Here are a few of the stories I found interesting over the weekend. There wasn’t a ton of weekend news, as the post CES lull began, so this is heavy on space news.
NASA’s First SLS Core Stage Fails Test
Over the weekend there was a test that was literally a decade and $17 Billion in the making. NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), had its first big test. The core state for the first SLS rocket was planned to undergo an 8 minute test on the ground, simulating a full launch. This involved filling the tanks full of fuel, and running the 4 engines for the 8 minute duration that the core stage would burn for in a real flight. Just 67 seconds into the test, the computers shut down the engines, after a “major component failure” on engine #4.
This is a pretty big black eye for Boeing, the company contracted to build SLS for NASA, and should serve as a black eye for the US Congress. SLS was originally conceived as a cheaper way to build a new rocket, as it was supposed to use technologies from the Space Shuttle program. The engines on the SLS core stage are literally the same engines used on the Space Shuttle, most of them actually having been actually used on shuttle missions. The fuel tank is a modified version of the Space Shuttle’s big orange fuel tank, and the SLS is also slated to use bigger versions of the side solid fuel boosters the Space Shuttle used. The problem with this idea was that since the Space Shuttle was designed in the 1970’s, the people who actually designed it have long retired or moved on, and a new generation of rocket scientists has had trouble adapting these older systems to work together differently. The decision to re-use Space Shuttle components was largely a political decision, with support in the US government coming mostly from lawmakers in states who had built shuttle hardware for decades wanting to keep jobs in their states instead of allowing a new design to be built from scratch that may do different things.
The result has been instead of a cheaper, easier rocket that was originally supposed to launch in 2016, the US is saddled with a rocket that has had $17 Billion spent on it, with no successful launches, and the likelihood of the late 2021 launch of the first SLS mission now near zero. Even when SLS does launch, it is estimated that each flight will cost about $1 Billion. This compares very poorly to a rocket like SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. While Falcon Heavy can only deliver about 2/3 the payload to orbit as SLS will be able to do, it does so at less than 20% of the cost for a launch. SpaceX is currently developing Starship and Super Heavy, its next generation launch platform, and when it comes into service in the mid 2020’s it will likely be able to launch nearly as much as an SLS, and cost significantly less.
NASA has dubbed the missions that SLS will launch to the moon “Artemis.” Maybe they should have named the program “Albatross” instead.
Virgin Galactic launches first Orbital Flight
In more successful space news, Virgin Galactic has successfully reached orbit for the very first time with its Virgin Orbit system.
Virgin Galactic’s way of getting into orbit is very different than traditional rockets. Instead of a rocket that takes off from the Earth, Virgin Galactic uses an air launch system. A specially designed Boeing 747 carries a rocket up to a high altitude under a wing, and from there the rocket is released, drops away from the aircraft, and ignites its engines and flies into space. The concept and spectacle of this system has a significant “cool factor,” but in a practical sense, this has cost savings as most of the thrust and mass of a rocket is needed to reach the parts of the atmosphere the 747 carrier aircraft reaches, and than 747 has the advantage of being essentially a completely reusable first stage. Such a setup could, in theory, launch a rocket, fly back to base, load up another rocket, and launch again immediately. It can’t launch the largest payloads, but the utility could have significant usefulness, now that Virgin Galactic has proven that it can work.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/01/virgin-orbit-just-earned-the-orbit-part-of-its-name/
Report that Xbox’s “Instant On” Feature Could Contribute to CO2 Emissions and Climate Change
This article from Ars Technica is notable not for the specific example it is using, but should serve as a good reminder to everyone about the devices we all use every day, and the impact they can have. The full story is how a feature of the Xbox consoles, dating back to the Xbox One and continuing with the Xbox Series consoles consume 9-10W of electricity even when the consoles are off. While 9W doesn’t seem significant, when that is taken 24/7 over the course of a month, that can actually represent significant power usage. In an smaller apartment, that actually can represent around 8-10% of my total electricity usage in a month, just to sit there and not be used.
This should serve as a good reminder to people to think about the devices they use and how they use them. There is generally utility for everything we use, but it is wroth thinking about how we use our devices, and the impact that can have. Reducing the usage of 3-4 small things can have a moderate to significant impact on how much power we consume. I know I made sure that the “instant on” feature on my Xbox Series X console was turned off after reading this.
It all adds up, and there is always more we can do. Sometimes we need those reminders.
Tesla Extends Contract with Canadian Researchers
Battery technology is one of the critical components to a cleaner energy future, and that is especially true for electric vehicles. Tesla has long been a leader in working on and developing higher capacity, higher density, and more efficient batteries, but it does not do so by itself. The company partners with companies and researchers all over the world to help develop new technology for batteries. One of those partnerships is with a team of researches from Dalhousie University in Halifax. Tesla has announced it will continue funding a team of researches in an “Advanced Battery Research Group” at the university through 2026. This is a win for the University, keeping high tech, high profile work in Canada, and will be a win the rest of the world, as there is no doubt that energy storage is the key to the clean energy future.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/01/18/tesla-battery-partnership-canadian-researchers/