Short Takes – 7-18-24 – Space Geek Edition

NASA Spent $450 Million on a Moon Rover. Now It’s Canceling the Mission. NYTimes.com article (free). Pull quote: “NASA is planning to disassemble VIPER and use the instruments and other components on the other missions. However, NASA said it was willing to listen to proposals from American companies or international partners for using the VIPER system as is, as long as there would be no additional cost to the federal government.”

How NASA and SpaceX will bring down the space station when it's retired. Phys.org article. Pull quote: “NASA wants to bring back some small items from inside the space station for museum display, like the ship's bell and logs, panels with patches and other mementos. Those can come down in SpaceX supply ships in the final year or two. "Unfortunately, we can't bring home really, really big stuff," said NASA's Ken Bowersox. "The emotional part of me would love to try and save some," but the most practical approach is to bring everything down in one destructive stroke, he said.”

Boiling Macaroni in Space? You’ll Need a Weirdly Shaped Pot. ScientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “Another problem concerns the science of boiling itself. On Earth, buoyancy-driven convection, in which cooler and denser water falls below hotter liquid, relies on gravity to distribute heat evenly and remove bubbles from the surface. In space, that doesn’t happen. Boiling water instead forms larger bubbles that loll around in place; this could lead to poorly cooked food. Thus, food has never been cooked by boiling in space. On the H0TP0T, however, heating elements are screwed to the outside of the aluminum shell to heat a large surface area of the pot, which lessens the need for gravity-driven convection to heat the water evenly. The container’s metal lid also has a pressure valve to release steam.”

After Falcon 9 Rocket Anomaly, SpaceX Seeks Rapid Return to Flight. ScientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) received a request from SpaceX on Monday (July 15) to continue launching Falcon 9 flights during the mandatory mishap investigation following the ill-fated Starlink 9-3 mission in which the rocket's upper stage experienced a liquid oxygen leak. SpaceX has asked the FAA to make a public safety determination, which would allow the company to resume launches if the administration determines the anomaly "did not involve safety-critical systems or otherwise jeopardize public safety," SpaceflightNow reported reported on Tuesday (July 16). The FAA also provided Space.com with the statement, after a request.”

NASA, Boeing Complete Starliner Engine Testing, Continue Analysis. Blogs.NASA.gov post. Pull quote: “NASA and Boeing engineers are evaluating results from last week’s engine tests at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico as the team works through plans to return the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test from the International Space Station in the coming weeks.

Teams completed ground hot fire testing at White Sands and are working to evaluate the test data and inspect the test engine. The ongoing ground analysis is expected to continue throughout the week. Working with a reaction control system thruster built for a future Starliner spacecraft, ground teams fired the engine through similar inflight conditions the spacecraft experienced on the way to the space station. The ground tests also included stress-case firings, and replicated conditions Starliner’s thrusters will experience from undocking to deorbit burn, where the thrusters will fire to slow Starliner’s speed to bring it out of orbit for landing in the southwestern United States. For a detailed overview of the test plans, listen to a replay of a recent media teleconference with NASA and Boeing leadership.”

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Discovers a Surprise in a Martian Rock. JPL.NASA.gov article. ““Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert,” said Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting.””