May 6, 2024

Nuclear Rocket In 2027, JWST Problems, Starship WDR

Starship finishes its wet-dress wedding rehearsal, another issue for Webb, a nuclear rocket test is coming, and more cool NIAC grants.

Starship Wet Dress Rehersal

This week NASA announced that theyre taking the James Webb Space Telescopes Near Infrared IMager and Slitless Spectrograph offline. NIRISS is a Canadian-built infrared instrument that can act like a cam however likewise has additional modes that let it define exoplanet environments and the light of distant galaxies.

SpaceX made another important step towards the very first orbital test of Starship. Today they performed a full wet-dress wedding rehearsal, suggesting that both stacked Starship and Super Heavy booster were filled up with fuel, simply as if they were going to launch. The test succeeded. Now Ship 24 was removed the booster and SpaceX are preparing yourself to carry out a test fire of all the 33 Raptor v2 engines of Super Heavy.
Webbs NIRISS Problems

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One of the issues of deep area missions is power. One of the NIAC grants that were granted this year aims to solve this problem. If this can be accomplished, this can alter future space missions forever.
More about shrinking space RTGs.
Tiny Tractor Beam

Tractor beams are a staple in science fiction, with spacecraft pulling items with a beam of light. Now researchers have shown a larger variation with three orders of magnitude more light pressure.
More about the real-life tractor beam.
Growing Structures on Mars

Asteroid Chariklo is one of the few worlds in the Solar System that have rings. They were originally found back in 2013 however now Webb had an opportunity to have an appearance at them.
More about Chariklos rings by JWST.
DARPA Nuclear Rocket Test by 2027

Taking a trip to Mars will need living off the land and gathering the local resources to remain alive. A brand-new NIAC research study is looking into an approach for building bricks on Mars using a mix of cyanobacteria and fungi to serve as binding representatives to hold the regolith together.
More about growing Mars habitats.
Light Pollution Is Getting Worse

A recent research study by the Globe At Night program shows that light pollution on Earth is getting progressively worse. Instead of saving power by utilizing more efficient lights, people tend to utilize same amount of power and boost light output.
More about light contamination on Earth.
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SpaceX made another important step towards the first orbital test of Starship. Now Ship 24 was taken off the booster and SpaceX are getting all set to perform a test fire of all the 33 Raptor v2 engines of Super Heavy.
Nuclear Thermal Propulsion rockets (NTPs) were first tested by NASA and the Department of Energy 50 years back. We know the technology works, weve never ever seen it checked in area before. NASA revealed a collaboration with DARPA that will build a working NTP and launch it into area for a test in 2027.

We know the technology works, weve never ever seen it checked in space prior to. NASA revealed a partnership with DARPA that will construct a working NTP and launch it into area for a test in 2027.
More about upcoming nuclear engine test.
How to Miniaturize Nuclear Batteries

More about NIRISS going offline.
Webbs First Occultation