Short Takes – 10-17-24 – Space Geek Edition

The quest to figure out farming on Mars. TechnologyReview.com article. Pull quote: ““Mars is six to nine months away. If you lose a food source, you may not be able to survive the wait for a resupply mission,” he says. The solution is diversity. There should be frozen food rations. Some things should be grown hydroponically. Some things should be grown in regolith. If one system fails, you still have the others to help you restart. It’s just good safety practice, he says, but more than that, if we are serious about making Mars a home, we must use the skills that make us special. Agriculture must surely be at the top of that list.”

Planning for life on Mars. Nature.com article. Pull quote: “In modern agriculture, those techniques are already used to protect crops. And research to understand how to help food grow in harsh conditions won’t be wasted if it doesn’t get to Mars. That’s because restoring infertile, degraded soil that’s been damaged by climate change, or events such as flash flooding and droughts, will become more and more important in the future.”

Out-of-This-World Simulation Key to Collecting Moon Dust. NewsWise.com article. Pull quote: “Using a virtual model of regolith can also reduce the barriers to entry for people looking to develop lunar robots. Instead of needing to invest in expensive simulants (artificial dust with the same properties as regolith), or have access to facilities, people developing lunar robots could use this simulation to carry out initial tests on their systems.”

SpaceX plans to catch Starship upper stage with 'chopsticks' in early 2025, Elon Musk says. Space.com article. Pull quote: “But SpaceX also envisions launching many Starship missions to Earth orbit — for example, to continue building out its huge Starlink broadband megaconstellation, and to help refuel other Starships that are bound for distant realms. Launch-mount landings make sense for these craft, allowing them to fly to and from Earth orbit quickly and efficiently.”

NASA weighing options for continuous human presence in LEO after ISS. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: ““As soon as we have that minimum capability that we need, we will deorbit the ISS,” Gatens added. That minimum capability, she said, was the USDV [US deorbit vehicle] and at least one commercial station. “Those two conditions need to be met.””

NASA further delays first operational Starliner flight. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: ““The timing and configuration of Starliner’s next flight will be determined once a better understanding of Boeing’s path to system certification is established,” NASA said in its statement about the 2025 missions. “NASA is keeping options on the table for how best to achieve system certification, including windows of opportunity for a potential Starliner flight in 2025.””