Short Takes – 11-20-23 – Geek Edition

SpaceX’s Starship gets farther on its second test flight. CosmicLog.com article. Pull quote: “SpaceX took the day as a win — based not only on a successful liftoff from its South Texas launch pad a little after 8 a.m. CT (5 a.m. PT), but also on the successful execution of a hot-stage separation maneuver two and a half minutes after launch.”

SpaceX Makes Progress in 2nd Launch of Giant Moon and Mars Rocket. NYTimes.com article (free). Pull quote: “Daniel L. Dumbacher, the executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, agreed. “This is a large launch system,” he said. “It’s going to take some work to get it to where it needs to go. I have no doubt that the SpaceX team will be able to figure out how to get the launch vehicle working.””

New cooling mechanism set to revolutionize conventional environmentally harmful refrigeration technologies. Newswise.com article. Scale-up work is ongoing. Pull quote: “In this particular case, the electrocaloric effect involves applying an electric field to ceramic capacitors, inducing temperature changes, and creating a cooling effect. “Our proposed solution involves an assembly of multilayer capacitors stacked within an electrically connected fluid-filled pipe,” explains Dr Emmanuel Defay, who leads the Nanotechnology unit within the Materials Research and Technology (MRT) department at LIST. Defay and his team have been working on electrocaloric materials for several years. “The fluid flows back and forth between the capacitors, creating a temperature gradient,” he adds.”

NASA is pausing all Mars missions, effective immediately. Here's why. LiveScience.com article. Pull quote: “"NASA will hold off sending commands to its Mars fleet for two weeks, from Nov. 11 to 25, while Earth and the Red Planet are on opposite sides of the sun. Called Mars solar conjunction, this phenomenon happens every two years," NASA said in a statement. "The missions pause because hot, ionized gas expelled from the sun's corona could potentially corrupt radio signals sent from Earth to NASA's Mars spacecraft, leading to unexpected behaviors."”

Removing Cesium: Solutions to a Chemically Complex Problem. Newswise.com article. Pull quote: “Cesium-137 is mostly human-made. It is found in large quantities in nuclear waste because it’s a byproduct of making plutonium, a necessary step in nuclear weapons production. Scientists have discovered how to safely store this radioactive waste in glass, but before that can happen a portion of the liquid tank waste needs to be treated to remove most of the cesium-137. That’s because the type of gamma radiation it emits—energy higher than X-rays—can penetrate through the human body and even through steel, making it too dangerous for workers to operate and maintain the processing technology used to make low-activity waste glass.”

SpaceX founding employee successfully moves from rockets to in-space propulsion. ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “Fully fueled, the Mira spacecraft masses about 650 pounds (300 kg) and is the size of a dishwasher. The vehicle is designed to maximize its delta-V capability, so it is mostly propellant and fuel tanks, and powered by Saiph thrusters that operate at a specific impulse (ISP) of 290. "It's a pretty whiz-bang little machine," Mueller said.”