hey @NASA was there some plan you weren't telling us about — Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) March 24, 2023 Sir Terry Pratchett was correct: Everything will be all right, as long as you’ve got a potato… Engineers have created an intriguing concrete alternative using simulated Martian or lunar soil, potato starch and salt. The “space concrete” …
Sunday Morning Open Thread: <em>Astro-Science!</em>Post + Comments (169)
Concrete from the researchers’ trials using blood and urine also produced strengths above traditional mixtures, measuring around 40 MPa. These bricks’ construction, however, would require that astronauts repeatedly drain their own bodily fluids, which was viewed as a drawback.
Aled Roberts, the lead researcher for the StarCrete project and research fellow for the Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub at the University of Manchester, concedes that using potato flakes is preferable to blood and pee.
“Astronauts probably don’t want to be living in houses made from scabs and urine,” he said in a statement…
(You just know the future ‘Emperor of Mars’ will insist that his colonists *prefer* scabs and pee.)
A rocket made almost entirely of 3D-printed parts has finally taken flight, but didn't last long. The second stage failed three minutes after liftoff from Florida late Wednesday, and the mission failed to reach orbit. https://t.co/DHFyN1oh3v
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 23, 2023
Ah, well, better luck next time:
A rocket made almost entirely of 3D-printed parts made its launch debut Wednesday night, lifting off amid fanfare but failing three minutes into flight — far short of orbit.
There was nothing aboard Relativity Space’s test flight except for the company’s first metal 3D print made six years ago.
The startup wanted to put the souvenir into a 125-mile-high (200-kilometer-high) orbit for several days before having it plunge through the atmosphere and burn up along with the upper stage of the rocket.
As it turned out, the first stage did its job following liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and separated as planned. But the upper stage appeared to ignite and then shut down, sending it crashing into the Atlantic.
It was the third launch attempt from what once was a missile site. Relativity Space came within a half-second of blasting off earlier this month, with the rocket’s engines igniting before abruptly shutting down.
Although the upper stage malfunctioned and the mission did not reach orbit, “maiden launches are always exciting and today’s flight was no exception,” Relativity Space launch commentator Arwa Tizani Kelly said after Wednesday’s launch…
BUT SERIOUSLY…
Very pleased to say that this column has no @washingtonpost paywall! A tale of how Biden is moving to undo a Trump political play that could harm our national security. https://t.co/HTEBG3cAGu
— David Ignatius (@IgnatiusPost) March 24, 2023
The aftershocks from Donald Trump’s presidency reach even to outer space, but the Biden administration is quietly moving to repair one piece of the damage that could affect national security.
The White House appears ready to reverse a Trump administration plan to relocate the U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Ala., because it fears the transfer would disrupt operations at a time when space is increasingly important to the military.
The Space Command siting decision has been a political football for the past four years. Trump made the decision on Jan. 11, 2021, five days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He had said earlier that he wouldn’t decide until he knew the 2020 election results, “to see how it turns out.” Colorado voted against him, while Alabama gave him strong support and its representatives backed his false claim he had won…
Rep. Mo Brooks made one of the earliest announcements of Trump’s selection of the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. Brooks, who represents the area, was one of the leading GOP congressional apologists for the Jan. 6 riot, arguing falsely in a tweet the next day: “Evidence growing that fascist ANTIFA orchestrated Capitol attack with clever mob control tactics.”…
Trump emphatically took personal political credit for steering the Space Command toward a friendly state. “I single-handedly said, ‘Let’s go to Alabama,’” he told the hosts of “Rick and Bubba,” a Birmingham-based radio show. “They wanted it. I said, ‘Let’s go to Alabama.’ I love Alabama.’”
Trump’s long shadow reaches to some unlikely places, but few as important as the prompt establishment of the Space Command headquarters. President Biden is right to listen to the generals on this one and keep the locus of space operations where it is.