New Fuels Are Being Developed For Satellite Propulsion - Part 1 of 2 Parts
Part 1 of 2 Parts
Xplore Collaborating With Nanoracks To Launch Small Payloads
Xplore is a private space company in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 2017 by Lisa Rich who is the Chief Operation Officer and Jeff Rich who is Chief Executive Officer. The two are also managing partners of Hemisphere Ventures in Seattle. HV has invested in over two hundred companies including such space ventures as SpaceX, Vector Launch and Axiom Space.
NASA Discovery Programs Selects Four Space Missions
The big NASA missions get a lot of press but there is a NASA program for smaller projects called the Discovery program. The program invites scientists and engineers to gather a team to design interesting and sharply focused planetary exploration missions to add to our knowledge of the solar system.
Cybersecurity Standards For Commercial Satellites Desperately Needed - Part 2 of 2 Parts
Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
Cybersecurity Standards For Commercial Satellites Desperately Needed - Part 1 of 2 Part
Part 1 of 2 Parts
NASA Working On Photonic Propulsion System
The human race has been fascinated by the lights in the sky for thousands of years. Mars was called the God of War because of its red color. With the development of high quantity telescopes in the Nineteenth century, observations of Mars revealed a network of lines that Schaperelli called “channels.” That was translated into “canals” in English.
DARPA Space Programs Funding Reduced In 2021 Budget Request
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a federal agency that does futuristic research for the government. They are active across a wide range of sciences and technologies. They are not a U.S. space agency, but they do have a space projects umbrella called PE 0603287E. The budget for 2021 was one hundred and ninety million dollars.
Amazon Patents A Launch System That Would Use A Long Whip To Fling Payload Into The Air Or Into Space
Most of the writing I do on this blog deals with conventional launch vehicles utilizing standard propellants. There other ideas for how to get payloads into orbit. Amazon just patented a system to whip small payload into space.
Boeing HorizonX Has Been Investing In Miniature Ion Propulsion Engines
Boeing has been in the news a lot lately. Unfortunately, a lot of the media coverage has been about problems at the company with respect to space projects. Boeing unexpectedly pulled out of a DARPA spaceplane project without any explanation. Very recently, the failure of the test for a manned launch vehicle was attributed to software.
NASA Creates New Chain Mail By 4-D Printing
The cost of launching things into orbit is about ten thousand dollars per pound. It takes complex heavy equipment and fuel to get anything to orbit. This means that making payloads as light as possible is important. NASA has used a variety of techniques to reduce the weight that has to be thrown into orbit in order to be useful.