background preloader

Space

Facebook Twitter

Exploring Mars 1. Launch vehicle. Solid Rockets & Aluminum. Solid Rockets & Aluminum Why is aluminum used in solid rocket propellants?

Solid Rockets & Aluminum

What is the role of aluminum agglomeration in the combustion of propellants? - question from Anand A solid rocket is a class of rocket in which the fuel and oxidizer are mixed together and cast into a solid material. This solid material is typically formed into cylindrical blocks with a void along the centerline. Once exposed to an ignition source, a flame travels through this empty central region and consumes the propellant grain radially until the fuel supply is exhausted. MER Launch. NASA rover extracts first oxygen from Mars. Device produces oxygen on Mars. Microphones. Robots have replicated much of the human sensory experience on Mars.

Microphones

Cameras have given us sight, robotic hands, arms and feet have supplied touch, and chemical and mineral sensors have let us taste and smell on Mars. Hearing is the last of the five senses we have yet to exercise on the Red Planet. When the Perseverance rover arrives at Mars, it will have two microphones. Perseverance Rover's Mastcam-Z Captures Ingenuity's Third Flight. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter takes off and lands in this video captured on April 25, 2021, by Mastcam-Z, an imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.

Perseverance Rover's Mastcam-Z Captures Ingenuity's Third Flight

As expected, the helicopter flew out of its field of vision while completing a flight plan that took it 164 feet (50 meters) downrange of the landing spot. Keep watching, the helicopter will return to stick the landing. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages this technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and Space Technology Mission Directorate. NASA’s Ames Research Center and Langley Research Center provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development.

Fourth Flight a Success for NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter successfully completed a fourth, more challenging flight on the Red Planet on April 30, 2021.

Fourth Flight a Success for NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter

Flight Test No. 4 aimed for a longer flight time, longer distance, and more image capturing to begin to demonstrate its ability to serve as a scout on Mars. Ingenuity climbed to an altitude of 16 feet (5 meters) before flying south and back for an 872-foot (266-meter) round trip. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) - Robotic Space Exploration. Avatar Featurette: Planet Pandora. Learn About the Rover. Mars Technologies. Each Mars mission is part of a continuing chain of innovation.

Mars Technologies

Each relies on past missions or proven technologies and provides its own contributions to future missions. This approach allows NASA to push the boundaries of what is currently possible, while still relying on past developments. Much of Perseverance’s rover design, including its entry, descent, and landing system are directly inherited from the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012. Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover. (1) Facebook. The 5 Deadliest Disasters of the Space Race - HISTORY. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the United States entered a fierce competition with their Communist rivals for dominance in space.

The 5 Deadliest Disasters of the Space Race - HISTORY

The ensuing space race was filled with many notable successes – including American astronauts walking and playing golf on the Moon – but the era was not without its failures, including some deadly catastrophes. Apollo 1 – 1967 The first fatal accident in the history of U.S. space flight occurred on January 27, 1967, during preparations for the first manned mission of the Apollo space program. A flash fire broke out in the command module of Apollo 204 during a simulated launch at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, killing astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee of asphyxiation. Mars One's human mission to Mars - Destination Mars Trailer. Seul Sur Mars - Bande annonce finale [Officielle] VOST HD. The Universe in 3D: Planet & Star Size Comparison - Version 3 [1080p] Space School- Mars. Interactive Space. Space Images. Space Videos. First Contact Guide.

Space Exploration Technologies. SpaceX CAP. French astronaut Thomas Pesquet blasts off, back to the ISS. It's T-minus zero for French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet blasts off, back to the ISS

The 43-year-old space veteran lifts off on Friday, bound for the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule. The six-month mission, named Alpha, is a historic first as Pesquet will become the first French commander of a space station. SpaceX Crew Dragon astronauts arrive home with rare pre-dawn splashdown in Gulf of Mexico.

Four astronauts strapped into their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged to a fiery pre-dawn splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, closing out the first operational flight of SpaceX's futuristic touch-screen ferry ship.

SpaceX Crew Dragon astronauts arrive home with rare pre-dawn splashdown in Gulf of Mexico

Crew-1 commander Michael Hopkins, along with NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, disconnected from the space-facing port of the station's forward Harmony module at 8:35 p.m. EDT Saturday. That set up only the second piloted water landing for NASA's post-shuttle commercial crew program and just the third night splashdown in space history — the first in nearly 45 years. But the Crew Dragon executed a textbook return to Earth, dropping out of orbit, deploying four big parachutes and settling to a gentle splashdown south of Panama City, Florida, at 2:56 a.m., wrapping up a mission spanning 2,688 orbits over 168 days since launch last November.

"What a ride! Astronauts describe "pure acceleration" of SpaceX Crew Dragon launch to space station. When the countdown hit zero last Friday and the engines powering a previously flown Falcon 9 first stage roared to life for takeoff, the four astronauts strapped into a SpaceX Crew Dragon some 21 stories up started laughing.

Astronauts describe "pure acceleration" of SpaceX Crew Dragon launch to space station

"So we're sitting on the launch pad, obviously, and when the engines lit, we all started laughing because it just felt so awesome and powerful," Shane Kimbrough, commander of the Crew-2 ferry flight to the International Space Station, said in an interview Thursday with CBS News. "Shortly after that, we started accelerating, heading uphill. NASA, SpaceX launch four astronauts on Crew Dragon flight to space station. Lighting up the pre-dawn sky, a Falcon 9 rocket with a previously flown first stage roared to life and shot away up the East Coast early Friday, boosting a refurbished SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule into orbit carrying four astronauts on a day-long trip to the International Space Station.

NASA, SpaceX launch four astronauts on Crew Dragon flight to space station

Running 24 hours late because of threatening off-shore weather, the rocket's nine first stage engines ignited at 5:49 a.m. EDT, throttled up to a combined 1.7 million pounds of thrust and smoothly pushed the slender booster away from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Mission to Mars. SpaceX docking. Meet first all-civilian crew to orbit Earth. Astronauts training. ISS. Thomas Pesquet: Biography and training. Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) / Twitter. Live: Launch America — NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 Mission to the International Space Station. 4-H and NASA - Teamwork. 4H Expeditionary Skills- Leadership/Followership. 4-H and NASA - Cultural Competency. 4-H and NASA - Self-Care. 4-H and NASA - Expeditionary Skills for Life. Want to Be an Astronaut? You’ll Need These 4 Skills. Mission Alpha liftoff.

European Space Agency, ESA. MediaKitAstronautSelection.