Space Travel & Exploration

[Lilithvia]

Hate to say it, but the US's new approach to the Moon is set up to do exactly the article is accusing China of potentially doing. What either side will do is purely speculative though and merely what they could potentially do. The Artemis Accords is a pact between the US and partner nations involved in the Artemis program. It says the nations themselves will not make claims on the Moon, but allows commercial companies involved to make claims instead. So the US could technically make claims on the Moon through SpaceX, barring China access to certain areas.

*what*

the Artemis Accords are literally just an extension of the Deep Space Treaty of 1969.

Also here, let's let china drop stages where we are actively trying to mine for Helium 3! that's a great idea and will not cause potential live fire in space in retaliation

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Also, Glen Shotwell is fantastic.

[cubby]

Hate to say it, but the US's new approach to the Moon is set up to do exactly the article is accusing China of potentially doing. What either side will do is purely speculative though and merely what they could potentially do. The Artemis Accords is a pact between the US and partner nations involved in the Artemis program. It says the nations themselves will not make claims on the Moon, but allows commercial companies involved to make claims instead. So the US could technically make claims on the Moon through SpaceX, barring China access to certain areas.

The Artemis Accords are going to last as long as one country decides to ignore them because it's more advantageous to do so. Moon Bases are on the agenda for every space faring county, whether we like it or not. Every single space "company" is backed, heavily, by the governments in which they are based. We can hem and haw over it forever, but the United States, China, Japan, EU, and anyone else with the [future] capability are going to put a base on the Moon if they can.

I don't mean this in any confrontational or bad way, just a more pragmatic view of how treaties work, and how the governments that sign them choose to interpret them.

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Nice milestone for Starship. I believe this was a "wet" rehearsal.

Next up is a destacking and a full fire test of all 33 engines.

[PACOX]

Hard to gauge how far Starship is from its orbital test but good to see a WDR. Of course it even hard to tell how well the WDR went because they aren't even half as transparent as NASA. I think most would have gone with an engine test first but a window of opportunity probably presented itself.

I'm calling a late spring early summer test

[Lilithvia]

In some of the bigger news for Artemis's end goal of Mars:

Yesterday morning NASA announced NERVA (NTR) rockets are back on the menu, with a in-space test of their new DRACO engine as early as 2027.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...-mars-missions

[cubby]

SpaceX preparing for Super Heavy static-fire test

[Lilithvia]

SpaceX preparing for Super Heavy static-fire test

where super heavy static fire test

[Pann]

Musk has tweeted that if the remaining tests go well they will attempt to launch Starship next month.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1621998434289942529

[cubby]

where super heavy static fire test

Tomorrow, apparently. All 33 Raptor engines to ignite for the static fire test.

Very exciting.

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Musk has tweeted that if the remaining tests go well they will attempt to launch Starship next month.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1621998434289942529

That would be tremendous.

[Pann]

Booster 7 has completed a static fire test of its 33 Raptor engines. Fingers crossed this means they're on target for a orbital launch soon.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1623790980028829696

[Nerraw]

That was a lot of freaking fire.

[Pann]

Apparently two engines did not fire.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1623793909959901184

Still impressive nonetheless.

[Lilithvia]

Lots of fire.

[Pann]

SpaceX have released drone footage of Booster 7's static fire test and it looks even more impressive!

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1623812763415093249

[Lilithvia]

Apparently two engines did not fire.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1623793909959901184

Yeah, what the hell @Osmeric

[Osmeric]

Yeah, what the hell @Osmeric

What? /10chars

[cubby]

NASA is set to reveal the Artemis Space Suits on March 15.

Article from a couple years ago give some details.

[Zuben]

Here's the new suit.

[PACOX]

It would be cool if the final suits were black like that, terrible for visibility. Looks good though. A multipurpose suit that looks less bulky than the Apollo and current EVA suits. Astronauts everywhere are hype.

[The Stormbringer]

Here's the new suit.

Huh... cool! It looks a lot more flexible. I feel like it should have more stripes if they're going with black as a main color, though. Space is black... you don't want people blending into the background.

[Osmeric]

Huh... cool! It looks a lot more flexible. I feel like it should have more stripes if they're going with black as a main color, though. Space is black... you don't want people blending into the background.

The important thing you want in a vacuum suit is "constant volume joints". That is, bending a joint (in a limb, finger, or otherwise) should leave the pressurized volume the unchanged. Otherwise, the pressure induces forces that have to be fought against.