SPACE - random thread about space stuff

[raydude]

From Space.com, NASA knows what caused the early engine shutdown of its 1st SLS moon rocket during major test

Excerpt:

After analyzing data from the test, NASA has determined that the problem was not with the engines or other hardware, which remain "in excellent condition," agency officials wrote in an update today (Jan. 19). Rather, the shutdown "was triggered by test parameters that were intentionally conservative to ensure the safety of the core stage during the test."

Those parameters concerned engine hydraulics — specifically, the system designed to gimbal, or pivot, each engine during flight. On Saturday, the preset parameters for Engine 2's system were exceeded, and the core stage's flight computers ended the test automatically, NASA officials wrote in the update. If this same issue crops up during an actual flight, the SLS will be able to fly through it, they added.

From the NASA blog,

These preprogrammed parameters are designed specifically for ground testing with the flight hardware that will fly NASA’s Artemis I mission to ensure the core stage’s thrust vector control system safely moves the engines. There is a thrust vector control (TVC) system that gimbals, or pivots, each engine, and there are two actuators that generate the forces to gimbal each engine. The actuators in the TVC system are powered by Core Stage Auxiliary Power Units (CAPU). As planned, the thrust vector control systems gimbaled the engines to simulate how they move to direct thrust during the rocket’s ascent.

During gimballing, the hydraulic system associated with the core stage’s power unit for Engine 2, also known as engine E2056, exceeded the pre-set test limits that had been established. As they were programmed to do, the flight computers automatically ended the test. The specific logic that stopped the test is unique to the ground test when the core stage is mounted in the B-2 test stand at Stennis. If this scenario occurred during a flight, the rocket would have continued to fly using the remaining CAPUs to power the thrust vector control systems for the engines.

During the test, the functionality of shutting down one CAPU and transferring the power to the remaining CAPUs was successfully demonstrated. This gimballing test event that resulted in shutting down the CAPU was an intentionally stressing case for the system that was intended to exercise the capabilities of the system. The data is being assessed as part of the process of finalizing the pre-set test limits prior to the next usage of the core stage.

And...

Data analysis is continuing to help the team determine if a second hot fire test is required. The team can make slight adjustments to the thrust vector control parameters and prevent an automatic shut down if they decide to conduct another test with the core stage mounted in the B-2 stand.

Sounds a bit weasel-worded to me. "The specific logic that stopped the test is unique to the ground test when the core stage is mounted in the B-2 test stand at Stennis. If this scenario occurred during a flight, the rocket would have continued to fly using the remaining CAPUs to power the thrust vector control systems for the engines". However, it was known that this run was going to be on the B-2 test stand (duh) so either they didn't plan on this happening, which still means there's something not understood, or they knew that the test might shut down early, in which case they have been a bit misleading in their built-up to this test, which kept stressing a full duration run.

If I was a member of the United States House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology I'd like to know why they think they can opt out of doing another attempt at a full duration hot fire after not accomplishing the goals they set before this test. This just reminds me of the Boeing Starliner Orbital Flight Test where after failing to achieve the planned goals they tried to rationalize why they didn't need to do another test flight.

And maybe I'm just a wee bit cranky today

I don't see anything suspicious. I'll reserve judgement due to "Data analysis is continuing to help the team determine if a second hot fire test is required.". Translation: "We don't know yet what we don't know, and until we do, we can't say whether or not we should redo the test." I much prefer that to a blanket "we'll redo the test".

[jztemple2]

I don't see anything suspicious. I'll reserve judgement due to "Data analysis is continuing to help the team determine if a second hot fire test is required.". Translation: "We don't know yet what we don't know, and until we do, we can't say whether or not we should redo the test." I much prefer that to a blanket "we'll redo the test".

I'd much prefer a "we'll redo the test" rather than spending a lot of effort trying to rationalize why it isn't needed. Without a full duration run I don't think you can have confidence in the temperature profiles of the aft end components. If they don't do another hot fire at Stennis, the next time they fire up the engines in flight configuration will be sitting on LC-39B. If something goes terribly wrong you can write off the lunar program for months till the pad is repair, if they bother to repair it. Otherwise you can write off SLS period.

[Daehawk]

Maybe they're looking for that scapegoat.

[Zaxxon]

This could go in the SpaceX thread, but probably fits as well here since it's so preliminary...

SpaceX bought two oil rigs and are working to transform them into launch/landing platforms for Starship. Which is a crazy sentence to write.

[jztemple2]

This could go in the SpaceX thread, but probably fits as well here since it's so preliminary...

SpaceX bought two oil rigs and are working to transform them into launch/landing platforms for Starship. Which is a crazy sentence to write.

Actually I'd prefer it if we kept everything in the Space thread just because there's always something Space related going on. For instance we have two SpaceX launches planned from Florida this week, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

Regarding offshore launch platforms, I'm currently reading Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations by Charles D. Benson & William B. Faherty. Part of the early planning for the Saturn program was an expectation that there would be up to 48(!) launches a year, which would require multiple launch pads with all the issues of spacing between pads for safety, plus land purchase and development. An alternative approach was explored to have offshore launch platforms like the old Texas Towers:



NASA ultimately shelved the idea due to concerns about logistics, weather, environmental conditions and crew morale.

[Isgrimnur]

[jztemple2]

Good quote

It should be noted that one of the three completed Texas Towers was destroyed in a storm with twenty-eight lives lost, although the tower was already planned to be abandoned due to numerous structural issues.

[jztemple2]

This could go in the SpaceX thread, but probably fits as well here since it's so preliminary...

SpaceX bought two oil rigs and are working to transform them into launch/landing platforms for Starship. Which is a crazy sentence to write.

Both rigs have been officially renamed Deimos (formerly ENSCO/Valaris 8500) and Phobos (formerly ENSCO/Valaris 8501)

From Wikipedia:
Phobos (Ancient Greek: Φόβος, pronounced [pʰóbos], Ancient Greek: "fear") is the personification of fear and panic in Greek mythology. Just saying...

[Isgrimnur]

Good quote

But do you know the source?

[jztemple2]

Good quote

But do you know the source?

Nope, not a clue

[Isgrimnur]

[jztemple2]

Hmm, haven't read that one, my zombie reading is on the more financial side, Death and Taxes and Zombies

Abstract

The U.S. stands on the precipice of a financial disaster, and Congress has done nothing but bicker. Of course, I refer to the coming day when the undead walk the earth, feasting on the living. A zombie apocalypse will create an urgent need for significant government revenues to protect the living, while at the same time rendering a large portion of the taxpaying public dead or undead. The government’s failure to anticipate or plan for this eventuality could cripple its ability to respond effectively, putting us all at risk.

This article fills a glaring gap in the academic literature by examining how the estate and income tax laws apply to the undead. Beginning with the critical question of whether the undead should be considered dead for estate tax purposes, the article continues on to address income tax issues the undead are likely to face. In addition to zombies, the article also considers how estate and income tax laws should apply to vampires and ghosts. Given the difficulties identified herein of applying existing tax law to the undead, new legislation may be warranted. However, any new legislation is certain to raise its own set of problems. The point here is not to identify the appropriate approach. Rather, it is to goad Congress and the IRS into action before it is too late.

[Isgrimnur]

[jztemple2]

Another sucessful SpaceX launch and booster recovery, SpaceX rocket launches on record 8th flight carrying 60 Starlink satellites, nails landing

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched on a record 8th flight to send a new fleet of the company's Starlink internet satellites into orbit on Wednesday (Jan.20) and then nailed a landing at sea.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the historic Pad 39A here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 8:02 a.m. EDT (1202 GMT) carrying 60 new Starlink satellites for SpaceX's growing constellation in orbit. The launch came after two days of delay due to poor weather in the recovery zone and the need for extra pre-flight checks.

Approximately 9 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9's first stage returned to Earth, landing on one of SpaceX's drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean in a smooth touchdown. The massive ship, "Just Read the Instructions," is one of two in the company’s fleet of recovery vessels that catch falling boosters and return them to port.

The article didn't state whether they caught the fairings, no doubt it will be in an update.

[Zaxxon]

They also noted on the webcast that this landing was an 'envelope expansion' due to higher winds than on any prior landing.

Gotta love space euphemisms. 'Envelope expansion' sounds much cooler than 'attempt not to get blown into a water landing.'

[jztemple2]

Sad news, at least for me, Out of space, NASA is demolishing Apollo and space shuttle launch platform

One of the three large steel platforms that supported the launch of NASA's Apollo and space shuttle missions is now being demolished — due to a lack of space.

Fifty years ago this month, Mobile Launch Platform-2 (MLP-2, or as it was then referred to, Mobile Launcher-2 or ML-2) provided the surface from where the Apollo 14 crew left Earth to land on the moon. Fifteen years later, MLP-2 was the literal "surly bonds of Earth" from where the space shuttle Challenger's STS-51L crew tragically lifted off for the last time.

Given its role in those two missions, and the 49 other Apollo, Skylab and space shuttle launches that it supported between 1968 and 2011, it might be expected that MLP-2 would be retired as a museum artifact. Or if not that, it might continue to serve some purpose, as the two other Apollo and shuttle legacy mobile launch platforms have and are doing.

But MLP-2 is being destroyed.

Damn, I'd at least have liked a chance to buy the LH2 valve skid that I worked on, both hands on and writing software and procedures for it . But I doubt I could have come up with the money they would have wanted to deliver it to my front yard

[Daehawk]

Hate to see any loss of Apollo stuff.

[Daehawk]

Space station detectors found the source of weird ‘blue jet’ lightning

Blue jets zip upward from thunderclouds into the stratosphere, reaching altitudes up to about 50 kilometers in less than a second. Whereas ordinary lightning excites a medley of gases in the lower atmosphere to glow white, blue jets excite mostly stratospheric nitrogen to create their signature blue hue.

Rendering.....

[jztemple2]

New Scott Manley video about SpaceX's latest launch of 143 satellites.

[jztemple2]

From Space.com, Axiom Space names first private crew to launch to space station

The crew of the first entirely-private orbital space mission will include the second oldest person to launch into space, the second Israeli in space, the 11th Canadian to fly into space and the first former NASA astronaut to return to the International Space Station, the company organizing the history-making flight has announced.

Axiom Space on Tuesday (Jan. 26) revealed its clients for its first privately-funded and operated mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) flight is being arranged under a commercial agreement with NASA.

Slated to launch on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft are: Larry Connor, an American real estate and technology entrepreneur; Eytan Stibbe, a businessman and former Israeli fighter pilot; Mark Pathy, a Canadian investor and philanthropist; and Michael Lopez-Alegria, a retired NASA astronaut who logged almost 260 days on four prior missions.

[Kraken]

I wonder what one of those tickets sells for.

[Isgrimnur]

$55 Million Dollars

[Daehawk]

I hope they throw in some Tang for the flight.

[Daehawk]

Enigmatic Star System Has 5 Planets Locked in Perfect Harmony

Five of six exoplanets in orbit around the star TOI-178 are in an 18:9:6:4:3 orbital resonance with each other, according to new research published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics. So for every 18 orbits made by the innermost of these five exoplanets, the next planet along the chain will complete nine orbits during the exact same period. The third will complete six orbits, and so on. The video below offers a demonstration of the process in action.

[Kraken]

I hope they throw in some Tang for the flight.

They get a continental breakfast every 93 minutes.

[Isgrimnur]

Africa .... Europe ... Asia ... Australia ...

[Daehawk]

I hope they throw in some Tang for the flight.

They get a continental breakfast every 93 minutes.

Sounds like a Hobbit vacation.

[Isgrimnur]

As early as Thursday, January 28, the SpaceX team will attempt a high-altitude flight test of Starship serial number 9 (SN9) – the second high-altitude suborbital flight test of a Starship prototype from our site in Cameron County, Texas. Similar to the high-altitude flight test of Starship serial number 8 (SN8), SN9 will be powered through ascent by three Raptor engines, each shutting down in sequence prior to the vehicle reaching apogee – approximately 10 km in altitude. SN9 will perform a propellant transition to the internal header tanks, which hold landing propellant, before reorienting itself for reentry and a controlled aerodynamic descent.

[Zaxxon]

TFR for today was canceled earlier this hour.

[jztemple2]

Just a mention, the Challenger was lost 35 years ago today

[Isgrimnur]

TFR for today was canceled earlier this hour.

[Isgrimnur]

Just a mention, the Challenger was lost 35 years ago today

Ad astra per aspera

[Jaymann]

So did you hear about the SETI type research facility that thought they were getting another Wow signal? Turns out someone was opening the microwave in the lunchroom before it was finished.

[raydude]

Copied from a blog link on one of the internal slack channels. NASA Technology Readiness Levels explained via Unicorns



And the blog link:
https://www.granttremblay.com/blog/trls

[Kraken]

This is what the solar system looks like from the Parker Solar Probe, inside Mercury's orbit. There are some similar images from other vantage points here.

[Daehawk]

Nice pic. I cant see the PLANET Pluto though. Or Uranus and Neptune.

[Kraken]

Nice pic. I cant see the PLANET Pluto though. Or Uranus and Neptune.

It's like they didn't want to pose.

[Kraken]

Pluto was probably working through its issues.

[raydude]

Nice pic. I cant see the PLANET Pluto though. Or Uranus and Neptune.

It's like they didn't want to pose.

Just eyeballing it using this 3D diagram of the solar system setup for the right time, it looks like Pluto may be in the shot but Neptune and Uranus are outside the FOV.

[The Meal]

This is what the solar system looks like from the Parker Solar Probe, inside Mercury's orbit. There are some similar images from other vantage points here.

Pretty wild that Venus is brighter than Mercury as seen from the Sun.