Rocket builder ABL Space signed a long-term agreement for multiple launches with Lockheed Martin, agreeing to provide the defense giant with as many as 58 rockets through the end of the decade.
Lockheed Martin will buy up to 26 of ABL’s RS1 rockets through 2025, with an option for up to 32 additional launches through 2029, ABL announced on Monday.
“Having this assured access to space will accelerate our ability to demonstrate the spacecraft and associated payload technologies we are developing to the meet the future mission needs for our customers,” Lockheed Martin Space executive vice president Rick Ambrose said in a press release.
SpaceX’s Mars ships won’t be ferrying just the super rich to and from the Red Planet, if everything goes according to Elon Musk’s plan.
The price of a seat aboard SpaceX’s Starship interplanetary vehicle will eventually drop enough to be accessible to a large chunk of the industrialized world’s population, the billionaire entrepreneur predicted over the weekend.
While a Mars rover can explore where no person has gone before, a smaller robot at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia could climb to new heights by mimicking the movements of a lizard.
Simply named X-4, the university’s climbing robot has allowed a team of researchers to test and replicate how a lizard moves in the hope that their findings will inspire next-generation robotics design for disaster relief, remote surveillance and possibly even space exploration.
In a scientific paper published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the team states that lizards have optimized their movement across difficult terrain over many years of evolution.
China has a good chance of becoming the dominant space power in the 21st century, and it’s not just looking to copy NASA on the way to the top. Instead, it’s paying close attention to innovative US companies like SpaceX, writes Eric Berger.
Great new episode with Michael Seiffert, the NASA project scientist for the U.S. contribution to the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft. Seiffert talks candidly about what it takes to strike a balance between risk and reward in the design of this upcoming $1 billion dollar dark energy mission.
Fascinating new chat with Michael Seiffert, the NASA project scientist for the U.S. contribution to the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft. Due for launch in the second half of 2022, we discuss how this new space telescope will help astronomers finally understand the mystery of dark energy and maybe even dark matter.
Dr. Shawna Pandya MD, is a scientist-astronaut candidate with Project PoSSUM, physician, aquanaut, speaker, martial artist, advanced diver, skydiver, and pilot-in-training.
Dr. Pandya is also the VP of Immersive Medicine with the virtual reality healthcare company, Luxsonic Technologies, Director of the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences (IIAS)/PoSSUM Space Medicine Group, Chief Instructor of the IIAS/PoSSUM Operational Space Medicine course, Director of Medical Research at Orbital Assembly Construction (a company building the world’s first rotating space station providing the first artificial gravity habitat), clinical lecturer at the University of Alberta, podcast host with the World Extreme Medicine’s WEMCast series, Primary Investigator (PI) for the Shad Canada-Blue Origin student micro-gravity competition, member of the ASCEND 2021 Guiding Coalition, Life Sciences Team Lead for the Association of Spaceflight Professionals, sesional lecturer for the “Technology and the Future of Medicine,” course at the University of Alberta, and Fellow of the Explorers’ Club.
Dr. Pandya also serves as medical advisor to several space, medical and technology companies, including Mission: Space Food, Gennesys and Aquanauta, as well as the Jasper Dark Sky Festival Advisory Committee.
Dr. Pandya holds a Bsc degree in neuroscience from University of Alberta, a MSc in Space Studies from International Space University, an MD from University of Alberta, and a certification in entrepreneurship from the Graduate Studies Program at Singularity University.
Dr. Pandya is currently completing a fellowship in Wilderness Medicine (Academy of Wilderness Medicine), was granted an Honorary Fellowship in Extreme and Wilderness Medicine by the World Extreme Medicine organization in 2021, and was one of 50 physicians selected to attend the 2021 European Space Agency Space Medicine Physician Training Course. Dr. Pandya was named one of the Women’s Executive Network’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada in 2021, and a Canadian Space Agency Space Ambassador in 2021.
Dr. Pandya was part of the first crew to test a commercial spacesuit in zero-gravity in 2015. Dr. Pandya earned her aquanaut designation during the 2019 NEPTUNE (Nautical Experiments in Physiology, Technology and Underwater Exploration) mission. She previously served as Commander during a 2020 tour at the Mars Desert Research Station. Her expeditions were captured in the Land Rover short, released with the Apollo 11: First Steps film. She previously interned at ESA’s European Astronaut Center and NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Company officials say it will likely be summer before the ship begins glide flight testing at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic has reached space twice before — the first time from California in December 2018. The company marked its second successful glide flight over Spaceport America last June.
Virgin Galactic is one of a few companies looking to cash in on customers with an interest in space. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched a new capsule in January as part of test as it aims to get its program for tourists, scientists and professional astronauts off the ground.
See my recommendations to get Starship landing, videos, and discussions of quantity distance and other aspects of safety and mission assurance that could potentially help assure successful Starship flights.
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Space travel nowadays relies on physical ejection of propellants, which is challenged by reachable distance of a vehicle in desirable time. In contrast, electromagnetic propulsion was proposed to be a potential solution without need of carrying bulky mass of propellants, by using force interaction of local magnetic dipoles with the external natural magnetic field. Further development of this technique, however, has been daunted by extremely small magnetic induction that can be obtained.
To generate a significant thrust by a system with a reasonable scale, we propose an alternative concept of design, based on the variation of local magnetic dipole moments that has not been considered.
A magnetic dipole is created by wrapping a solenoid around an iron core. It is varied spatially by changing the cross-sectional area of the solenoid, hence giving a gradient of magnetic dipole moment. The interaction force is measured by an in-house force sensor based on a cantilever, which has a high sensitivity of one micro-Newton. In addition, numerical simulation is used to calculate the magnetic field and created force via the Maxwell stress tensor.
