Sep 27, 2020 10:18 PM
(This post was last modified: Sep 27, 2020 11:11 PM by C C.)
Space Force to start flying on reused SpaceX rockets
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2020/09...601065466/
RELEASE: The U.S. Space Force will start to fly missions on reused SpaceX rockets next year to save millions of dollars, the service announced Friday. The Space Force will fly two GPS satellites into orbit on a Falcon 9 first-stage booster. The lower cost that SpaceX charges for reused rockets will save taxpayers $52.7 million, a statement from the military branch said.
SpaceX has reused boosters since March 2017, but the Space Force wanted to see the technology proven before flying costly satellites on a used rocket. In June, the Space Force allowed SpaceX to recover the booster from a national security launch of another GPS satellite for the first time. The military learned "valuable data and insight on reusing" rockets from that mission, according to the announcement.
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, said in a news release that the company was pleased the Space Force saw "the benefits of the technology." Reusing boosters has become routine for SpaceX. In August, the company used the same booster for the sixth time in a launch from Florida, setting a record for the launch industry.
The world’s space agencies team-up to deflect asteroids
https://singularityhub.com/2020/09/27/th...-asteroid/
EXCERPT: . . . while the last killer space rock dropped out of the sky with no warning, we have a few tools the dinosaurs didn’t. In addition to telescopes to chart potentially hazardous asteroids, we can visit and, theoretically, divert an asteroid’s course before it reaches us.
Now, the world’s space agencies are teaming up to take planetary defense beyond theory. This month, the European Space Agency (ESA) approved and funded their part of the Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA), a joint mission with NASA and other space agencies to, for the first time, attempt to alter the orbit of a sizeable asteroid in deep space. The missions aim to yield the first hard data in humanity’s quest to avoid the fate of the dinosaurs.
[...] Next summer, NASA plans to launch the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket. DART will travel to the 780-meter asteroid Didymos, where, in the fall of 2022, it will smack into Didymos’s 160-meter moonlet Dimorphos at well over 14,000 miles per hour. The collision will take place some seven million miles from Earth, which is close enough for ground-based telescopes to record the expected transfer of momentum and subsequent several-minute change to Didymoon’s orbital period.
This might sound like a risky maneuver, but the asteroid pair don’t threaten Earth, Heli Greus, product assurance and safety manager for ESA’s Hera mission, told Digital Trends. “Nobody has to panic,” Greus said.
The ESA will then launch its Hera spacecraft in 2024 to observe the aftermath of the impact in more detail and at close range. As ESA notes in its description of the Hera mission, “By the time Hera reaches Didymos, in 2026, Dimorphos will have achieved historic significance: the first object in the Solar System to have its orbit shifted by human effort in a measurable way.”
While initial ground telescope measurements may give an approximation of how much DART deflected Dimorphos, they’ll be hamstrung by distance and the expected dust plume. Hera will do its own “crash scene investigation,” measuring the exact change in orbital period and studying the crater in detail. It will also map the asteroid’s surface and interior structure.
This data will allow scientists to validate and refine their models. In the future, then, we might discover a new threat, calculate its orbit over the next century, and discover there’s a scheduled rendezvous with Earth. Scientists would consult their charts, built on Dimorphos data, and suggest with greater confidence what it would take to deflect the space rock... (MORE - details)
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2020/09...601065466/
RELEASE: The U.S. Space Force will start to fly missions on reused SpaceX rockets next year to save millions of dollars, the service announced Friday. The Space Force will fly two GPS satellites into orbit on a Falcon 9 first-stage booster. The lower cost that SpaceX charges for reused rockets will save taxpayers $52.7 million, a statement from the military branch said.
SpaceX has reused boosters since March 2017, but the Space Force wanted to see the technology proven before flying costly satellites on a used rocket. In June, the Space Force allowed SpaceX to recover the booster from a national security launch of another GPS satellite for the first time. The military learned "valuable data and insight on reusing" rockets from that mission, according to the announcement.
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, said in a news release that the company was pleased the Space Force saw "the benefits of the technology." Reusing boosters has become routine for SpaceX. In August, the company used the same booster for the sixth time in a launch from Florida, setting a record for the launch industry.
The world’s space agencies team-up to deflect asteroids
https://singularityhub.com/2020/09/27/th...-asteroid/
EXCERPT: . . . while the last killer space rock dropped out of the sky with no warning, we have a few tools the dinosaurs didn’t. In addition to telescopes to chart potentially hazardous asteroids, we can visit and, theoretically, divert an asteroid’s course before it reaches us.
Now, the world’s space agencies are teaming up to take planetary defense beyond theory. This month, the European Space Agency (ESA) approved and funded their part of the Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA), a joint mission with NASA and other space agencies to, for the first time, attempt to alter the orbit of a sizeable asteroid in deep space. The missions aim to yield the first hard data in humanity’s quest to avoid the fate of the dinosaurs.
[...] Next summer, NASA plans to launch the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket. DART will travel to the 780-meter asteroid Didymos, where, in the fall of 2022, it will smack into Didymos’s 160-meter moonlet Dimorphos at well over 14,000 miles per hour. The collision will take place some seven million miles from Earth, which is close enough for ground-based telescopes to record the expected transfer of momentum and subsequent several-minute change to Didymoon’s orbital period.
This might sound like a risky maneuver, but the asteroid pair don’t threaten Earth, Heli Greus, product assurance and safety manager for ESA’s Hera mission, told Digital Trends. “Nobody has to panic,” Greus said.
The ESA will then launch its Hera spacecraft in 2024 to observe the aftermath of the impact in more detail and at close range. As ESA notes in its description of the Hera mission, “By the time Hera reaches Didymos, in 2026, Dimorphos will have achieved historic significance: the first object in the Solar System to have its orbit shifted by human effort in a measurable way.”
While initial ground telescope measurements may give an approximation of how much DART deflected Dimorphos, they’ll be hamstrung by distance and the expected dust plume. Hera will do its own “crash scene investigation,” measuring the exact change in orbital period and studying the crater in detail. It will also map the asteroid’s surface and interior structure.
This data will allow scientists to validate and refine their models. In the future, then, we might discover a new threat, calculate its orbit over the next century, and discover there’s a scheduled rendezvous with Earth. Scientists would consult their charts, built on Dimorphos data, and suggest with greater confidence what it would take to deflect the space rock... (MORE - details)