Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/moon-landing-spacecraft-lunar-surface-today/
"What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the #moon, and we are transmitting," Mission Director Tim Crain told the flight control team. "So congratulations, IM team! We'll see how much more we can get from that."
source: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/23/india-chandrayaan-3-moon-landing-mission
India has become the first country to successfully land a #spacecraft near the south pole of the moon, in a historic moment that drew cheers at watching parties around the country.
Well done to #ISRO and India
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/23/india-chandrayaan-3-moon-landing-mission
The #Luna-25 mission, the first Russian #spacecraft in over four decades, headed to the #moon on Friday at 02:11 #Moscow time.
On Sunday, #Russia's State Space Corporation (Roscosmos) informed that Luna-25 module has crashed into the moon after it went into an unplanned orbit.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Luna-25-Spacecraft-Crashes-Into-the-Moon-20230820-0008.html
GOES-16 #SATELLITE SEES #ARTEMIS #LAUNCH: NOAA's GOES-16 #weather satellite is stationed almost directly above #Florida, so naturally it saw the launch of NASA's Artemis moon rocket on Nov. 16th. Infra-red sensors recorded the rocket's hot plume cutting through the atmosphere as it left Earth:
Thanks to Spaceweather.com reader Jim Ruebush for alerting us to these GOES-16 data!
This is a "Band 8" movie. Band 8 is an infrared channel at 6.19 microns tuned to the thermal glow of water vapor in clouds. It works well for rockets, too.
The Artemis rocket successfully propelled NASA's #Orion #spacecraft toward the #Moon. It'll be back in about 25 days after orbiting the Moon and safety-testing onboard systems for future astronauts
https://www.bitchute.com/video/TkyEttkxbUvf/
NASA #HOAX - #Spacecraft Rammed an #Asteroid in Self Defense Test
The field of space vehicle design is obsessed with efficiency by necessity. The cost to do anything in space is astronomical, and also heavily tied to launch weight. Thus, any technology or technique that can bring those figures down is prime for exploitation.
In recent years, mercury thrusters promised to be one such technology. The only catch was the potentially-ruinous environmental cost. Today, we'll look at the benefits of mercury thrusters, and how they came to be outlawed in short order.
As we've explored in our previous in-depth explainer, ion thrusters have proven valuable in innumerable space missions. Rather than using chemical reactions to generate thrust, they use electric fields to accelerate ions instead. Compared to traditional rockets, they can't generate anywhere near as much thrust. However, they are far more fuel-efficient. This means they can generate far more delta-v (change in velocity) with the same amount of fuel.
NASA experimented with mercury-based ion thrusters on the SERT-I (pictured) and SERT-II spacecraft. However, mercury was deemed too toxic to use in future missions. Credit: NASA, public domain
Although their thrust is so meagre that you could never use one to launch a vehicle into orbit, they find their primary application in stationkeeping for satellites, helping them maintain position over time against the forces of upper-atmospheric drag. They can also be used to propel long-range probes that don't have gravity to fight against.
These days, most thrusters use inert gases like xenon or krypton as fuel. However, these gases are expensive and their molecules are relatively lightweight. Mercury, on the other hand, is much heavier, still very easy to ionize, and easy to store on a spacecraft in liquid form. It's also very, very, cheap. By sheer virtue of its toxicity, many industries are often stuck paying to dispose of mercury as a byproduct. The old saying that " you can 't even give it away" really does apply here.
Mercury has a multitude of uses, such as the thermometer seen here. However, the silvery liquid metal is now used less often due to knowledge of its negative health effects. Credit: CambridgeBayWeather, public domain
While mercury makes an excellent ion thruster fuel on paper, its toxicity is too potent to ignore. Causing deletrious effects to the nervous system and brain, its presence in the environment can have major negative effects on human populations. From lowering IQs to damaging memory, it's all bad all the way down. It's a toxin that accumulates in the body over time, and often enters the human body through the food chain. Indeed, mercury concentrations in many sea creatures mean that pregnant women are specifically advised to avoid many types of seafood.
For this reason, NASA abandoned the use of mercury as a propellant after initial experiments in the 1970s. Outside of contaminating the atmosphere, mercury comes with other risks too. There are occupational hazards for the crews working on the thrusters. Furthermore, explosions on the launchpad or crashes would spread the toxic material into the surrounding environment.
For these reasons, mercury was quickly considered a "dead fuel" by NASA, simply too dangerous to use despite the benefits.
NASA moved on to xenon-fuelled Hall effect thrusters after mercury was deemed too dangerous to use. Credit: NASA JPL, public domain
As is so often the case, however, a Silicon Valley startup was reported to be "disrupting" an established industry by rehashing an old idea. Bloomberg ran a story in 2018, regarding the activities of startup Apollo Fusion. Industry insiders told the outlet that the startup was shopping around a new thruster technology using mercury as a propellant.
This quickly set alarm bells ringing for many around the world. With SpaceX planning to launch over 10,000 satellites over a period of a few years, and many other companies rushing to establish their own massive satellite fleets, prospects were terrifying. If Apollo Fusion got a contract to equip thousands of satellites with mercury thrusters, widespread pollution of the entire Earth was suddenly on the table.
A scientific paper showed that a constellation of 2,000 satellites with 100 kg of propellant on board would deposit 20,000 kg of mercury into the upper atmosphere each year for a decade. Due to the weight of mercury ions, the majority would end up falling back to Earth, and account for 1% of existing global mercury emissions. Modelling suggested 75% of this mercury would end up in the world's oceans, with negative impacts on marine life and fishing operations.
60 Starlink satellites seen prior to deployment in 2019.
Concerns abounded that if mercury thrusters were used for upcoming constellations of thousands of satellites, it could spread significant pollution into the atmosphere and around the world. Credit: SpaceX, public domain
Great effort has been expended over the decades to reduce the amount of mercury in the environment. The Minimata Convention on Mercury, a treaty from the United Nations, provided a framework for controlling mercury use by signatory countries. 128 countries signed the treaty, involving restrictions on the use of mercury in everything from batteries to lamps, soaps, and cosmetics.
At the time of signing in 2013, the idea of a return to mercury propulsion simply wasn't on the table. Apollo Fusion wasn't established until 2016. Worse, US regulations meant that there was precious little stopping any company that wished to launch mercury into space. Communication satellites fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission, which allowed satellite operators to self-certify their craft as having no deleterious impacts on humans or the environment.
Thankfully, the hard work of scientists lobbying against the technology bore fruit. In March this year, the UN held a meeting regarding the Minamata Convention on Mercury, and adopted a resolution to phase out any use of mercury as a satellite propellant by 2025.
With most spacefaring nations being signatories to the convention, it makes the business case for mercury thrusters virtually unviable. As for Apollo Fusion, the company has stuck to working in the world of ion propulsion, though may have given up mercury propellants at this time. The company, which was acquired by American space launch company Astra, has since flown a xenon thruster in space as part of SpaceX's Transporter-2 mission last year.
In any case, it seems that the thousands of satellites to be put in orbit in coming years will go up to space without mercury-spewing thrusters onboard. That should come as a great relief to all of us down here on Earth, where there is already more than enough mercury pollution as it is.
#currentevents #featured #originalart #science #space #halleffect #halleffectthruster #ionpropulsion #ionthruster #mercurythruster #satellite #spacevehicle #spacecraft
source: https://www.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-artemis
#Artemis I will be the first uncrewed flight test of the #Space Launch System rocket and the Orion #spacecraft. The flight paves the way toward landing the first woman and the first person of color on the #Moon!
Add your name here to have it included on a flash drive that will fly aboard Artemis I.
You no doubt recall the incredible Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) reverse engineering and restoration project featured on the CuriousMarc YouTube channel a few years ago. Well, [Marc] and the team are at it again, this time restoring the Apollo Unified S-Band tracking and communication system flight hardware. As always, the project is well documented, carefully explained, full of problems, and is proceeding slowly despite the lack of documentation.
Like the guidance computer, the Unified S-Band system was pretty innovative for its day -- able to track, provide voice communications, receive television signals, and send commands to and monitor the health of the spacecraft via telemetry. The system operates on three frequencies, an uplink containing ranging code, voice and data. There are two downlinks, one providing ranging, voice, and telemetry, the other used for television and the playback of recorded data. All crammed into two hefty boxes totaling 29 kg.
So far, [Marc] has released part 9 of the series (for reference, the Apollo Guidance Computer took 27 parts plus 8 auxiliary videos). There seems to be even less documentation for this equipment than the AGC, although miraculously the guys keep uncovering more and more as things progress. Also random pieces of essential ground test hardware keep coming out of the woodwork. It's a fascinating dive into not only the system itself, but the design and construction techniques of the era. Be sure to check out the series (part 1 is below the break) and follow along as they bring this system back to life. [Marc] is posting various documents related to the project on his website. And if you missed the AGC project, here's the playlist of videos, and the team joined us for a Hackaday Chat back in 2020.
#radiohacks #space #apollo #apolloguidancecomputer #nasa #restoration #sband #spacecraft #telemetry
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