Octopus Overlords

Because of how the car's projected orbit aligns with Earth's orbit, astronomers on the ground probably won't be able to spot the roadster again until late in the 21st century. Based on calculations he made Thursday, Langbroek predicted that could happen in 2073. But in an email on Friday, he said it still seemed the car's path was "too ill defined to make reliable forecasts."

But where is this vehicle? The current location is 1,501,063 miles (2,415,728 km, 0.016 AU) from Earth, moving away from Earth at a speed of 6,830 miles/hour (10,992 km/hour, 3.05 km/s).

The car is 141,729,821 miles (228,092,107 km, 1.525 AU) from Mars, moving toward the planet at a speed of 43,686 miles/hour (70,305 km/hour, 19.53 km/s).

The car exceeded its 36,000 mile warranty 282.6 times while driving around the Sun, (10,172,638 miles, 16,371,280 km, 0.11 AU), moving at a speed of 56,069 miles/hour (90,234 km/hour, 25.07 km/s).

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:51 pm Kessler syndrome, here we come!

The newest iteration of SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket will make its debut today (May 10), and you can watch the maiden liftoff (and landing attempt) live.

The first "Block 5" Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch the Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite for the government of Bangladesh today at 4:12 p.m. EDT (2012 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. And the two-stage rocket's first stage will attempt to land on a robotic "drone ship" off the Florida coast shortly after liftoff. You can watch the action live here at Space.com and on our homepage, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via SpaceX's website.

The launch window opens at 4:12 p.m. EDT and runs until 6:22 p.m. EDT (2222 GMT). There's just a 20 percent chance that bad weather will spoil the attempt, officials with the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron said on Monday (May 7).

The Block 5 features a number of upgrades that should increase the rocket's reliability and reusability, SpaceX officials have said. The first stage of the Block 4 Falcon 9 is limited to two launches, but the Block 5 first stage should be able to lift off 10 times — with just inspections between landing and launch — and up to 100 times with some refurbishment, according to company representatives. (SpaceX has stated a desire to reuse the two-stage Falcon 9's upper stage at some point, but hasn't made a concerted attempt to do so yet.)

In February 2017, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted through low clouds, pushing a Dragon capsule toward orbit. Among the spare parts and food, an important piece of scientific cargo, called SAGE III, rumbled upward. Once installed on the International Space Station, SAGE would peer back and measure ozone molecules and aerosols in Earth’s atmosphere. Its older siblings (SAGEs I and II) had revealed both the growth of the gaping ozone hole and, after humans decided to stop spraying Freon everywhere, its subsequent recovery.

This third kid, then, had a lot to live up to. Like its environmentally conscious predecessors, SAGE III is super sensitive. Because it needs unpolluted conditions to operate optimally, it includes contamination sensors that keep an eye on whether and how its environment might be messing up its measurements. Those sensors soon came in handy: When the next three Dragons docked at the Space Station, over the following months, SAGE experienced unexplained spikes in contamination. Something on these Dragons was outgassing—releasing molecules beyond the expected, and perhaps the acceptable, levels. And those molecules were sticking to SAGE.

Jaymann wrote:I have questions about the Tesla car in orbit. Wouldn't the tires blow up in the vacuum of space? Wouldn't the body be scarred from micro meteorites?

Kraken wrote: ↑Fri Jan 11, 2019 11:51 pm Now, this is what a spaceship should look like. The real vehicle is on the left and the concept drawing on the right. This is a short-hop test vehicle; the orbital version will have a thicker, smoother skin that looks more like the illustration, and is expected to fly in 3-4 years.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:13 am I have questions about the Tesla car in orbit. Wouldn't the tires blow up in the vacuum of space? Wouldn't the body be scarred from micro meteorites?

Elon Musk indicates that the SpaceX Starhopper has been damaged after being toppled in 50 mile-per-hour winds. This will take a few weeks to repair.
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The wind damage came after several weeks of rapid progress on the SpaceX Starhopper and the conversion of the Super Heavy Starship to use stainless steel instead of carbon fiber.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule successfully completed its first docking with the International Space Station on Sunday morning, following a successful launch Saturday morning. This marks the first time SpaceX has ever docked with ISS under its own power. The Crew Dragon docking went smooth, allaying safety concerns.

Previously, the Dragon cargo capsule has merely flown close before being grabbed by a robotic arm under the control of ISS crewmembers. This was SpaceX’s first attempt at docking using their own guidance and propulsion systems.
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SpaceX tested their systems even as they prepared to dock, moving in close and then backing up again to prove their reliability. The docking itself went without issue, and ISS crewmembers have since entered Dragon to begin transferring cargo.
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NASA hopes to certify SpaceX to fly crewed missions to ISS before the end of the year. That certification relies on the current so-called Demo-1 mission continuing to succeed, as well as SpaceX’s Demo-2 flight scheduled for July. That second trip will have NASA astronauts on board. Boeing has similar uncrewed and crewed test flights planned for April and August, respectively, for their own certification tests.

Since issuing a brief statement Saturday after a test of its Crew Dragon vehicle resulted in an "anomaly," SpaceX has not offered additional comment about its ongoing investigation. NASA has not said much, either, outside of stating that it's assisting the investigation and that the agency has "full confidence in SpaceX" to understand and address the problem which appears to have destroyed the crew capsule.

A previously scheduled meeting of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel on Thursday, however, did offer a bit more insight into the problem that occurred with the Crew Dragon vehicle at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1 facility in Florida, near the company's two launch sites there.

"The event occurred during a static fire test conducted prior to the in-flight abort test," said Patricia Sanders, chairwoman of the panel charged with ensuring that NASA has a healthy safety culture and mitigates risks where possible during spaceflight.
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"The firing was intended to demonstrate integrated systems SuperDraco performance in two times vehicle level vibro-acoustic-like for abort environments," Sanders said. Sanders explained that the test was simulating the Falcon 9 rocket below the spacecraft breaking apart and triggering an abort.

"Firing of 12 service section Dracos were successfully performed," she said, noting that the 12 smaller Draco engines used for in-space maneuvering functioned normally. "Firing of eight SuperDracos resulted in an anomaly," Sanders concluded. This suggests the anomaly occurred during or just after the SuperDraco test. Sanders also noted that SpaceX followed all safety protocols for the test and that no one was injured.

Investigators looking into the cause of the SpaceX Crew Dragon explosion back in April are now blaming a faulty valve for the anomaly, which allowed leaking fuel to come into contact with titanium. Officials with SpaceX say they’ve already got a fix, but it’s still not clear when the company will be able to resume flight tests.
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Following the incident, SpaceX launched an investigation that involved NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The investigation is still ongoing, but a SpaceX press release issued yesterday attributed the anomaly to a faulty valve.

The problem happened around 100 milliseconds prior to the firing of the eight SuperDraco engines, and while the system’s propulsion systems were being pressurized. The accident investigators said they found evidence of a leaking component that allowed nitrogen tetroxide (NTO)—a liquid oxidizer—to enter high-pressure helium tubes prior to ignition.

“A slug of this NTO was driven through a helium check valve at high speed during rapid initialization of the launch escape system, resulting in structural failure within the check valve,” said SpaceX in its press release. “The failure of the titanium component in a high-pressure NTO environment was sufficient to cause ignition of the check valve and led to an explosion.”

SpaceX said the reaction between titanium and nitrogen tetroxide at high pressure “was not expected.”

Speaking to reporters yesterday, as reported by SpaceNews, Hans Koenigsmann, the vice president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX, described the glitch like this: “When you [push] the slug [of NTO] into the check valve, it basically creates an explosion.” Koenigsmann said this scenario was demonstrated in subsequent tests, adding that, “when the pressure is pretty high, the temperature is high, and you drive a slug with a lot of energy into a titanium component, you can have these rather violent reactions.”

SpaceX is now reconfiguring the system to prevent the leak from happening again. Thankfully, the remedy won’t require a major overhaul of the CrewDragon concept. Basically, SpaceX engineers need to eliminate the flow path within the launch system such that the liquid propellant cannot leak into the gaseous pressurization system. To do this, they’re going to replace the check valves, which are unidirectional, with a device known as a burst disk, also known as a rupture disk. These single-use devices are designed to create a complete seal until they’re opened by high pressure. SpaceX said the bursts disks will “mitigate the risk entirely,” with Koenigsmann saying, “I feel like this is actually the better component [for the escape system].”