Hello, my dear space lovers!
Another week full of interesting news in the space sector! Before I kick-off, this week I want to thank my patrons for their support: you make this project a reality!
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Now Let's get started with the updates of the week! 5,4,3,2,1…liftoff!
Mars!
This week Perseverance has been doing more tests, which included the first short trip on the red planet. It was a mere 6 meters journey, but enough to test everything’s ready to start with the science missions. Cameras have also been working non-stop, sending tons of pictures back to earth for the delight of scientists and space fans alike 😉 7865 pictures so far! Crazy. What’s next? They are looking for a flat and safe place to ditch Ingenuity, the tiny mars helicopter for its first test flight. So looking forward to it!
Starship progress
This week we’ve seen a Starship landing in one piece for the first time. It was an amazing experience to witness this, although sadly the multi-million rocket prototype exploded 8 minutes after the landing due to a fuel leak. The landing wasn’t soft for sure, but it’s amazing to see the progress they make with every test, nailing down the details and making it better and better. What is important is that they keep improving, because at this test pace they are not in line with their timelines.
What’s still missing? A lot! They still need to nail down this way of landing, keep improving and adding Raptor engines, add and test heat tiles, develop the SuperHeavy booster, make it fly and land safely, then learn how to make them launch together, refill them, add payload capacity, work on the interior of the rocket, in-orbit refueling, payload unloading mechanisms… so many missing pieces yet!
Commercial space
So let’s make a summary of the last few weeks: first, Blue Origin announced that their first human flight to sub-orbital height is just weeks away, then Axiom announced a mission to bring a bunch of millionaires to the International Space Station, then SpaceX announced #inspiration4 mission to take (US-only) civilians to orbit and this week also SpaceX announced that as part of the #dearMoon project, they’ll take 8 civilians from any country to a trip around the moon by 2023. Go grab a seat! - Are you kidding me?? How impressive is this? We have NEVER had so many opportunities to access space!
On the other side of the story, NASA has gone a bit crazy and has increased prices to take commercial payloads to the ISS from $3000/kg to $20,000/kg, which will have a very negative impact on research and commercial endeavors. Apparently, the motivation behind this move is to stop subsidizing commercial activity with public money now that there are more and more potential commercial providers.
More competition and contract award$$
Rocket lab announced this week that going public will help them develop Neutron: a new 8-ton class reusable rocket tailored for mega constellations, deep space missions, and human spaceflight. This same week, together with Astra, they have been awarded another launch contract by NASA to launch satellites.
And finally, Firefly Aerospace (with Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines) has been selected to deliver lunar payloads for NASA. $93 million for taking 94 to the Moon by 2023. We’ll watch closely.
Wow, wow, wow: science or fiction?
Is traveling faster than the speed of light even theoretically possible? A pair of researchers have published a paper this week with a general model for a warp drive: a model for a spacecraft that could travel faster than the speed of light, without actually breaking the laws of physics. Could a massive gravitational force be used to bend space-time? They have demonstrated so, in theory. Now we “just” need to evolve technology so that we can compress mass the size of a planet to a manageable spacecraft size. Alejandro, thanks for the heads up ;)
Picture of the week
Captured comet! This picture has been captured by the Hubble Space Telescope: it is a comet that has been trapped by Jupiter’s gravity. It’s the first comet ever observed near the Trojans asteroids.
Upcoming launches & events
Wednesday, March 10 - Space X Falcon 9 • Starlink V1.0-L20
Friday, March 12 - China Long March 7A • XJY 6
Saturday, March 13 - Falcon 9 • Starlink V1.0-L21
Sunday, March 14 - Firefly Alpha | Maiden Flight
And that’s it for this week! :)
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Cheers from sunny Spain!
Juan, the Curious Astronaut
Hi, Juan!
I noticed that this edition doesn't include links to the articles about the subjects covered.
Is that intentional and reveals a change of editorial strategy for the newsletter?
Those links really add "juice" to the newsletter.
(IMHO, including those links allow the reader to access more details and, in fact, decreases your work load.)
Best regards from Portugal.