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NASA astronauts test SpaceX elevator concept for Artemis lunar lander

NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Doug "Wheels" Wheelock participated in a recent test of a sub-scale mockup elevator for SpaceX's Starship human landing system that will be used for NASA's Artemis III and IV missions to the moon. The Starship human landing system will carry two astronauts from the Orion spacecraft in lunar orbit to the surface, serve as a habitat for crew members' approximately one week stay on the moon, and transfer them from the surface back to Orion.
The elevator will transport equipment and crew between Starship's habitable area, located near the top of the lander, and the lunar surface, as they exit for moonwalks. The test allowed the astronauts to interact with a flight-like design of the elevator system, serving as both a functional demonstration of the hardware and providing the chance to receive valuable feedback from a crew perspective.
Built at SpaceX's facility in Hawthorne, California, the elevator mockup has a full-scale basket section with functioning mechanical assemblies and crew interfaces for testing. During the demonstration, NASA astronauts wore spacesuits that simulate the suit size and mobility constraints that crew will face on the moon.
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Image: Pinhole propulsion for satellites

A palm-sized propulsion option for future space missions: Each one of these seven emitter arrays etched onto this silicon wafer using micro- and nano-technology possesses more than 500 pinhole-sized emitters that spray out ions, accelerated via an electrostatic field to maximize thrust.
Inherently scalable, this "electrospray" technology is being developed as a cost- and mass-effective method of propelling CubeSats and other small satellites. For the first time in Europe, this ionic-liquid based electrospray propulsion system has achieved more than 400 hours of continuous operation.
"Everyone knows that 'space is hard,' but we like to say that 'propulsion is harder,'" comments Daniel Pérez Grande, CEO & Co-founder of IENAI Space in Spain, who is developing the technology for ESA. "Developing a new technology, which we have built from scratch, has been no easy feat, but we are confident that our propulsion products will stand out in the market for their incredible performance and customization capabilities; and in fact we have already been approached by a number of interested parties in the industry."
Known as ATHENA (Adaptable THruster based on Electrospray powered by Nanotechnology), this system is one of three currently being developed by ESA to harness electrospray propulsion for space.