as nasa scrubbed the artemis 1 uncured mission to the moon once again spacex ceo elon musk on sunday
came up with a suggestion for the ailing mission that will finally land astronauts
on the lunar surface after decades for rocket scientists hydrogen is an important propellant
but it's also a serious pain in the ass it's the tiniest molecule in the universe and as such
it has a propensity to leak out through tiny gaps and cracks hydrogen leaks bedeviled
the space shuttle program and now sls a rocket heavily modeled after the shuttle launch system
is likewise experiencing problems with hydrogen leaks nasa engineers could not overcome a hydrogen
leak in a quick disconnect phase of the space launch system sls rocket launch on saturday
according to eric berger of rs technica nasa has a tolerance for a small amount of hydrogen leakage
and anything above a four percent concentration of hydrogen near the quick disconnect is
considered a flammability hazard musk replied to burger's accurate assessment saying that raptor
design started out using h2 hydrogen but switched to ch4 hydrogen ladder is the best combo of high
efficiency and ease of operation in my opinion delta v difference between h2 and ch4 is small
for most missions because the ch4 tank is much smaller and no insulation is needed musk explained
the delta v is the difference of velocity that a rocket engine can impose on a spacecraft as
a function of the specific impulse and the variation in the mass of the vehicle itself
according to him ch4 methane is easier to produce on mars and is very important for launch missions
spacex is among the first companies to use liquid methane and hydrogen as fuel musk
also hopes for a self-sustaining city on the red planet in 20 years as spacex prepares the
starship super heavy to take people and cargo to the moon mars and beyond according to the report
the nasa showstopper was an 8 inch diameter line carrying liquid hydrogen into the rocket
it sperm a persistent leak at the inlet known as a quick disconnect leading on board the vehicle
nasa will next have the launch window from september 19th to october 4th however making
that window would necessitate fixing the rocket at the pad and then getting a waiver
from the u.s space force which operates the launch range along the florida coast said
the report nasa administrator bill nelson said repair work could bump the launch into october
we'll go when it's ready we won't go until then and especially now on a test flight
because we're going to stress this and test it and make sure it's right before we put four humans up
on the top of it nelson said this is part of our space program be ready for the scrubs he added
when it launches the 98 meter 32 story tall sls rocket will propel test dummies on an
unmanned flight which will aim to ensure it's capable of eventually putting astronauts back
on the moan for the first time in 50 years the first voyage of the sls orion a mission dubbed
artemis 1 aims to put the giant rocket through its paces in a rigorous demonstration flight
pushing its design limits before nasa deems it reliable enough to carry astronauts
the last humans to walk on the moon were the two-man descent team of apollo 17
in 1972 following in the footsteps of ten other astronauts during five earlier missions beginning
with apollo 11 in 1969 artemis also is enlisting commercial and international help to eventually
establish a long-term learner base as a stepping stone to even more ambitious human voyages to mars
a goal nasa officials say would probably take until at least the late 2030s to achieve
but nasa has many steps to take along the way starting with getting the slsrn vehicle into space
the space agency has another artemis one launch opportunity from october 17th to october 31st
has completed its 40th falcon 9 launch of 2022 delivering a new batch of starlink satellites
and boeing demonstration satellite into orbit right on schedule falcon 9 lifted off from
spacex's cape canaveral space force station lc-40 pad at 10 09 pm eastern daylight time
sunday september 4th the rockets reused booster and fairing and new upper stage
performed as expected continuing falcon 9's unprecedented streak of 149 successful launches
flying for the seventh time overall former falcon heavy booster b1052 performed flawlessly
after a quick 31 day turnaround and touch down on spacex drone ship just read the instructions
decked several hundred miles downrange less than nine minutes after liftoff
flying for the fourth and fifth times the starlink 4-20 missions falcon 9 fairing has also worked as
expected on the ascent spacex does not discuss fairing recovery but both halves likely deployed
parafoils after re-entering earth's atmosphere and gently splashing down in the atlantic ocean
spacex support ship dub will eventually fish them out of the water for reuse
not merely a starlink mission starlink 4-20 was spacex's sixth starlink rideshare
sitting atop the stack of 51 starlink version 1.5 satellites was an experimental spacecraft
built by spaceflight incorporated known as sherpa ltc2 spaceflight and partner
astrodigital turned the orbital transfer vehicle space tug into a satellite for customer boeing
the purpose carry and test a prototype communications payload built by astro digital
and designed to verify new v-band communications technologies for planned constellation of boeing
satellites in low earth orbit leo the u.s federal communications commission
fcc approved boeing's plans for a 147 satellite v-band constellation in november 2021.
it's unclear what the purpose of the constellation would be or if boeing already has customers
or partners lined up the prototype spacecraft built by spaceflight and astrodigital known as
varana in recent fcc filings will be crucial for determining the constellation's future
boeing wants to use a swath of spectrum known as the v-band that has a higher
frequency than the coup and cobans commonly used by most other communications satellites
a higher frequency could mean higher connection speeds and more available bandwidth
but v-band radio waves tend to struggle to pierce through rain and other adverse weather conditions
varanas should help boeing fully determine whether that interference is a show stopper or something
that can be managed boeing applied for an fcc license for its v-band constellation in 2017 it's
unclear whether a lack of interest on boeing's part or problems with the application caused
the process to take as long as it did varana was successfully deployed from falcon 9 a bit less
than 50 minutes later in a mostly circular orbit 316 kilometers above earth's surface
outfitted with a propulsion system designed by startup benchmark space sherpa ltc2 is meant to
eventually raise itself into an operational orbit around 1050 kilometers where the v-band payload
can be tested at the same altitude as boeing's planned constellation 20 minutes after verona's
deployment falcon 9's upper stage spinning end over end released all 51 starlink satellites at
once completing the payload portion of the mission as always the upper stage will likely perform a
deorbit burn within a few hours of liftoff and should re-enter earth's atmosphere not long after
ensuring that the only space debris produced by the mission is the varana deployment mechanism
and a set of four benign star link tensioning rods that should re-enter in about two months
starlink 4-20 was spacex's 40th launch of 2022 and 50th launch in 12 months according to next
spaceflight the company has plans for at least two more starlink launches within the next eight days
starlink 42 another rideshare mission is scheduled no earlier than september 10th
while starlink 4-34 could launch on september 12th and that wraps up today's episode we would
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