Tag: space

Elon Musk Says First Starship Mars Mission In Two Years; Make America Healthy Again To Ensure Space-Bearing Civilization

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X on Saturday evening that the Starship mega rocket will begin flying Mars missions in two years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. The mission will be uncrewed and aim to test the rocket’s ability to land intact on Mars, as Musk’s dreams of occupying the Red Planet could become a reality within the next two decades. 

“The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens,” Musk wrote on X. 

He explained, “These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years,” adding, “Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years. Being multiplanetary will vastly increase the probable lifespan of consciousness, as we will no longer have all our eggs, literally and metabolically, on one planet.” 

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U.S. To Track Moving Air And Ground Targets Via Space By 2030, But Aircraft Will Still Play A Part

The U.S. Space Force second-in-command has provided updates on plans for the service’s introduction of space-based ground moving-target indicator and air moving-target indicator (GMTI/AMTI) capabilities. Also discussed was the U.S. military’s need for a layered surveillance network, including to deal with the expanding breadth of enemy ‘kill webs,’ something which TWZ has discussed in the depth in the past.

Speaking today at the annual Defense News Conference in Arlington, Virginia, Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, the Vice Chief of Space Operations, U.S. Space Force (USSF), said that the first parts of a satellite-based GMTI/AMTI capability should start coming online in “probably the early 2030s.”

Importantly, however, Gen. Guetlein said that he expects the U.S. military’s future surveillance network to involve multiple assets, both in the atmosphere and in space. “I see it always being a layered set of capabilities to increase survivability, first and foremost,” he said.

While a layered surveillance network — one including space-based assets, alongside crewed aircraft, drones, and potentially other platforms — has been discussed for some time now, it was only last month that the design baseline for Space Force’s new satellite system was certified, meaning that it can now progress into the formal development phase.

In the past there have also been repeated suggestions that space-based surveillance assets would increasingly take over from the aircraft that have traditionally undertaken surveillance of targets on the ground, at sea, and in the air. In particular, satellite-based surveillance assets offer the advantages of greater persistence and — at least in the past — enhanced survivability. It is also worth noting that the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is reportedly acquiring a constellation of hundreds of intelligence-gathering satellites from SpaceX, with a specific focus on tracking targets down below in support of ground operations. Its relationship to the USSF program is unclear, but there is certainly some crossover regarding capabilities.

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Donald Trump promises to create a Space Force National Guard if elected president

Donald Trump has promised to create a Space Force National Guard if elected president.

The Republican nominee told the National Guard Association of the United States in Detroit that a reserve force is critical for defense in outer space.

Fears of Russia developing nuclear weapons to use specifically in space have ramped up in recent months.

Space is also becoming a vital area of national security as adversaries develop their celestial military capabilities. 

Trump set up Space Force in December 2019 to form the first new branch of the military since 1947, when the Air Force became its own entity.

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NASA Citizen Scientists Spot Unidentified Speeding Object Racing Through Space at 1 Million MPH

A group of citizen scientists participating in NASA’s Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project have discovered a mysterious object zipping through space at a staggering 1 million miles per hour.

“I can’t describe the level of excitement,” Kabatnik, a citizen scientist from Nuremberg, Germany, said in a NASA press release. “When I first saw how fast it was moving, I was convinced it must have been reported already.” 

The discovery has left astronomers baffled but excited, as they are now working to determine the identity of this rapid traveler. The breakthrough also underscores the invaluable contributions of citizen scientists to modern space exploration. 

The Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 is a NASA-funded science initiative that invites volunteers worldwide to assist professional astronomers in scanning vast amounts of astronomical data for signs of new celestial objects. 

These volunteers, often called “citizen scientists,” play a crucial role in the discovery process by analyzing images taken by telescopes and satellites, looking for anything unusual that automated systems might have missed.

The initiative was launched in 2017 to enlist the public’s help in scanning the Solar System for smaller, faint celestial objects, including potentially locating an elusive hypothesized ninth planet of our Solar System, often called “Planet Nine.” 

While Backyard Worlds: Planet 9’s main goal is to locate a potential ninth planet in the distant reaches of our Solar System, the project has also led to the discovery of other significant objects, such as brown dwarfs, planetary bodies, and high-velocity stars.

Accessible through the popular citizen-science research portal, the Zooniverse, participants in the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project are given access to a vast archive of data, including infrared images captured by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope. 

These images span several years, allowing volunteers to search for moving objects—indications of previously undiscovered celestial bodies. By comparing images taken at different times, volunteers can spot objects that shift position, suggesting they are closer to Earth than distant stars or galaxies.

The recently discovered object, dubbed “CWISE J1249,” was identified by volunteers sifting through NASA data in search of new planetary bodies or other celestial phenomena. 

One of the most remarkable features of CWISE J1249 is its astonishing speed of 1 million miles per hour. For comparison, the fastest man-made object in space is the Parker Solar Probe, which, at its closest approach to the Sun, reaches speeds of 430,000 mph. 

At its current velocity, CWISE J1249 surpasses most known objects in our Solar System and is fast enough to escape the Milky Way’s gravitational pull, propelling it into intergalactic space. 

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Life on Venus? New Discovery Deepens Controversy Over Possible Signs of Life in Planet’s Atmosphere

Recent observations of Venus have yielded new evidence of a compound in its atmosphere that could indicate the presence of life, according to findings that potentially lend weight to controversial past discoveries.

Phosphine, a toxic gas that astrobiologists have proposed could be associated with the presence of life on rocky planets, was initially detected in Venus’s atmosphere in a surprise discovery four years ago. Now, new observations potentially strengthen those past findings, hinting at the presence of biosignatures that, if confirmed, could mean life forms are able to thrive in the planet’s harsh environment.

A Controversial Discovery on Venus

The initial detection of phosphine in Venus’s oxidized atmosphere was reported in September 2020, when a team of scientists led by Jane Greaves of Cardiff University said they had found evidence of the toxic molecule. The discovery initially led to debate over the possibility that life could exist on Venus, since phosphine is normally associated with organisms that thrive in low-oxygen environments.

The team’s announcement received considerable media attention, and also led to controversy that culminated in rebukes from some in the scientific community. Arguably, the sharpest criticism was leveled by the organizing committee of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Commission F3 on Astrobiology, who even questioned the ethics of Greaves and her team over the manner in which the discovery was revealed.

“It is an ethical duty for any scientist to communicate with the media and the public with great scientific rigour and to be careful not to overstate any interpretation which will be irretrievably picked up by the press,” the commission wrote in an official statement released at the time.

The commission added it “would like to remind the relevant researchers that we need to understand how the press and the media behave before communicating with them.”

Initial follow-up attempts to detect the compound again were unsuccessful. However, last year, Greaves and her team succeeded in detecting phosphine in deeper portions of the planet’s atmosphere during observations made with the James Clark Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) at Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii. Additional detections with NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) also suggested the presence of phosphine, which may originate either within or from below the clouds on Venus.

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MORPHEUS SPACE LAUNCHING FIRST-EVER MASS PRODUCTION FACILITY FOR FIELD EMISSION ELECTRIC PROPULSION SYSTEMS

German propulsion company Morpheus Space has officially opened the world’s first-ever facility designed to mass produce its second-generation field emission electric propulsion (FEEP) system, the GO-2. Dubbed “Reoladed,” the Dresden-based facility will immediately begin production of 100 units of the GO-2, a potentially breakthrough system that uses liquid metal as a propellant.

In an email to The Debrief, company executives explained the growing need for a facility like Reloaded that can quickly and efficiently produce systems like the GO-2, which would provide satellite operators with extended mobility throughout the entire mission.

“One of the biggest problems satellite operators face today is the limited supply of available propulsion systems. We intend to sufficiently scale production of GO-2 to match this growing demand,” explained Morpheus Space President Kevin Lausten. “By offering a more affordable and readily available propulsion system able to facilitate all necessary maneuvers from initial orbit to de-orbit, the GO-2 marks an important leap for the industry.”

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NASA SCIENTIST SAYS PATENTED ‘EXODUS EFFECT’ PROPELLANTLESS PROPULSION DRIVE THAT DEFIES PHYSICS IS READY TO GO TO SPACE

A patented experimental propellantless propulsion drive is finally ready to go to space, according to its inventor, a veteran NASA scientist with decades of expertise in electrostatics.

Dr. Charles Buhler, the technology’s creator, says the propulsion system may represent a working version of Quantized Inertia, a theory first proposed by University of Plymouth professor Mike McCulloch. The proposition has been subjected to criticism from mainstream scientists in the past because it seemingly violates Newton’s third law of motion.

The controversial technology, which The Debrief covered in April, is privately owned by Exodus Propulsion Technologies and is not affiliated with NASA.

After almost a decade of research, design, and testing, Buhler says he and his team are confident they have verified the force, one his team calls the Exodus Effect(TM), in “nearly every way conceivable on Earth.” The final step required to officially demonstrate the validity of their discovery is to send the propulsion drive unit into space.

“We’ve done everything we could have in vacuum chambers here on Earth. We’ve tested it every which way you can, but the real validation is to have this thing move in space,” Buhler told The Debrief in a lengthy interview. “That’s the bottom line.”

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Astronauts stranded in space due to multiple issues with Boeing’s Starliner — and the window for a return flight is closing

Two NASA astronauts who rode to orbit on Boeing’s Starliner are currently stranded in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) after engineers discovered numerous issues with the Boeing spacecraft. Teams on the ground are now racing to assess Starliner’s status.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were originally scheduled to return to Earth on June 13 after a week on the ISS, but their stay has been extended for a third time due to the ongoing issues.  The astronauts will now return home no sooner than June 26th, according to NASA. 

After years of delays, Boeing’s Starliner capsule successfully blasted off on its inaugural crewed flight from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:52 a.m. EDT on June 5. But during the 25-hour flight, engineers discovered five separate helium leaks to the spacecraft’s thruster system.

Now, to give engineers time to troubleshoot the faults, NASA has announced it will push back the perilous return flight, extending the crew’s stay on the space station to at least three weeks. 

“We’ve learned that our helium system is not performing as designed,” Mark Nappi, Boeing’s Starliner program manager, said at a news conference on June 18. “Albeit manageable, it’s still not working like we designed it. So we’ve got to go figure that out.”

The return module of the Starliner spacecraft is currently docked to the ISS’s Harmony module as NASA and Boeing engineers assess the  vital hardware issues aboard the vessel, including five helium leaks to the system that pressurizes the spacecraft’s propulsion system, and five thruster failures to its reaction-control system. 

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America’s Space Infrastructure: So Vulnerable It Destabilizes Geopolitics

No one would die directly from an attack on satellites, and no one cries over melted plastic and copper. Yet as American and Chinese reliance on their space-based satellite constellations increases, so will the incentive for either side to target and strike the other sides early in a conflict. This incentive to strike first—a “Pearl Harbor” in space—could be so destabilizing as to precipitate a war that neither state wants but cannot avoid. 

The United States needs a space infrastructure that is both resilient and redundant enough to survive a Chinese first strike. That is, the satellite constellation infrastructure that the United States uses for its military and commercial needs must still be functional even if the Chinese were to attack the system and attempt to destroy it. Currently, the brittleness of our satellite constellation is such that any concerted effort by an adversary would render the American satellite constellation useless for military purposes. The satellite infrastructure must be resilient to non-kinetic counterspace weapons like electronic jamming and laser blinding, but also to kinetic anti-satellite missiles or even the deployment of a nuclear weapon. 

The modern U.S. military is dependent on satellites for global positioning system (GPS); communications; sensing and targeting of enemy assets; and even the movement of American ships and planes across the planet. .  Put another way, the U.S. military would be hard pressed to conduct successful operations without access to it. Modern aircraft and navy vessels rely on GPS to traverse the world’s oceans and skies; the military relies on satellites for open and secure communications; and intelligence and surveillance satellites enable America’s precision-guided munitions to hit targets with accuracy. Increasingly, China and Russia are similarly reliant on satellite constellations for military purposes. 

Given the reliance of the United States, China, and Russia on their respective satellite infrastructure, there are first-mover advantages to an adversary who strikes first in space. That is, the more an actor is reliant upon satellite constellations in prosecuting a war, the more incentives their adversaries have to preemptively destroy or degrade said constellations. Indeed, the benefits of striking first are so great—and the consequences of being the target of such a strike are so grave—that brittleness in space incentivizes first strikes and is therefore destabilizing.

Strategic stability generally refers to a condition in which neither actor is incentivized to strike first—and both would pay significant costs for doing so. In the Cold War, neither side carried out a decapitation strike on the other, due in part because of the knowledge that such a strike would not provide meaningful benefit and would trigger a retaliation (a devastating nuclear second strike) the consequences of which would far outstrip any marginal benefit incurred in even a “successful” first strike.

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America’s Cold War Doomsday Satellite

When most people think about drama surrounding the launch of a nuclear weapon, they usually think about some sort of tense face-off between two officers who don’t agree on whether or not to launch, often spurred by some sort of garbled message or unforeseen circumstance that leaves those orders in doubt. But in reality, this is actually the least dramatic portion of the entire exercise. American nuclear missile crews, regardless of which leg of the nuclear triad they fall under, train ceaselessly to execute the orders to launch under any circumstances. If the codes match…missiles fly. What *does* keep nuclear planners up at night is how to make sure the shooters end up getting the orders to fire in the first place.  

Early in the Cold War, new and maturing technologies in warfare and communications led to some interesting ideas about how to get launch orders to alert crews no matter what. Simply put, communications underpinned the entire credibility of the nuclear deterrent. The Pentagon needed a way to make absolutely sure that no matter what happened to its command and control infrastructure during the opening of a nuclear exchange, the president’s orders would be delivered. In the end, they decided that the best way to launch a bunch of missiles and set bombers flying was to launch a missile capable of delivering those commands. That missile was the AN/DRC 8 Emergency Rocket Communications System or ERCS.

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