#methalox

[falconisinstartup]

SpaceX Starship

#spacex #starship #ship 25 #booster 9 #s25 #b9 #super heavy booster #aerospace #engineering #rocket #launch #raptor engines #ift-2 #methalox

[michaelgabrill]

Terran 1 Burns Methalox #NASA https://ift.tt/kZu2zot

#NASA #Michael Gabrill #Terran 1 Burns Methalox

[apod]

2024 March 2

Odysseus on the Moon Image Credit: Intuitive Machines

Explanation: Methalox rocket engine firing, Odysseus' landing legs absorb first contact with the lunar surface in this wide-angle snapshot from a camera on board the robotic Intuitive Machines Nova-C moon lander. Following the landing on February 22, broken landing legs, visible in the image, ultimately left the lander at rest but tilted. Odysseus' gentle lean into a sloping lunar surface preserved the phone booth-sized lander's ability to operate, collect solar power, and return images and data to Earth. Its exact landing site in the Moon's far south polar region was imaged by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Donated by NASA, the American flag seen on the lander's central panel is 1970 Apollo program flight hardware.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240302.html

[coolnasapics]

Terran 1 Burns Methalox via NASA https://ift.tt/ZqoFnQ2

#astronomy #NASA #space #awesome #cool #wow

[deeprockrnd]

This one’s personal. I need my ship fixed. Weapons systems are fucked beyond belief and it doesn’t fly. since it’s how I get around, I can’t exactly take it to the nearest fleet repair yard. APU system is archaic too, if you could put a Methalox Reactor in there that’d be great but do what you can. It’s an antique. Try not to scratch the paint please. It’s not the end of the world but nobody makes this shade anymore as I’d have to get it custom synthesized.

Oh we’re gonna have fun w/ this, thank you!

#deep rock galactic #drgposting

[nikproxima]

Where Are They Now - MTVs

With the introduction of the latest plan from NASA and the Olympus Partners to pursue not only a Martian program, but a Lunar one, it was ultimately deemed necessary to ensure that a new generation of Mars Transfer Vehicles continued to power crews out to the Red Planet without sacrificing capabilities. While the original nuclear thermal design had proved to be highly advantageous for the program, there were elements in which the design struggled - notably crew capacity and lack of full reuse characteristics. In 2020, a group at Marshall Space Flight Center, the very same birthplace of the first generation MTV, would gather to begin to design the next generation of spacecraft. Initial designs called for something referred to as the Deep Space Transport, or DST, highlighting the multi-mission nature of the vehicles, and centered much of their focus around a fully solar electric architecture using a large, rigid “workshop” module. Ultimately, this configuration would end up with intense power draw requirements and longer trip times, something that mission planners wanted to avoid in order to ensure maximum science return on the Red Planet itself. The next option explored would be a hybrid of sorts, a massive methalox chemical stage, supplemented by a nuclear powered VASIMIR thruster. These twin propulsion systems would work together for various phases of flight, with the Nuclear-Electric element doing the outward push, and the chemical stage performing the arrival burn at both Mars and departure from when the time came. Post arrival, the electric stage would ignite once more to slowly spiral down to the Low Martian Orbit customary of Olympus operations, where the vehicle would rendezvous with the Base Station and MADV for the sortie to the Martian Surface.

Endurance conducts her first test of the new VASIMIR system, fed by a powerful nuclear reactor.

In December 2027, after a long and arduous design period, the first launch of the newly named Armstrong Class MTV Endurance would be conducted by Jupiter-OPAV, carrying the largest single element - the chemical transfer stage. This would see Adventure pushed to her absolute limits, having recently completed her Block III upgrades. After a flawless flight to orbit, the great chemical stage would separate and coast free, with the OPAV pod returning to land in the California desert. Over 7 additional launches, the inflatable habitat, workshop, node and truss segments would be launched to the growing vehicle. In March of 2028, she would be visited by the crew of ACEV Kitty Hawk for checkout once the reactor had been delivered, configuring her for her service life. She was an impressive vehicle, with MTV Endurance acting not only as a fully functional Mars Transfer Vehicle, but a testbed for technologies needed to augment future human spaceflight endeavors. Her first crew would marvel at her size, and conduct final bolt tightening and maintenance work before her series of practice burns over the next few months, simulating various maneuvers. With a successful electric thruster demonstration under her belt, she would be topped up by a series of new, commercially and internationally launched methane tankers In June of 2028, Endurance would receive her crew onboard ACEV Columbia, having launched only 12 hours prior onboard an Atlas EvO. Their international crew consisted of members who had only been children when the first rotations to the Red Planet had begun, finally fulfilling their dream of walking on worlds unknown. Olympus 19 would cast off from planet Earth only 8 days after their arrival, conducting a 6 month voyage to Mars to further research at Foundation. Soon, Endurance’s sister ships would be brought online one by one, Constellation and Pathfinder - to continue the dream of human exploration of Mars. This dramatic capability increase would also see the need arise for a second MADV, to support larger crews operating around Mars. Enterprise’s sister ship, Phoenix, would be launched to Low Martian Orbit to support crews of up to 16 at Foundation as the complex expanded dramatically.

Endurance waits patiently in orbit for her maiden voyage, a gargantuan undertaking finally complete - ready to power the future of human endeavors in spaceflight.​

Minerva herself had already been modified in support of Destiny, removing her drop tank mounting points and habitation section, with those components being returned to LEO for servicing and potential conversion. What remained of her now was the core fuel tanks, solar arrays, a cargo mounting point for the Altair Common Lunar Lander, and her avionics ring. To spaceflight enthusiasts, she was a shell of her former self, but in the eyes of the Mission Planning Office, she was right where they needed her to be. An international crew of 6, commanded by Olympus 15 veteran Lance Novak would set off from Earth in August 2027, launching onboard ACEV Columbia for the short journey to the Moon. Minerva would brake into an elliptical orbit, high above the gravitational anomalies that limited Apollo’s stay in lunar orbit. On August 28th, 2027, the crew of Destiny III would board their lander, Artemis, and make the descent to the Lunar surface, aiming for the rim of Shackleton Base. Their lander, a joint project between NASA, ESA and JAXA locked on to the Russian built beacon already in place onboard their cargo lander, and soon the crew of 6 could begin their initial operations, setting up a permanent, rapidly expandable base on the Lunar surface. Prometheus and Selene would soon see retirement from Martian sorties as the Armstrong Class ramped up their operational cadence. They would spend their golden years here, servicing the Earth-Moon system as they ferried crews, cargo and more between the growing base at Shackleton, supporting crucial operations as the population of the moon rapidly grew through the 2030s. Soon, the needs of the growing base would surpass that of the original MTVs, and the great ships would be broken up in Lunar orbit, with usable components brought down to the surface to expand the growing base. Tanks would be repurposed for hydrogen storage, vital in support of the growing demands of fuel production. The MTVs would find themselves living out their days incorporated into human architectures, spread out across the lunar surface. Well, nearly all of them.

Hera’s time in service ended long before her sisters. Due to the damage sustained by Chris Taylor’s impact along with the structural failure of the robot arm, the helium coolant circuit and one of the redundant ammonia circuits were emptied long before her arrival at the world of her birth. Through the careful management of propellant and power, flight controllers were able to keep her alive all the way back to Earth. In the absence of coolant, bled off into the vacuum of space, the Valkyrie engines had their control drums locked in the neutral position and had the xenon quench fired shortly before entering the Earth-Moon system to ensure the reactors would never start again. Hera had built up too much energy during the abort to be captured at earth. She would be forced to leave her crew behind as she threw herself past their home. The final act of her propulsion system would be supporting the safe separation of the Lifeboat, burning the last of the hydrazine propellant, the last drops of her blood, to increase separation from her precious crew and give them the best odds of making it home. NASA had good reason to believe heliocentric space would become much busier in the future, and since she could not be tracked on her solo trek around the sun, Hera was made to pose as little of a hazard as possible. Hera had mostly been bled dry but as a final precaution, all her propellant tanks were opened to vacuum to minimize the risk of a breakup. One by one her batteries were discharged and isolated from the solar panels to prevent their explosion. The team behind each subsystem said their goodbyes as their respective computer, pump, or gyroscope was turned off for the final time. The final command sent was to turn off the remaining CMG and broadcast the abort repeater tone indefinitely. The message ended with a text string to be read by no one. “Thank you Hera. Rest well” Back on Earth, Hera’s lifeboat was placed on display in an annex built onto building 30 at JSC. New flight controllers are brought into the room on their third day of training where the audio recorded onboard Hera during the abort is played back, a reminder of painful day's past. The intent is to not only remind them of the stakes of the job but demonstrate that they will never run out of options in their fight to bring a crew home safe. Hera herself orbits silently between earth and Venus. Over many years a tumble slowly developed from the uneven pressure exerted on the two remaining radiators and the reflective MLI on her tanks. Despite this - she remained intact and never experienced a close encounter with any planet again. She remains the only original Olympus hardware that is left unperturbed or unmodified, free to silently observe humanity's future in the solar system.

Photos by Jay

Additional Writing by Posstronaut Peter

Read Proxima here

#alt history #alternate history #proxima: a human exploration of mars #proxima #space #space travel #space exploration #alternate future #mars transfer vehicle #future tech #technology #worldbuilding

[progradevector]

The TLAV (Triton Lander and Ascent Vehicle) for the Argos Expedition to Neptune in my setting's timeline. Takes crew down from the interplanetary spacecraft Nautilus in orbit to the base site in Abatos Planum, a vast cryovolcanic plain on Triton. Both stages use methalox engines.

#neptune #triton #spaceship #spaceflight #future history #hard sci fi #beyond

[infosnack]

Terran 1 Burns Methalox via NASA

#NASA

[jayhorsestar]

to 'jastookes, indeed in the future, 'elon musk will be building Space Shuttles, because the METHALOX he is using now is expensive, and not that efficient, and Matt carwow just explained that w BMW tuned drag-race, but instead of calculating 'of course i still love you, landing falcon heavy Thrusters onto a barge into the ocean (no geographic altitude points to be calculated), when dealing automatic landing (mind Boeing already been there w drone X47), pinned points, those Space X Shuttles will calculate averages of multiple points, and that be falling under the NEW 5 five years old already (2018-2019), that Pentagon WING SPACE MILITARY, the NEW Uniforms and rankings, especially because moving out from the NOAA and entering the other BOOK references, where we would be calculating those LAGRANGE Points in SPACE, where from to more economically SLING-SHOT the shuttles for exploring Mars, or other far distant objects. m

[falconisinstartup]

Zhuque-2

#aerospace #engineering #methalox #rocket #landspace #zhuque-2

[uzaydanhaberler]

Odysseus Ay'da

Günün Astronomi Görseli 2 Mart 2024 Görsel & Telif: Intuitive Machines Methalox roket motorunun ateşlenmesiyle Odysseus’un iniş ayakları, robotik Intuitive Machines Nova-C ay aracındaki bir kameradan alınan bu geniş açılı enstantanede ay yüzeyiyle ilk teması gerçekleştiriyor. Ay’a 22 Şubat’ta yapılan inişin ardından, görüntüde de görülebilen kırık iniş ayakları iniş aracını nihayetinde…

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#apod #astronomi #astronomy #bilim #gökyüzü #Nasa #repost #science #sky #space #uzay #uzaydanhaberler

[apod]

2023 April 6

Terran 1 Burns Methalox Image Credit: Relativity / John Kraus

Explanation: Relativity's Terran 1 Rocket is mostly 3D-printed. It burns a cryogenic rocket fuel composed of liquid methane and liquid oxygen (methalox). In this close-up of a Terran 1 launch on the night of March 22 from Cape Canaveral, icy chunks fall through the stunning frame as intense blue exhaust streams from its nine Aeon 1 engines. In a largely successful flight the inovative rocket achieved main engine cutoff and stage separation but fell short of orbit after an anomaly at the beginning of its second stage flight. Of course this Terran 1 rocket was never intended to travel to Mars. Still, the methane and liquid oxygen components of its methalox fuel can be made solely from materials found on the Red Planet. Methalox manufactured on Mars could be used as fuel for rockets returning to planet Earth.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230406.html

[outer-space-youtube]

Intuitive Machines Lander?

I missed the landing yesterday, ‘Doing a lot of nothing?’, but this video is worth watching after the first 17 minutes. The Angry Astronaut tells us how important the IM-1 is, but it’s so small. NASA is testing small payloads, and the fuel used to restart the engine is liquid methane and liquid oxygen.  Methalox is the future space fuel because it is easier to refurbish or reuse the engines…

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#@astro_angry #@TheAngryAstronaut #Intuitive Machines #moon #NASA #space

[spacenutspod]

A SpaceX Falcon 9 is set to launch a lunar lander for Intuitive Machines (IM) of Houston, Texas. The mission, IM-1, will see the launch of the first of the IM Nova-C class landers from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Teams are currently targeting Feb. 14 at 12:57 AM ET (05:57 UTC) for launch. If IM-1 successfully lands on the Moon, IM will become the first commercial organization, and the first American spacecraft in over 50 years, to successfully land on the surface of the Moon. IM-1 is the first of three flights for the Nova-C class lander, which is designed and developed under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract to help support NASA’s Artemis campaign and commercial development on the Moon. Falcon 9 booster B1060-18 was selected for IM-1’s launch and was rolled out to LC-39A on Feb. 7 with the spacecraft encapsulated in the fairing in preparation for a wet dress rehearsal. The booster hasn’t flown since its 17th flight, during which it launched the Starlink Group 6-18 mission in September 2023. It first flew on June 30, 2020, carrying a GPS satellite and bears the earliest serial number still in active use.  Following launch, B1060 will perform a return-to-launch-site landing at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1), which is just a few miles south of LC-39A at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. While SpaceX is targeting Feb. 14 for the launch, there are further launch windows available on the following two days. The launch windows are calculated to ensure that the spacecraft arrives at the Moon at the beginning of the lunar day. Landing is expected to take place on Feb. 22, regardless of which of the available launch windows is used. Innovative Machine Nova-C ready for encapsulation. (Credit: Innovative Machines) The Nova-C class lunar lander for this mission has been aptly named Odysseus after the mythical Greek character renowned for his long, epic journey and his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility. The naming is appropriate as Nova-C has been designed with state-of-the-art technology, including the first cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen propulsion, also known as methalox, system to attempt a lunar landing.  The use of methalox to fuel the lander has complicated the well-tuned Falcon 9 “load-and-go” procedure, during which fueling takes place immediately prior to launch to maintain optimal conditioning of the liquid propellants. Cryogenic propellants for the spacecraft within the fairing also have to be loaded as late as possible, and SpaceX has, therefore, designed and built additional connections to the lander from the transporter-erector, which provides ground connections to the Falcon 9. IM has indicated that two wet dress rehearsals were carried out to ensure the new connections function correctly. Fueling of the spacecraft is due to commence approximately two and a half hours prior to liftoff, according to SpaceX. Following liftoff, Falcon 9 will steer onto an easterly trajectory out over the Atlantic Ocean. Two minutes and 17 seconds after launch, the booster will separate from the second stage, reorient itself, and return to land at LZ-1. The fairings will separate three minutes and six seconds into the flight and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean, where they will be collected by a SpaceX support vessel. Falcon 9’s second stage will burn for five and a half minutes to take the spacecraft into a 185 x 60,000 kilometer Earth orbit. Following about 35 minutes of coasting,  the second stage will then perform a further short burn to propel Odysseus into a Trans-Lunar Orbit (TLO) — a trajectory that will send the lander to intercept the Moon’s orbit. Deployment of the spacecraft will occur 48 minutes and 24 seconds after launch when the second stage will use spring force to gently push the lander away. Odysseus will now perform autonomous commissioning tasks and orient its top platform solar cells toward the Sun. Once “power positive,” the craft will make first contact with the flight controllers at IM’s Nova Control, the company’s center for lunar mission operations in Houston, Texas. It will also determine its precise location by using star field navigation. Even on a straight highway, minor adjustments to the steering wheel are needed to maintain the desired trajectory. Similarly, en route to the Moon, Trajectory Correction Maneuvers (TCM) are necessary to ensure our IM-1 mission lunar lander stays on course. For more information… pic.twitter.com/i6WGAITYXA — Intuitive Machines (@Int_Machines) February 6, 2024 IM controllers will then commission the cryogenic engine systems and make a small adjustment to the lander’s trajectory to confirm that the engine is performing as expected, and make any calibration adjustments needed. The main engine is able to both throttle and gimbal inside a two-axis ring and is supplemented by cold-gas helium reaction control system thrusters. See AlsoIM-1 UpdatesFalcon 9 Forum SectionNSF StoreClick here to Join L2 Odysseus will make three small adjustment burns on the way to the Moon, each requiring the spacecraft to re-orient into thrust attitude prior to each burn, subsequently returning to the default power attitude. The TLO trajectory will take IM-1 behind the Moon, where the main engine will perform an autonomous Lunar Orbit Injection burn to place Odysseus into an almost circular 100-kilometer Low-Lunar Orbit. Here, throughout 12 lunar orbits, each lasting approximately two hours, the controllers will perform detailed checks of all the spacecraft’s systems before committing to a lunar descent.  The Descent Orbit Burn also takes place autonomously, on the far side of the Moon, and will reduce the craft’s orbit to 10 kilometers above the landing site. The craft then coasts for an hour before the powered descent commences. The Nova-C’s main engine is designed to burn continuously throughout the powered descent. Throttling and gimbaling are used to slow the lander by 1,800 meters per second, pitching the lander over to assume landing attitude at 30 meters above the lunar surface before bringing the craft to a soft landing.  Missions success criteria for IM-1. (Credit: Intuitive Machines) During descent, Odysseus is guided by hazard sensors to pinpoint the landing zone and select a safe, level, and unimpeded landing site. Inertial measurement units guide the craft through the last 10 meters of descent, as visual systems are rendered blind by dust kicked up by the engine’s exhaust.  The mission’s landing site is a crater known as Malapert A, located some 300 kilometers from the Moon’s south pole and close to the Malapert Massif, a candidate landing zone for NASA’s Artemis III mission. The Nova-C lander is a hexagonal cylinder that stands four meters tall and 1.57 meters wide on six landing legs with a launch mass of 1,908 kilograms. It is capable of carrying approximately 100 kilograms of payload to the lunar surface and uses solar panels to generate 200 watts of power.  The payloads onboard are expected to function only for as long as the spacecraft receives sunlight, which it converts into power via solar cells. It is expected that the extreme cold of the lunar night will render the electronics inoperable, so it is not anticipated that these instruments will wake up when the Sun again. We’re looking forward to the next launch in our Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. @Int_Machines’ first lunar mission will carry six NASA instruments that will investigate the lunar environment & test technologies for @NASAArtemis missions https://t.co/tB2rf05Ogx pic.twitter.com/khxsm0Rpom — NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) February 1, 2024 IM-1 carries payloads for several customers — six for NASA under CLPS and a further six for commercial partners. One of the commercial payloads is the Embry-Riddle Eaglecam, which is a free-flying device designed to capture the first third-person images of a lunar landing. Eaglecam will be deployed at 30 meters above the lunar surface and photograph the lander as they both descend toward the surface. This device was designed and built in response to a challenge by IM founder Steve Altemus during a 2019 visit to the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, his alma mater. NASA’s Glenn Research Center has provided one of the payloads under CLPS, the Radio Frequency Mass Gauge (RFMG). An important factor of spaceflight is determining exactly how much fuel remains in each tank of your spacecraft. This is particularly difficult in microgravity, where, unless thrust is provided, cryogenic liquids tend to coat all of the internal surfaces of the tanks. RFMG seeks to provide an accurate estimate of fuel levels in spacecraft tanks using radio frequencies passed through the tanks and received via an external antenna. This technology has been tested on the ground during parabolic flights and on the International Space Station, but this is the first integrated test performed on a spacecraft operating and landing in microgravity. You can't go to the Moon without bringing a camera! As @Int_Machines' lander descends toward the Moon, four tiny NASA cameras will collect imagery of how the lunar surface changes from interactions with the spacecraft’s engine plume. https://t.co/OnmrL2LNN8 pic.twitter.com/WF96XhRg3K — NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) February 2, 2024 Another NASA CLPS payload will photograph and measure the plume-surface interactions as Odysseus lands, informing future landing vehicle designs, including those for Artemis. The commercial payload Eaglecam will also trial an experimental electrostatic dust removal system for spacesuit design. Other NASA science payloads include navigational instrument and radio astronomy trials, and the Radio wave Observation at the Lunar Surface of the photoElectron Sheath (ROLSES) instrument, which will measure plasma levels on the lunar surface around the lander, providing further environmental data to inform the future design of landers, habitats, and space suits. NASA and IM are hoping that the Nova-C will succeed where others have failed, with recent lunar landing attempts either having failed — India’s Chandrayaan, Israel’s Beresheet, and Astrobotic’s Peregrine — or having suffered major issues on landing — Japan’s SLIM.  IM-1 is the first of three Nova-C flights under the CLPS contract, with planning for the next two missions already well underway. This will be the 299th Falcon 9 mission, the 18th flight of this booster, and SpaceX’s 13th mission of 2024. (Lead image: Falcon 9 raised on LC-39A with the IM-1 mission atop it. Credit: Max Evans for NSF) The post SpaceX set to launch Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission from Florida appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

#space #astronomy #news #science

[ericvanderburg]

China succeeds where Elon Musk has failed with first methalox rocket

http://i.securitythinkingcap.com/Ss59TX

[cavenewstimes]

China’s Landspace set for second methalox rocket launch

A Zhuque-2 rocket erected at Jiuquan during testing. Credit: Landspace HELSINKI — Chinese commercial launch firm Landspace is set for a second attempt to reach orbit with its Zhuque-2 rocket July 12. The second Zhuque-2 methane-liquid oxygen rocket was rolled out to the pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert July 6, according to Chinese social media posts.  Satellite imagery…

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