Category: Space

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Posted in Space

NASA Needs More Funding (Ice Seeking Moon 🌖 Rover Cancelled)

Posted on by Darnell Clayton

This is frak-tastic news, as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is canceling a critical exploration vehicle whose future findings would help humanity inhabit the Moon 🌖.

NASA said on Wednesday it’s canceling a robotic rover program that was due to launch as soon as November to explore the moon for frozen water, citing scheduling and supply chain delays and higher costs.

The spacecraft dubbed Viper – the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover — is a 1,000—pound robot designed to search for water ice and its origins on the far side of the Moon by analyzing the soil. (Bloomberg)

If humankind ever desires to become a multi-planetary species, we need to identify suitable locations to build cities, which will require tremendous amounts of water.

Scanning the lunar surface from above is okay. Still, we need confirmation on the ground whether the water ice can be harvested and is suitable for drinking, watering crops, and cleaning without any dangerous chemicals that need to be filtered out.

Fortunately, the United States 🇺🇸 has viable options via the private sector. Hopefully, one of those space tech companies can build a lunar rover that can roam the lunar landscape and reveal regions worthy of human settlement.

Posted in Space

Are There Thousands Of Intergalactic Empires In Our Galaxy‽

Posted on by Darnell Clayton

A favorite space geek pastime is revisiting the Fermi Paradox & wondering where all of the extraterrestrial civilizations are throughout the Milky Way galaxy.

One theory by @[email protected] is that space empires are constrained by distance & expense, similar to early settlements in Oceania.

A theory of where all of the alien civilizations are in the galaxy.

Despite the enormity of our galaxy (amongst other galaxies), many worlds may be too expensive to terraform (make Earth-like), making the prospect unattractive for fiscal reasons.

However, other significant factors would limit which worlds would be considered habitable and might limit life existing on other planets besides Earth.

Rare Sun Hypothesis‽

Unlike the Rare Earth Hypothesis (highlighted upon @darnell), the Rare Sun Hypothesis has more data points to analyze, as we can observe stars far easier than the worlds that orbit them.

David Kipling of Cool Worlds fame explains that our home star might be unique in the Milky Way galaxy due to how quiet our Sun is compared to similar stars.

Our Sun star might be unique in the galaxy

Orbiting near a stable star is critical for any world. Too many solar flares could render any potential world for life irrelevant due to the amount of light & radiation bombarding the surface.

But even if humanity (or another alien civilization) discovered a habitable world orbiting a stable Sun-like star, another limiting factor could result in a galaxy remaining uncolonized by major space empires.

What The Phosphorus‽!!!

As far as we know, six significant elements are required for life (as we know it) to exist in the Universe.

Despite being more valuable than gold (at least as far as life is concerned), Phosphorus is scarce in our Universe.

As Isaac Arthur elaborates, the presence or absence of Phosphorus could determine if a world is habitable for settlement (or even lift itself).

Phosphorus could establish a hard limit for life

Space Settlement Is Hard

Establishing outposts in outer space would require significant resources for any aliens seeking to spread their civilization throughout the galaxy.

Unless inexpensive, faster-than-light transportation methods are developed, several alien civilizations could all simultaneously exist, each pondering if they are alone within the vast Milky Way galaxy.

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Posted in Space

How Did SpaceX Defeat Everyone In NASA’s New Space Race?

Posted on by Darnell Clayton

In a surprising twist of events that should have been obvious in hindsight, SpaceX defeated team Blue Origin (which included Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman & Draper) and defense contractor Dynetics for bragging rights of landing NASA’s first woman and colored astronauts on the Moon.

NASA is getting ready to send astronauts to explore more of the Moon as part of the Artemis program, and the agency has selected SpaceX to continue development of the first commercial human lander that will safely carry the next two American astronauts to the lunar surface. At least one of those astronauts will make history as the first woman on the Moon. Another goal of the Artemis program includes landing the first person of color on the lunar surface.

The agency’s powerful Space Launch System rocket will launch four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft for their multi-day journey to lunar orbit. There, two crew members will transfer to the SpaceX human landing system (HLS) for the final leg of their journey to the surface of the Moon. After approximately a week exploring the surface, they will board the lander for their short trip back to orbit where they will return to Orion and their colleagues before heading back to Earth.

The firm-fixed price, milestone-based contract total award value is $2.89 billion.

NASA

Ignoring SpaceX’s relative success in out-innovating the competition (which is ironically becoming a trend), why did NASA choose SpaceX over rivals‽ The answer can be summed up in several words: Congressional visionless incompetence.

In a document explaining NASA’s rationale for picking SpaceX obtained by The Washington Post, NASA said it wanted “to preserve a competitive environment at this stage of the HLS Program.” But it added that “NASA’s current fiscal year budget did not support even a single [contract] award.” As a result, SpaceX updated its payment schedule so that it now fits “within NASA’s current budget.”

Washington Post

If Congress had not carried out the tradition of routinely disappointing the space community, NASA would have chosen two companies (probably SpaceX & team Blue Origin). But with the new budget constraints, Elon Musk’s rocket company was the only one willing to work within NASA’s new constraints to propel humanity towards the stars.

Budget permitting, NASA will probably attempt to work with SpaceX rivals on other lunar projects, but as for now SpaceX’s continual dominance of the space industry is raising questions of the relevance of SpaceX’s rivals (at least as far as human space flight is concerned).