to take the first flight of the year, but it might be a hard one. The take-off is going to be challenging because of the sands it is currently sitting on. This would be its 19th flight and it’s planned to last around 100 seconds. Good luck, Ingenuity!
Pic of the week
No, no, this is not YOUR Moon. This is Ganymede, Jupiter’s moon, and the largest moon in the Solar System. This pic was taken by Juno last June from only 1000 kilometers above the surface of the moon. Impressive, isn’t it?
Launches of the week
The following launches are scheduled for this week:
Wednesday, Jan 12th - Virgin Orbit LauncherOne | Above the Cloud (Tentative)
Thursday, Jan 13th - SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 | Transporter 3
And that’s it for this week!
If you like the Space Roundup please share it with others and if you want to support the project, please go to Patreon to see available subscription options starting from as little as $3/month.
Cheers from sunny Spain!
Juan, the Curious Astronaut
Awesome edition, as *always*, Juan!!!
Wishing you all the best in 2022, full of health and success! Cheers!