Space News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Webb and Hubble telescopes affirm the universe's expansion rate, but the puzzle persists
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-webb-hubb ... verse.html
by Bethany Downer, Ninja Menning, European Space Agency

The rate at which the universe is expanding, known as the Hubble constant, is one of the fundamental parameters for understanding the evolution and ultimate fate of the cosmos.

However, a persistent difference, called the Hubble Tension, is seen between the value of the constant measured with a wide range of independent distance indicators and its value predicted from the afterglow of the Big Bang. The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed that the Hubble Space Telescope's keen eye was right all along, erasing any lingering doubt about Hubble's measurements.

One of the scientific justifications for building the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was to use its observing power to provide an exact value for the expansion rate of the universe. Prior to Hubble's launch in 1990, observations from ground-based telescopes yielded huge uncertainties. Depending on the values deduced for the expansion rate, the universe could be anywhere between 10 and 20 billion years old.

[firestar464]

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-webb-hubb ... verse.html

Webb and Hubble telescopes affirm the universe's expansion rate, but the puzzle persists

[weatheriscool]

Hypersonic rotating detonation engine in sustained test burn
By David Szondy
March 11, 2024


https://newatlas.com/military/rotating- ... on-engine/

A revolutionary alternative to conventional rockets that uses controlled explosions has completed its first long-duration engine test as part of Venus Aerospace's partnership with DARPA to develop a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE).

The big player in the aerospace field since the 1940s has been the chemical rocket engine. These powerhouses are currently the only way to get beyond the Earth's atmosphere and it's a job they do very well, indeed. Liquid-fueled rockets, sometimes aided by their solid counterparts, put the first satellites into orbit and the first astronauts on the Moon. They sent robotic probes to each of the planets with a few moons, asteroids, and comets thrown in for good measure.

[weatheriscool]

SpaceX poised for third launch test of Starship megarocket
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-spacex-po ... ocket.html
by Chandan KHANNA

People gather as SpaceX Starship spacecraft prototype is transported from the launch site ahead of the SpaceX Starship third flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX plans on Thursday to attempt another launch of Starship, the world's most powerful rocket that is vital to NASA's plans for landing astronauts on the moon later this decade—and Elon Musk's hopes of eventually colonizing Mars.

Two previous attempts have ended in spectacular explosions, though that's not necessarily a bad thing: the company has adopted a rapid trial-and-error approach in order to accelerate development, and the strategy has brought success in the past.

Blastoff from the company's launch site in southeast Texas can occur beginning at 7:00 am local time (1200 GMT), after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave its go-ahead on Wednesday.

SpaceX will run a webcast on its website starting thirty minutes earlier.

When the two stages of Starship are combined, the rocket stands 397 feet (121 meters) tall—beating the Statue of Liberty by a comfortable 90 feet.

[weatheriscool]

SpaceX Starship launches successfully, notches new milestones on way around Earth

Source: CNBC

Published Thu, Mar 14 2024 8:45 AM EDT Updated 3 Min Ago

SpaceX launched the third test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday and reached space, as the company looks to push development of the mammoth vehicle past new milestones.

Elon Musk’s company launched Starship at about 9:25 a.m. ET from its Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas.

The rocket has now flown further than previous tests, with the flight expected to take an hour before it ends in an attempted splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX has flown the full Starship rocket system on two tests in the past year, with launches in April and November. Both previous launches had progressive but explosive results: While each of the rockets flew for a few minutes, with the most recent reaching space, both vehicles were ultimately destroyed due to problems.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/14/spacex- ... aunch.html

[caltrek]

Explosion Cuts Short Planned Commercial Satellite Launch
by Tetsuya Ishikura
March 13, 2024

Introduction:

(Asahi Shimbun) A massive explosion only seconds after liftoff at 11:01 a.m. on March 13 marked the spectacular failure of the first satellite launch by a private company.

Tokyo-based Space One Co. had planned to place a satellite in orbit with the launch from Space Port Kii in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, of its first Kairos rocket.

Space One officials held a news conference later that day and explained the explosion was intentionally triggered by a computer that detected problems with the rocket.

However, they added that further analysis of the data would be needed to determine exactly what those problems were.

The liftoff was rescheduled after one set for March 9 had to be postponed because boats had entered waters that had been designated off-limits for the launch.

Read more here: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15197016

[weatheriscool]

China Developing Giant Magnetic Launcher for Hypersonic Space Planes
March 17, 2024 by Brian Wang

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation’s (CASIC) plans to build a giant magnetic launcher to propel airplanes up to speeds where they can start hypersonic scramjet engines.

CASIC has built a 2000 meter long low-vacuum track high-speed maglev test facility in the industrial heartland of Datong, Shanxi province. This is able to accelerate heavy object to speeds approaching 1,000km/h (620mph)– close to the speed of sound. China wants to launch a hypersonic space plane weighing 50 tonnes and measuring longer than a Boeing 737. It is part of the Tengyun project unveiled in 2016.

In the coming years, the length of the test line will be extended to achieve a maximum operating speed of 5,000km/h (3100 mph).

If the US magnetic launcher uses 121 megajoules to accelerate to a plane to 150 mph then the current CASIC system would need about 2000 megajoules to get a full sized plane to 620 mph. I would expect they are accelerating one ton or less and using about 100 megajoules or less.

Accelerating to five times the speed (3100 mph) would need 25 times more power for the same sized object. This would mean around 50,000 megajoules.

A regular gigawatt reactor would be making a gigajoule each second. However, the power could be stored in massive capacitors or batteries. A nuclear reactor could charge up massive amounts of capacitors for 50 seconds which would then be discharged for the launch.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/03/c ... lanes.html

[firestar464]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... r-BB1iCTcK

NASA's New Horizons Discovered a Large Surprise in The Kuiper Belt

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... r-BB1k4sL1

also:

Physicist Claims Universe Has No Dark Matter And Is 27 Billion Years Old

(Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't JWST or something detect dark matter or something?)

[weatheriscool]

China is building a railgun that can hurl crewed spacecraft into orbit
By David Szondy
March 20, 2024

https://newatlas.com/space/china-railgu ... aft-orbit/
Rockets being passé, China is working on using an electromagnetic railgun to launch crewed spacecraft the size of a Boeing 737, weighing 50 tonnes, into orbit. This remarkably ambitious project is even more ambitious than it seems at first glance.

Call it a railgun, a catapult, or a mass driver, the idea of replacing rockets with an electromagnetic accelerator is a very attractive option. Instead of lifting off on chemical rockets that have to carry fuel and fuel to lift the fuel and fuel to lift the fuel and the additional fuel, it makes more sense to keep as much of the launching system on the ground while leaving the vehicle as light as possible.

The principle behind such a space railgun is simple, but the details are surprisingly complex and the numbers involved very quickly become daunting. If China can carry off using such a system to launch a spaceplane as part of its Tengyun project that began in 2016, it would be one of history's major engineering achievements.

According to the Chinese official media, the plan is to build an electromagnetic launch track that would be able to accelerate a spaceplane to a speed of Mach 1.6 or even as high as Mach 5. Once airborne, the vehicle would then fire its onboard rocket engines and continue to accelerate to orbital velocity.

[Time_Traveller]

Solar eclipse 2024: Millions in North America will view what promises to be a blockbuster

6 hours ago

How lucky can the residents of Carbondale, Illinois, be?

Celestial mechanics says any one spot on the Earth's surface should experience a total solar eclipse only once every 375 years, on average.

The 30,000 residents of the Midwestern city will probably chuckle at that statistic because they are about to witness the Moon block out the Sun's disc for the second time in just seven years.

And what's more, the upcoming 8 April eclipse will be even better than the one they got to see in 2017. The sky will go pitch black for 4 minutes and 9 seconds, nearly double what happened last time.

As many as 200,000 people are expected to flood prime viewing locations in southern Illinois for The Great American Eclipse, Part II. But this will be true, also, all along the eclipse path, from Mexico's Pacific coast to Canada's Atlantic seaboard. The upcoming event is set to be a blockbuster.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68597945