It's not just rocket science: Hidden chemistry powers moon launches and sustains life in space
Friday, 02 September 2022 13:09
Many around the world will watch eagerly this Saturday as NASA launches Artemis I, the agency's first Moon exploration mission since the 1970s.
The spectacle involves the most powerful rocket in the world: the Space Launch System (SLS). Standing at nearly 100 meters tall and weighing more than 2,600 tons, the SLS produces a massive 8.8 million pounds of thrust—(more than 31 times the thrust of a Boeing 747 jet).
But it's not just amazing engineering that's behind rocket science and space exploration. Hidden within, there's clever chemistry that powers these fantastic feats and sustains our fragile life in space.
The fuel and the spark
To launch a rocket into space, we need a chemical reaction known as combustion. This is where fuels are combined with oxygen, producing energy as a result. In turn, that energy provides the push (or thrust) needed to propel mammoth machines like the SLS into Earth's upper atmosphere and beyond.
Much like cars on the road and jets in the sky, rockets have engines where combustion takes place. SLS has two engine systems: four core stage RS-25 engines (upgraded space shuttle engines) and two solid rocket boosters.
Week in images: 29 August - 02 September 2022
Friday, 02 September 2022 12:05
Week in images: 29 August - 02 September 2022
Discover our week through the lens
NASA readies for Saturday Moon rocket launch attempt
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Kennedy Space Center, United States (AFP) Sept 2, 2022
The stars appear to be aligned for NASA's Moon rocket to finally blast off on Saturday, with weather forecasts favorable and technical issues that postponed the launch earlier this week resolved.
Liftoff is scheduled for 2:17 pm local time (1817 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the potential for up to a two-hour delay if necessary.
The chance for favorable weather conditio
The stars appear to be aligned for NASA's Moon rocket to finally blast off on Saturday, with weather forecasts favorable and technical issues that postponed the launch earlier this week resolved.
Liftoff is scheduled for 2:17 pm local time (1817 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the potential for up to a two-hour delay if necessary.
The chance for favorable weather conditio Rocket Lab completes first test fire of reused Rutherford Engine
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Long Beach CA (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
Rocket Lab USA, Inc (Nasdaq: RKLB) has successfully test fired a reused Rutherford first stage engine for the first time - a significant technical achievement in the Company's efforts to make its Electron launch vehicle the world's first reusable orbital small rocket.
Rocket Lab conducted the full duration, full-thrust test fire of the refurbished Rutherford engine earlier this week at the
Rocket Lab USA, Inc (Nasdaq: RKLB) has successfully test fired a reused Rutherford first stage engine for the first time - a significant technical achievement in the Company's efforts to make its Electron launch vehicle the world's first reusable orbital small rocket.
Rocket Lab conducted the full duration, full-thrust test fire of the refurbished Rutherford engine earlier this week at the Crime-scene technique identifies asteroid sites
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Exeter UK (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
Analysing the charred remains of plants can confirm the locations of asteroid strikes in the distant past, new research shows.
Based on estimates of crater-producing asteroid strikes in the last 11,650 years (known as the Holocene), only about 30% of impact sites have been located.
Until now, there has been no way to distinguish between normal land structures and very small asteroid
Analysing the charred remains of plants can confirm the locations of asteroid strikes in the distant past, new research shows.
Based on estimates of crater-producing asteroid strikes in the last 11,650 years (known as the Holocene), only about 30% of impact sites have been located.
Until now, there has been no way to distinguish between normal land structures and very small asteroid After NASA's asteroid impact, ESA's Hera comes next
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Paris (ESA) Sep 02, 2022
This month NASA's DART spacecraft will collide with the smaller of the two Didymos asteroids in deep space, attempting to shift its orbit in what will be humankind's first test of the 'kinetic impactor' planetary defence technique. Meanwhile, down on the ground, ESA's follow-on mission to Didymos has reached its own crucial milestone.
The main 780-m diameter Didymos asteroid is orbited by
This month NASA's DART spacecraft will collide with the smaller of the two Didymos asteroids in deep space, attempting to shift its orbit in what will be humankind's first test of the 'kinetic impactor' planetary defence technique. Meanwhile, down on the ground, ESA's follow-on mission to Didymos has reached its own crucial milestone.
The main 780-m diameter Didymos asteroid is orbited by Cornell astronomers show how terrain evolves on icy comets
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Ithaca NY (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
With an eye toward a possible return mission years in the future, Cornell University astronomers have shown how smooth terrains - a good place to land a spacecraft and to scoop up samples - evolve on the icy world of comets.
By applying thermal models to data gathered by the Rosetta mission - which caught up to the barbell-shaped Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko almost a decade ago - they s
With an eye toward a possible return mission years in the future, Cornell University astronomers have shown how smooth terrains - a good place to land a spacecraft and to scoop up samples - evolve on the icy world of comets.
By applying thermal models to data gathered by the Rosetta mission - which caught up to the barbell-shaped Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko almost a decade ago - they s NASA's Juno Mission Reveals Jupiter's Complex Colors
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
San Antonio TX (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
NASA's Juno spacecraft observed the complex colors and structure of Jupiter's clouds as it completed its 43rd close flyby of the giant planet on July 5, 2022.
Citizen scientist Bjorn Jonsson created these two images using raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. At the time the raw image was taken, Juno was about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops,
NASA's Juno spacecraft observed the complex colors and structure of Jupiter's clouds as it completed its 43rd close flyby of the giant planet on July 5, 2022.
Citizen scientist Bjorn Jonsson created these two images using raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. At the time the raw image was taken, Juno was about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops, UVA joins Artemis missions to seek traces of extraterrestrial life
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Charlottesville VA (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
Was there ever life on the moon? What about on other planets? With the U.S. slated to blast off soon to orbit the moon - its first trip there in 50 years - the University of Virginia and NASA's Artemis space missions seek to answer big questions like these, while pushing the scope of what can be analyzed on alien soils.
The new collaborative research will take the form of a roving, ground-
Was there ever life on the moon? What about on other planets? With the U.S. slated to blast off soon to orbit the moon - its first trip there in 50 years - the University of Virginia and NASA's Artemis space missions seek to answer big questions like these, while pushing the scope of what can be analyzed on alien soils.
The new collaborative research will take the form of a roving, ground- VLBA produces first full 3-D view of binary star-planet system
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Charlottesville VA (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
By precisely tracing a small, almost imperceptible, wobble in a nearby star's motion through space, astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-like planet orbiting that star, which is one of a binary pair. Their work, using the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), produced the first-ever determination of the complete, 3-dimensional structure of the orbits of a binary pair of
By precisely tracing a small, almost imperceptible, wobble in a nearby star's motion through space, astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-like planet orbiting that star, which is one of a binary pair. Their work, using the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), produced the first-ever determination of the complete, 3-dimensional structure of the orbits of a binary pair of Webb Telescope takes its first-ever direct image of an exoplanet
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Baltimore MD (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
For the first time, astronomers have used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable.
The image, as seen through four different light filters, shows how Webb's powerful infrared gaze can easily capture worlds beyond our solar system, pointing the way
For the first time, astronomers have used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable.
The image, as seen through four different light filters, shows how Webb's powerful infrared gaze can easily capture worlds beyond our solar system, pointing the way SU N matter is about 3 billion times colder than deep space
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Houston TX (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
Japanese and U.S. physicists have used atoms about 3 billion times colder than interstellar space to open a portal to an unexplored realm of quantum magnetism. "Unless an alien civilization is doing experiments like these right now, anytime this experiment is running at Kyoto University it is making the coldest fermions in the universe," said Rice University's Kaden Hazzard, corresponding theory
Japanese and U.S. physicists have used atoms about 3 billion times colder than interstellar space to open a portal to an unexplored realm of quantum magnetism. "Unless an alien civilization is doing experiments like these right now, anytime this experiment is running at Kyoto University it is making the coldest fermions in the universe," said Rice University's Kaden Hazzard, corresponding theory Unraveling the mysteries of the night sky with Artificial Intelligence
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Ilmenau, Germany (SPX) Sep 02, 2022
Technische Universitat Ilmenau (Germany) is using Artificial Intelligence to improve the detection and classification of unidentified phenomena in the night sky. The research team of the Group for data-intensive Systems and Visualization collaborated with the American Meteor Society which initiated the AllSky7, an international network of scientists and amateur astronomers that permanently obser
Technische Universitat Ilmenau (Germany) is using Artificial Intelligence to improve the detection and classification of unidentified phenomena in the night sky. The research team of the Group for data-intensive Systems and Visualization collaborated with the American Meteor Society which initiated the AllSky7, an international network of scientists and amateur astronomers that permanently obser China's Shenzhou-14 astronauts carry out spacewalk
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Beijing (AFP) Sept 2, 2022
Two astronauts on board China's Tiangong space station successfully completed a six-hour spacewalk Friday, the national human spaceflight agency said.
Astronauts Chen Dong and Liu Yang returned to their cabin module in the early hours of Friday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said, declaring the first spacewalk of the six-month Shenzhou-14 mission a "complete success".
China's heav
Two astronauts on board China's Tiangong space station successfully completed a six-hour spacewalk Friday, the national human spaceflight agency said.
Astronauts Chen Dong and Liu Yang returned to their cabin module in the early hours of Friday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said, declaring the first spacewalk of the six-month Shenzhou-14 mission a "complete success".
China's heav Chinese scientist advocates int'l cooperation in space science
Friday, 02 September 2022 09:11
Beijing (XNA) Sep 02, 2022
A thousand people may have a thousand answers as to why we explore space. For 64-year-old Chinese scientist Wu Ji, exploring space has a more self-reflective meaning.
"When one enters space, one will realize that human beings are an indivisible whole. Regardless of skin color, they have far more in common than they have differences," said Wu, chairman of the Chinese Society of Space Resear
A thousand people may have a thousand answers as to why we explore space. For 64-year-old Chinese scientist Wu Ji, exploring space has a more self-reflective meaning.
"When one enters space, one will realize that human beings are an indivisible whole. Regardless of skin color, they have far more in common than they have differences," said Wu, chairman of the Chinese Society of Space Resear