NASA

Spacex is on its way to having more money than NASA. He has succeeded, in part, because he does not pay taxes

by

A few weeks ago, Elon Musk made public that Spacex’s income They were on their way to exceed NASA’s annual budgeta milestone that showed the spectacular commercial success of Starlink. Now, an investigation of the New York Times has revealed the least known face of that success: Spacex has been not paying taxes for more than 20 years. The other type of engineering that Spacex makes. Although it is not obliged to present results, because it does not quote on the stock exchange, the company’s internal documents show that Spacex accumulated almost 5.4 billion dollars in tax losses Until the end of 2021. Thanks to US fiscal legislation, these losses can be used to compensate for future benefits, which in practice means that Elon Musk’s company has avoided the payment of billions of dollars in federal taxes on income. The situation is even more favorable for Spacex since 2017 for a change introduced during the first presidency of Donald Trump, which eliminated the 20 -year limit for the use of tax losses. This allows Spacex to apply almost 3,000 million dollars of its losses against future benefits indefinitely. A company that grew with public money. The paradox that is most commented on these days in the American press is that Spacex owes a good part of its growth to NASA contracts and the United States Department of Defense, among other government agencies. Some of these contracts were crucial at the beginning of Spacex. According to an analysis of Washington PostElon Musk companies have received at least 38,000 million dollars in public contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits in the last two decades. In the case of Spacex, which was founded in 2000, almost all its income came from federal contracts until the arrival of Starlink. In 2020, almost 84% of its income, a figure that in 2021 stood at 76%. The golden eggs. With Starlink, the SpaceX business is more buoyant than ever. The satellite Internet network has more than 6 million subscribers and has become the main source of income of the company, surpassing the rocket division. Thanks to Starlink, Spacex plans to enter 15.5 billion dollars in 2025, a figure that is dangerously approaching the annual NASA budget, which by 2026 is estimated at 18.8 billion. This growth has triggered the SpaceX assessment up to 350,000 million dollars, making it the largest non -quoted company in the United States. But you can still use those tax losses to be exempt from paying taxes.

Taking spectacular photographs of the Perseids seems impossible. NASA has a guide to demonstrate otherwise

by

The Perseids are already here and, although there are still a few days to reach their peak of activity, it is convenient to keep in mind some clues and tricks if our intention is to capture them in a photograph. Because as more than one will have proven, this is not always easy. AND Who better than NASA to point to any of these tricks. The first step: plan. If we want to get a good image of this rain of stars, the first thing is to think where and when. The Perseids or Tears of San Lorenzo can be seen for several weeks of summer, approximately between June 17 and August 24, and reach their peak of activity around August 11 and 12. Where and when it is also important when it comes to circumventing the great enemy of astrophotography: light pollution. First, it is convenient Avoid full moon And the phases in which it reflects the most light, since, although we do not perceive this light, it reduces the contrast that our eyes require to see the fleeting stars. It is also important flee from light pollution that generate the lights of cities and other settlements, so perhaps we should plan a trip to the field if we want to see these stars. Finally, we must also know where to look. Perseids owe their name that seem to radiate The constellation of Perseus. Knowing how to locating this constellation in the sky is very useful when restricting the angle to which to aim the objectives of our cameras and increase the probability of capturing some of these flashes. Second step: the team. A tripod can be helpful. Photography will require a long exposure. Maybe they are just a few seconds, but our pulse or any other involuntary movement could spoil a perfect shot. If we do not have a tripod we may resort to a “homemade” solution, such as supporting our camera on some rocks, but that will subtract maneuvering capacity. It can also be useful pertrech In order not to have the chamber trigger and thus avoid additional vibrations, but we can also dodge this requirement with the camera timer. Regarding the lens, NASA’s recommendation is in angular. Since we do not know when and where the next flash will happen, it will be best to cover a lot to increase our chances of success. Third step: Prepare. Once in position, we can start looking The constellation of Perseus. Orient our camera towards it will increase the chances of capturing the flashes of this rain of stars. The approach, best manual. The reason is that cameras self -effect systems can be lost in night darkness. Since we will not have to change the focal point, this does not imply any problem once we have taken the ideal approach. We will have, of course, to walk with an eye: sometimes focusing on infinity is not the best option, so it is a good idea to try small adjustments until you find the ideal approach. There is still a detail. We had said that capturing a rain of stars requires long exhibitions. Calculate how long can also require adjustments, but NASA also has a trick to facilitate work: Rule 500. It is about dividing 500 by the focal distance of the lens, and using the figure as time, in seconds, that our open shutter will remain. This value represents the maximum time that we can maintain the exposure before the terrestrial rotation makes the background stars begin to spread. If we have a 20 mm lens, we will have that 500/20 = 25 seconds of maximum. Experiment, enjoy. Rule 500 can be a good start, but we will still have to adjust our ISO and opening values, which will also allow us to play with shorter exhibitions. We can make small changes and verify how each one affects the quality of the image or its aesthetics. He last advice that NASA It has for those who are encouraged to photograph the persistes (or any other rain of stars) is simple: enjoy. These astronomical events offer us an opportunity to see the night sky in a different way, in advance generated by the unexpected flashes that cross the night sky on some summer nights. In Xataka | What are they and how exactly the Perseids are formed, the most fascinating astronomical phenomenon that we can see today Image | Fatih Turan

NASA ignores Harvard’s study on an alleged extraterrestrial ship: “It is an interstellar kite”

by

On July 1, 2025 he will go down in history as the day that astronomers confirmed the presence of an interstellar third object In the Solar System. 3i/Atlas is, according to NASA, a kite from another star. But for Harvard Avi Loeb teacher, it could be something much more disturbing: a piece of extraterrestrial technology, possibly hostile. Wait, what? In a series of articles and a Paper scientist Not yet reviewed by pairs, Avi Loeb and its collaborators pose a hypothesis that touches science fiction. Known for his controversial position on ‘oumuamua, The first interstellar object ever discoveredwhich also described as possible alien technology, Loeb bases his new theory on a series of characteristics that he considers “anomalous” on the path and nature of 3i/Atlas. The anomalies of 3i/Atlas. Loeb Point out in your blog that the retrograde path of 3i/Atlas is inclined only about five degrees with respect to the plane in which the earth orbit. The director of the Harvard Astronomy Department estimates that the probability that this occurs by chance is only 0.2%. His career about Venus, Mars and Jupiter unusually. An orbit like this, it argues, would be ideal for a probe that would like to observe the planets of the interior solar system. On the other hand, Loeb highlights its huge size, initially estimated at 20 kilometers in diameter. According to his article, we should have seen a million objects of the size of ‘oumuamua (about 100 meters) for each object of the 3I/Atlas caliber. To top it off, the new interstellar visitor will reach its closest point to the sun (its perihelium) on October 29, 2025, at which time it will have been hidden from our view by the sun itself. The dark forest hypothesis. Loeb suggests that becoming invisible from our point of view is intentionally, since the perihelium is the optimal point to perform an inverse Oberth maneuver: a high efficiency braking to be gravitationally trapped by the solar system without being detected from the earth. To round his hypothesis, Loeb is part of this idea in the dark forest hypothesis, popularized by the author of “The problem of the three bodies”, Cixin Liu. The hypothesis, One of the explanations of the Fermi paradoxsuggests that advanced civilizations remain silent to avoid being detected by other potentially predatory civilizations. In this scenario, 3i/Atlas would be a recognition probe exploring the solar system. NASA does not believe it is an alien ship. Although Loeb’s arguments are intriguing, they face Ockham’s Navaja, who says that the simplest explanation is usually correct. In this case, the simplest explanation is that 3i/Atlas is a kite, As NASA says. And the astronomical community has more and more evidence to support this conclusion, refuting, point by point, alleged anomalies. Telescope images such as North Gemini or the Vera C. Rubin Observatory They show what a coma looks like, A diffuse gas and dust cloud surrounding the kite ice cream When heated by the sun. This should invalidate the argument of the size of 20 km, since the real core is much smaller. Loeb himself He later recognized That the elongated appearance is due to the movement of the object during the photographic exposure, not to its shape. Disassembling the Avi Loeb hypothesis. Loeb said that no specific gases were detected. However, as explained by astronomer Darryl Seligman, the object was still far from the sun when those statements were made. It is normal for comime activity (basically, sublimation of ice) is weak to those distances. It is expected that as he approaches the sun, The spectral firms of gases They become visible. Loeb’s hypothesis has been received with strong skepticism. Chris Lentott, Astronomo of Oxford, described the suggestion In Live Science as “a nonsense about stilts and an insult to the exciting work that is being done to understand this object.” This reaction is not by closure, but because the overwhelming evidence available points in another direction. The reality is that 3i/Atlas is a fascinating object, a piece of another solar system that visits us very far, and that has probably more years than the Sun. Studying its composition and trajectory will give us very valuable information about how the planets are formed in other places of the galaxy. In Xataka | These real images were unthinkable before the Webb Telescope: they are planets orbiting other stars to 130 light years Image | Gemini Observatory/Noirlab/NSF/Aura/K. Meech (Ifa/U. Hawaii); Processing: Jen Miller, Mahdi Zamani (NSF/Noirlab)

NASA lost the best camera in Jupiter. A suicide plan has served to recover it successfully

by

It seemed the premature end of the mission. The Junocam, the camera that has given us the most spectacular images of Jupiter and his moons, was dying. The relentless radiation of the gaseous giant had degraded the sweat sensor Juno turning his photos into a noise knead and corrupt lines. We had to try. With an overfruit of the moon ío just around the corner, the NASA team played the whole for the whole with a risky maneuver: cook the camera slowly at 600 million kilometers away to try to repair it. Although all at the control center endured breathing, the play worked. And not only that, but the miraculous rescue has sat a precedent for future space missions. Jupiter’s best photographer. Trying it was worth it because Junocam is not any camera. Is responsible for those Jupiter images that seem impressionist paintings and that, curiously, they are prosecuted by a community of fans on Earth. But its location is priced: it is out of titanium “bunker” that protects the main electronics of the Juno probe. NASA engineers knew that their useful life would be limited in one of the most radioactive environments of the solar system. The Calvary of the Junocam. The juno probe, that arrived in Jupiter in July 2016was designed to last until 2018, but its success has led NASA to extend the mission several times. During the first 34 orbits, Junocam worked perfectly. From orbit 47, radiation ravages began to be evident. For orbit 56, in November 2023, the situation was critical. “Almost all the images were corrupt,” admits NASA In a statement. The planet Jupiter and the moon ío photographed by Juno before and after repair A repair to all or nothing. Diagnosing the failure of a component at millions of kilometers is a titanic task. Repairing is a miracle. The clues pointed to a damaged voltage regulator at the camera power supply. With few options, the team resorted to a process called annealing or Annealing. The idea was, in essence, to heat the material and then cool it slowly, with the hope that heat would repair microscopic defects at the atomic level. “The annealing can sometimes alter a material such as silicon at the microscopic level, but we did not know if this would solve the damage,” explains Jacob Shaffner, chamber engineer. Forged on fire. NASA sent a command to Juno so that the only heater in the Junocam raised its temperature at about 25 ° C, much more than usual. The result was a success … temporary. The camera sent sharp images for several orbits. But Jupiter does not forgive. As the probe entered the radiation belts, the damage returned more strongly. “After orbit 55, our images were full of stripes and noise,” says Michael Ravine, head of the instrument. With an upcoming one Near Iro of íoonly one option was left. The only thing they had not tried was to take Junocam heater to the fullest and see if a more extreme recovery would save us. The reward. The first week there were no improvements. The tension in the equipment was maximum. But just a few days after the encounter with ío, the images began to improve dramatically. By the time Juno went to just 1,500 kilometers of the most volcanic moon in the solar system, the camera worked almost as well as the day of its launch. The success of the maneuver allowed Juno to capture very unprecedented and unprecedented images of the northern pole. The images revealed mountains covered with sulfur dioxide frost and Lava rivers that allowed scientists to rebuild geological formations as fascinating as A lava lake with a glass mountain Inside. This achievement is the culmination of an extended mission that has led Juno to explore Jupiter’s great moons. First it was Ganímedes in 2021the largest satellite of the solar system, and then Europe in 2022. I was as follows on the list, and losing the main camera would have been a hard blow. The repair, of course, is not eternal. NASA informs that noise has begun to reappear in orbit 74. But the lesson learned is incalculable. Images | NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSS In Xataka | The NASA Juno probe sends six photos of its passage through ío, the most inhospitable moon of the solar system

NASA set out to send a woman to the moon before China does. It is getting more and more

by

While the possibilities for NASA to step on the moon again in 2027 fades, China advances with a firm and methodical step without changing its goal: sending astronauts to the lunar surface in 2030. Any of the two countries could end putting the first woman on the moonthe symbolic objective that the United States had marked with Artemis III. Another blow to Artemis. NASA depends on Spacex to achieve the first moaning manned since 1972. In the Artemis III mission, scheduled for mid -2027, two astronauts descend to the lunar surface in a starship ship adapted to land and take off on the moon. But Spacex has delay. He could not Demonstrate fuel transfer in orbit With a cistern starship, much less a loan without crew. With the catastrophic explosion of the starship 36 During a motor test, the program trial zone will have to be repaired. It is the fourth consecutive failure for the Spacex ship-cohete, which will undoubtedly add new delays to its commitments to NASA. Move the goal. The rumors of which Artemis III It could be reconfigured as a mission without alunsing They return to the fore. I would leave NASA with less maneuvering margin to arrive before China does it for the first time. Maybe that’s why the narrative has changed under the new administration: now the political objective is to plant a flag on Mars before China does. With the excuse of eliminating the diversity programs of federal agencies, the references to send to the first woman and the first man of color to the moon They have been erased of the NASA website. China follows its roll. For its part, the Crewing Space Agency of China (CMSA) has completed this week a crucial test of the ship that will take its astronauts to the moon. The early morning of June 17, in the Gobi desert, the Mengzhou ship’s escape system furiously turned on its solid fuel engines. The ship without crew was propelled at full speed from the platform, as it would do if there was an emergency with the rocket. At 20 seconds, He separated from the escape system and opened his parachute To perch again on land. It was a perfect abortion test. China did not perform a since 1998, with its current Shenzhou ship, which routinely carries astronauts to the Chinese space station. The second country on the moon. China wants to become the second country to step on the moon, before one of NASA’s partners in the Artemis missions, such as Jaxa or ESA. The calendar is clear And it has remained so far: in 2027, China will first launch the new heavy rocket CZ-10. In 2028, he will make a manned mission around the Moon (in this case, as a third country to do so, because Canada has a seat on the Artemis II mission). The first moonwill is scheduled by the end of 2030. The Mengzhou ship It will take three Chinese astronauts to the lunar orbitwhile the Lanyue ship, designed to be coupled with Mengzhou in orbit, will descend to the surface in the role of Alunizer. The firm steps of CMSA towards this objective reinforce the image of a robust program, well financed and with an immovable political objective, which increasingly contrasts with NASA Artemis. Image | CMSA, Xinhua In Xataka | After three failures, Spacex needed the new Starship to work out well. I was waiting for the worst explosion of all

While NASA faces the cancellation of 41 missions, China is making authentic virguerías in space

by

The Tianwen-2 probe is the first of those launched by China with ionic propulsion. Not only is it on the way to a nearby asteroid to bring samples to the Earth: its one -decade trip also includes exploring a main belt kite, as far as a Chinese ship will have arrived. China does not give truce. Just when NASA expects 24% of its budget cuts and the cancellation of 41 space missions, China has launched an extraordinarily ambitious scientific program that will take it throughout the solar system throughout the next decades. Robotic Tianwen missions, which are just part of these plans, focus on exploring and bringing samples from other worlds. Tianwen-1 deployed on May 22, 2021 The first Chinese rover on the surface of Mars. Tianwen-2 will bring the first samples of the Kamo’oalewa miniluna at the end of 2027. Tianwen-3 will take advantage of what has been learned In previous missions to bring Martian soil samples, a milestone that the Chinese Space Administration Wait before the United States. Tianwen-4 will explore Jupiter and one of his moons. Double objective. The Tianwen-2 probe took off on board a CZ-3B rocket from the Xichang space center on May 28. After successfully deploying its circular solar panels and performing an escape maneuver, it is directed to Asteroid 469219 Kamo’oalewawith which it will be found for the first time on July 4, 2026, and that will explore closely until April of the following year. In November 2027, after releasing the reentry capsule with asteroid samples, Tianwen-2 will continue on its second goal: 311P/2013 P5 (PANSTARRS). It is a main belt kite, an active object with the orbit of an asteroid and the appearance of a kite that the Chinese ship plans to reach in 2035. Crossing outstanding tasks. To achieve its objectives, Tianwen-2 will not be the first space mission to bring samples of an asteroid (Japan has done it twice and The United States got it in 2023 With Asteroid Bennu), nor the first probe to explore a comet (the European Space Agency landed in Comet 67p in 2014), but the first to do both. China’s space administration is taking advantage of its previous experience to continue crossing outstanding tasks of the list: the Chang’e 2 mission visited an asteroid in 2012 and the Chang’e 5 and Chang’e 6 They brought samples of the visible face and the hidden face of the moon, respectively. When moving so fast, China begins to advance the rest of the nations in some of these milestones, as in the case of samples of the hidden face of the moon. What are these objectives special. Tianwen-2 will not only serve to prepare the recovery of Mars samples. Kamo’oalewa is an interesting object in itself for being a minilun It can be a fragment of the true moon. Tianwen-2 will deploy two small robots: a nanoorbital and a nanoatrizer that will make detections closely. Then, without landing, you will take asteroid samples with an extensible tube and a small excavator wheel to bring them to Earth. Next, it will take advantage of the gravitational assistance of the Earth to travel to the strange comet, which in photos of the Hubble telescope appears with six queues. It will be the Chinese probe that best moves away from the Sun until the arrival of Tianwen-4 to Jupiter. A second probe, launched at the same time 2029, will arrive in Uranus in 2045. But China plans to go further with two missions to Neptune, whose launch is scheduled for 2029 and 2033, with the difference that the second would display an atmospheric probe on its Triton moon. Image | Cnsa In Xataka | No one has advanced NASA in the exploration of other planets from the USSR. China plans to do it even in Neptune

NASA engineers have repaired in extremis lost engines 20 years ago

by

When we thought we had seen everything from Voyager 1, NASA surprises us with a new feat. The venerable space probe, which has been moving away from the earth almost half a century, has recovered engines that were considered lost since 2024; A crucial repair that arrives just in time. Miracle? Nothing of the sort. It has been a mixture of ingenuity and risk that allowed NASA engineers Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Not only promises to exhaust the useful life of the probe, but was made just before the only land antenna capable of sending commands to enter a long maintenance period. Context. The Voyager 1 probe, launched in 1977 with its twin Voyager 2, is located in the interstellar space, about 25,000 million kilometers from the earth. Traveling almost 56,000 kilometers per hour, to keep your main antenna pointing towards us and being able to send us your data, the ship needs to make subtle orientation settings. These movements, remember Paraspacial procesthey are of three types: nod (up and down), wink (left and right) and praise. The latter, the “roll” movement, turns the ship on its axis, and is essential to keep a guide star that Voyager uses to orient and calibrates its magnetometer. They threw the towel. The main propellers of Alabeo de la Voyager 1 stopped working in 2004 for the loss of energy of two small internal heater. Without heater, the fuel of the propellers (hydrazine) is freezing and can cause an explosion in the ship’s nozzle. At that time, NASA engineers concluded that the ruling was irreparable and decided to move on to the reserve praise, they have been working to guide the ship since then. “They probably did not think that the Voyager would continue to run another 20 years,” Kareem Badaruddin, leader of the Voyager Mission in the JPL, said in a statement. 20 years later. The ducts of the reserve propensors are beginning to obstruct due to hydraction residues. According to NASA estimates, they could be completely blocked this autumn, which would make Voyager 1 lose the ability to control alabeo, making the mission seriously danger. Given this perspective, the Voyager team began a career to counter to reexamine the 2004 ruling. The suspicion was that a disturbance in the circuits that control the energy supply of the heater had “moved a switch” to the incorrect position. If they could return that switch to their original state, perhaps the heaters would work again and, with them, the alabus thrusters. A doubly risky plan. It involved lighting the inactive propellants and then trying to fix and restart the heaters. If during this process, the ship’s tracker was too diverted from its guide star, the inactive propellers would firing automatically. And if the heaters were still turned off at that time, an explosion could have occurred. To top it off, NASA only had a margin until May 4 for a scheduled maintenance of antenna 43 of the deep space network. The 70 -meter antenna, located at the Cambberra station, is the only take a whole day to arrive and another to returnthey played to counterreloj. Success. In spite of everything, the team sent the necessary commands on March 18. March 20, They received telemetry with the results. For relief and euphoria of the team, at 20 minutes of starting to receive the data, the temperature of the heater increased drastically. The plan had worked. With this repair, the mission team breathes calmer. If current alabeous propellants are obstructed in the coming months, Voyager 1 may be changed without problems to these newly reactivated propellers and continue working normally. Image | NASA-JPL In Xataka | The rescue of Voyager 1 has begun. With 8 kb of memory, a programming language of 1957 and an unimportant LAG

NASA has revealed why no astronaut has left the Earth’s atmosphere. Not even when they went to the moon

by

From time to time, NASA reminds us with some anecdote or study that things are never how they seem or, failing that, that can always be questionable or have more than one answer. Recently they gave us such a simple explanation about our inability to find extraterrestrial signs that scared. They also clarified why We hadn’t returned To the moon before. The latest: remember that, technically, no human has ever left the earth’s atmosphere. And yes, I don’t even want when we went to the moon. A technically true provocation. To say that no astronaut in history has ever left the earth’s atmosphere may sound to a joke or little less than a conspiracy theory, but, from a scientific perspective and following what atmospheric models say, it is more than us A correct statement. To place ourselves in perspective and following this line of explanation, even iconic figures Like Yuri Gagarin either Neil Armstrongor contemporary space travelers Like William Shatnerhave remained, in physical terms, within the most extreme (although diffuse) limits of the Earth’s atmosphere. The key lies in how the end of that atmosphere is defined: a more complex and expansive issue of what is commonly believed. The atmosphere does not end where we imagine. All this reasoned recently Doug RowlandNASA heliophysics expert. Contrary to the popular idea that the atmosphere ends in a finite layer that dissipates before reaching the terrestrial orbit, the reality is that the atmosphere does not have a clearly defined “roof”. On the contrary, it becomes progressively more dim, but continues to spread. As Rowland toldeven hundreds of kilometers on the surface, where the International Space Station (EEI) orbits, there is still a sufficient air density to gradually stop the station. In fact, if it were not periodically driven with rockets, the EEI would end up falling by atmospheric drag. The artificial border: Kárman. For practical reasons (such as spatial treaties or legal definitions) an international convention has been adopted: The karm linelocated 100 kilometers above sea level, which marks the point where the space begins theoretically. This line serves as a technical threshold, since 99,99997% of atmospheric mass terrestrial is below. Said that, and how Explain the space agency itselfthis definition is useful for regulations and classifications, not so much to describe with physical precision the real limits of the atmosphere. The geocorone: atmosphere that reaches the moon. In 2019, A study based on data from Soho Solar Observatory (NASA/ESA), revealed that the exosphere of the Earth (specifically, a diffuse cloud of known hydrogen atoms Like geocorone) extends to about 629,000 kilometers, that is, beyond the orbit of the moon. What happens? That on that limit there are still about 0.2 hydrogen atoms per cubic centimeter. That means that, technically, even the Apollo missions that alunizarized in the 60s and 70s did not abandon the earth’s atmosphere. “The moon flies through the Earth’s atmosphere,” Igor Baliukin came to saymain author of the study, referring to the unsuspected magnitude of this invisible layer. The sun also contains us. The thing is even more complicated when both the Earth and the Moon are Inside the solar atmosphere. This extends to the edge of the helosphere, the limit beyond which the interstellar space begins. At this point it must be remembered that between the atmosphere of the earth and that of the sun there is no emptiness, but a structure of progressive and overlapping layers that contain particles, energy and electromagnetic dynamics. Therefore, and seen thus, the concept of “being in space” is less a matter of abrupt border and more a matter of progressive gradient. So where the space begins? As Rowland explainedthe answer depends on the point of view. If you ask where the atmosphere ends in a practical sense, probably about 400 kilometers, where air density ceases to have significant effect on objects. But from a more rigorous scientific perspective, that atmosphere does not disappear: it only dissipates and dilutes to barely measurable extremes, without disappearing at all. Therefore, “exterior space” is not an empty place, but a continuous environment full of particles, fields and subtle structures. In that sense, all space trips made by humans have elapsed within that extended wrapping that is still part of the planet that launched them. Image | Jasbond007 In Xataka | The last eeuu slap to Europe has sounded up to space: NASA has just left ESA with Artemis In Xataka | NASA is being very complicated to return to the moon. Your auditor no longer trusts that it can fly over for 2025

NASA, NASA, NASA always sends rockets, rockets, rockets (but also balloons that turn the world)

by

More modest and ignored than rockets, stratospheric balloons They are crucial for many scientific research NASA. The last of these huge balloons has just concluded its mission after 17 days circumnavating the southern hemisphere. 17 days back to the world. In early May, NASA ended the first flight of its 2025 superpression balloons campaign. A stratospheric balloon drew a route around the average latitudes of the southern hemisphere, furrowing the sky for 17 days, 13 hours and 47 minutes. Launched April 17 from Wanaka airportin New Zealand, the globe completed a complete circumnavigation on May 3, and merited the next day in the Pacific Ocean, 1,300 kilometers from the east coast of New Zealand. Straight to the bottom of the sea. Although the mission met the minimum requirements, NASA’s team had been monitoring a possible leak. The balloon lost altitude during the night when crossing areas with colder temperatures, so that their operators decided to finish the flight over the Pacific, without the possibility of recovering the payload. The space agency leaves nothing to chance, even in case of ruling. This type of balloons uses the two -tons payload itself as ballast to sink the entire flight train to the ocean bottom as quickly as possible. In this way, the globe is prevented from remaining in the primary zone of the water column, where most of the marine species. The mission. In addition to trying a new superpression balloon design, this first 2025 flight transported the Hiwind missionwhose objective was to measure the neutral wind in the thermosfera, the layer of the Earth’s atmosphere that is between the mesosphere and the exosphere, to help scientists understand and predict changes in the ionosphere, which can affect communication and navigation systems. Since the mission ended early (the globe that has been in flight lasted more time 57 days), NASA will thoroughly investigate the cause of altitude loss to reduce the probability that a similar problem occurs on future flights. The second campaign superpression balloon It was released on Saturday, May 3 and can be followed in real time on the NASA website. What are the superpression balloons. Are Pumpkin -shaped balloons whose structures, completely sealed, maintain a positive internal pressure and an almost constant volume, which allows them greater altitude stability and flights of much longer duration, since the loss of gas is minimal. With a diameter of 150 meters, the most common volume is 1.13 million cubic meters. A balloon of this size could house a football stadium inside when it is completely inflated. They fly to altitudes of up to 36 kilometers, more than double the altitude of commercial airplanes. And they have been playing for some time as an alternative to space releases For space tourism. What are these balloons for. NASA’s scientific balloons are a low cost form of accessing the stratosphere to do research on land or outer space. Some carry telescopes on board. The NASA scientific balloons program performs, between 10 and 15 individual flights every year. The heavens continue to offer valuable opportunities for science, without always turning on the engines of a rocket. Images | POT In Xataka | The mystery of the spy balloons as a result of an almost unknown phenomenon: the “garbage of the sky”

NASA has just left ESA with Artemis

by

He Historic Tijeretazo to NASA On the part of the United States government has a clear victim: Europe. If Congress approves the cuts proposed by the Trump administration, the European Space Agency, one of NASA’s most faithful partners, will remain alone and with invoices payable in the most important projects that it shares with its American homologue. Context. The budget proposal of the White House for fiscal year 2026 includes a brutal cut for NASA, which would go from 24,800 to 18.8 billion dollars of annual budget, 25% less. The cuts are particularly primed With NASA’s scientific branchbut the United States lunar program and its partners have also placed upside down. He Artemis programthat Trump himself promoted in his first term, will remain in the hands of the private industry from 2027 with the cancellation of the SLS rocket and the Orion ship. The Lunar Gateway station, in which several international partners participate, has completely discarded. A slap to ESA. Although It was seen coming For a long time (Boeing herself He warned it to its employees at the beginning of the year), the cancellation of the SLS/ORION system has direct consequences for the European Space Agency. ESA is responsible for the European Service Module (ESM) that provides propulsion, energy and life support to the Orion ship and its crew. The first ESM was used in the mission without crew Artemis I. Two others will be used in the Artemis II and III missions. But in February 2021, ESA awarded Airbus a contract of 650 million euros for the manufacture of three additional modules (ESM-4, 5 and 6), which will now run out of use. The varapalo does not end there. Lunar Gateway was not an exclusively American project either. The Lunar Orbital Stationwhose launch was planned for 2027, was NASA designed In collaboration with the space agencies of Japan (Jaxa), Canada (CSA), United Arab Emirates and ESA itself. Of course, many of its components were in an advanced phase of development or manufacturing. Thales Alenia Space manufactured in Turin (Italy) The primary structure of the halo module, which was already in the United States for its final equipment. In addition, the ESA had in a test phase a model of Lunar I-Hab (A habitat type module developed in collaboration with Jaxa), and in the preliminary design phase the refueling and telecommunications module Lunar View (formerly known as Esprit). And the astronauts? These multimillionaires European investments, now in the air, They were currency to guarantee the presence of Astronauts of the ESA in the missions to the moon. The architecture of lunar missions will change completely from Artemis III. Taking into account that Artemis I was a mission without crew, that Artemis II has a Canadian on board as a non-American crewman, and that Artemis III is designed for NASA They step on the moon againIt is not clear at what time we will see Europeans step on the moon. After certifying for extravehicular activities at the International Space Station, Pablo Álvarez, The Spanish astronaut of the ESAhe planned to start his lunar training to use the future Gateway station. NASA looks at the private sector. The justification of the White House for this drastic change of course is “to return to the moon before China and put a man on Mars” (the references to place the first woman in Mars were eliminated from the NASA website as part of the measures to erase the initiatives of diversity, equity and inclusion). To do this, It will allocate 7,000 million dollars to a lunar program focused on “commercial systems that allow more ambitious later lunar missions.” All looks point to the Spacex Starship system and the Blue Moon Moon Module from Blue Origin. In addition, they reserve $ 1 billion to start a new manned program to Mars, Following Elon Musk’s recommendationswhose vision shares the future NASA administrator and also Jared Isaacman businessman. An approach that prioritizes the speed and reduction of costs through the private sector, leaving aside the traditional international collaboration models based on contributions from other agencies. Who looks at? The general director of ESA, Josef Aschbacher, has responded with the expected diplomacy. In A statementHe explains that follow -up meetings with NASA are already being held to evaluate the impact of cuts. “From here at the end of the year, ESA will celebrate the Council meeting at the ministerial level, determined to further enhance the role of Europe in space,” says Aschbacher, adding NASA to NASA in a subtle polish that that “undertakes not only to be a reliable partner, but also robust and desirable.” Will perhaps open a closer collaboration with China? China, of course, is willing to become “the new NASA.” Ha Open to international collaborators The tianwen-3 mission of marcian samples and the Robotic mission Chang-e’8 to the moon, perhaps aware that the power vacuum that the US leaves can be filled with a greater opening. Image | Halo Module Structure of the Lunar Gateway Station (Tales, ESA) In Xataka | Boeing has lost: NASA will cancel the SLS rocket and look for a cheaper alternative to colonize the moon and Mars

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.