Space

The orbiter is now more than 190 million miles (300 million kilometers) away and moving at a clip of 23 miles per second (37 kilometers per second), relative to Earth. That’s about 84,000 mph (135,000 kph). Over time, with no atmospheric drag to slow it down, Psyche will accelerate to speeds of up to 124,000 mph (200,000 kph).

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The first crew launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule is on hold indefinitely (arstechnica.com)

submitted 9 months ago by Wilshire to c/space

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Northern Lights expected soon as Sun drives stormy space weather (www.bbc.com)

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NASA Earns Best Place to Work in Government for 12 Straight Years - NASA (www.nasa.gov)

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NASA Tests Technology, Practices Artemis Moonwalks in Arizona Desert - NASA (www.nasa.gov)

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Private mission to save the Hubble Space Telescope raises concerns, NASA emails show (www.npr.org)

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Sun shoots out biggest solar flare in nearly a decade, but Earth should be safe this time (apnews.com)

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Helium leak delays Boeing’s historic Starliner mission at least another week (www.cnn.com)

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The mission to retrieve a Mars sample is running into turbulence (www.theverge.com)

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NASA's Proposed Plasma Rocket Would Get Us to Mars in 2 Months (gizmodo.com)

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Last week, NASA announced it is working with a technology development company on a new propulsion system that could transport humans to Mars in only two months -- down from the current nine month journey required to reach the Red Planet. Gizmodo reports:

NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program recently selected six promising projects for additional funding and development, allowing them to graduate to the second stage of development. The new "science fiction-like concepts," as described by John Nelson, NIAC program executive at NASA, include a lunar railway system and fluid-based telescopes, as well as a pulsed plasma rocket.

The potentially groundbreaking propulsion system is being developed by Arizona-based Howe Industries. To reach high velocities within a shorter period of time, the pulsed plasma rocket would use nuclear fission -- the release of energy from atoms splitting apart -- to generate packets of plasma for thrust. It would essentially produce a controlled jet of plasma to help propel the rocket through space. Using the new propulsion system, and in terms of thrust, the rocket could potentially generate up to 22,481 pounds of force (100,000 Newtons) with a specific impulse (Isp) of 5,000 seconds, for remarkably high fuel efficiency. [...]

The pulsed plasma rocket would also be capable of carrying much heavier spacecraft, which can be then equipped with shielding against galactic cosmic rays for the crew on board. Phase 2 of NIAC is focused on assessing the neutronics of the system (how the motion of the spacecraft interacts with the plasma), designing the spacecraft, power system, and necessary subsystems, analyzing the magnetic nozzle capabilities, and determining trajectories and benefits of the pulsed plasma rocket, according to NASA.

Abstract credit: https://slashdot.org/story/428225