NASA has set Jan. 7 as the date for the launch of the first commercial crew test flight, an uncrewed SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that will start a series of high-stakes missions over the next year.
In a Nov. 21 statement, NASA said the Falcon 9 launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft on a mission designated Demo-1 is scheduled for Jan. 7 from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, the former Apollo and shuttle pad that SpaceX has renovated to support launches of its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles, in particular crewed Falcon 9 missions.
On that mission, the Crew Dragon spacecraft, also known as Dragon 2, will fly a mission to the International Space Station to test the vehicle’s systems. It will be the first orbital flight for the vehicle, and will not carry astronauts.
If that flight is successful, it will be followed in June by a crewed test flight, called Demo-2, where NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will fly the Crew Dragon to the ISS. Between Demo-1 and Demo-2, SpaceX plans to perform an in-flight abort test where a Crew Dragon will use its abort system to jettison from a Falcon 9 vehicle after liftoff.
A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies — twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life.
If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.
A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes.
Many mainstream scientists think it’s too unsafe to try, and some denounced the Chinese report as human experimentation.
When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced earlier this month that the Indian Navy had completed its first sea-based nuclear deterrent patrol it was more of a statement of intent than a demonstration of a new capability.
The Indian Navy’s new ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) INS Arihant was the boomer that completed the month-long deterrent patrol. Whilst this is not insignificant – it is the first country outside of the five members of the U.N. Security Council to develop this capability – it also shows how far away India is to achieve its goal of joining the other great powers in establishing a credible sea-based deterrent.
Only the U.S., U.K., France and Russia can sustain continuous-at-sea deterrent patrols, which a provides continuous launch capability of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) by maintaining at least one SSBN on station at any one time that could fire a nuclear missile. A continuous patrol requires a minimum of four SSBNs.
The patrol as a statement will have more effect in diplomatic circles than in military ones. India wants to join the club of countries that can support a sea-based deterrent and eventually achieve a continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent. It also means India will have the ability to launch all three air, land and sea-based types of nuclear weapons and a more robust second strike capability.
ABB will build a factory in China to use robots to build robots for the Asian market.
Furhat Robotics is trying to cross the uncanny valley.
Google is shutting down Schaft Robotics after failing to find a buyer for the firm. Google bought Boston Dynamics and Schaft for some unknown purpose, but failed to find a use for their robots. They found a buyer for Boston Dynamics, but not Schaft. I have to wonder if Google didn't actually do serious harm to the development of nextgen robots by its ill-advised procurements.
iRobot has teamed up with Google to study your house. Yes, really.
LG is turning loose self driving shopping carts in South Korea.
Madeline Gannon is a roboticist teaching them to act more like animals.
Supposedly, this mopping robot can sense and avoid dog poo.
This is how NASA plans to use robots to produce fuel on Mars.
Robots will attempt to reseed chunks of the Great Barrier Reef with coral larvae.
A robotic arm might help rehabilitate sufferers from chronic strokes.
Stanford has developed a electronic glove to give robots a sense of touch.
Starship has launched its robot package delivery service in London.
Toyota put a pizza making robot in the back of a hydrogen powered truck.
Teams will compete to in an XPRIZE to map the ocean floor with autonomous underwater vehicles.
Cyborgism:
German scientists have created an artificial "skin" that can point north.
Kaspersky Software is warning brain implants might be hackable.
Some scientists are growing organoids of brain tissue and connecting them to robots.
The Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) will be fully built in 2022 when the last of the three modules scheduled for their launch in 2019-2022 joins the station, Chief Designer and First Deputy CEO of Energia Space Rocket Corporation Yevgeny Mikrin said on Monday.
"The construction of the ISS is planned to be completed by 2022 by putting three new modules into operation. These are the multifunctional laboratory module due to be launched in 2019, the nodal module with its launch in 2020 and the research and energy module planned to be launched in 2022," Mikrin said at a conference devoted to the 20th anniversary of the world’s sole orbiter.
Russian cosmonauts will carry out a 14-day lunar landing mission after 2030, according to a presentation made by Russia's general designer of manned spacecraft Yevgeny Mikrin has stated.
“The first landing mission [14 days]," one of the slides in his presentation at a conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station (ISS) says.
According to the image on the slide, it is planned to send three cosmonauts to the lunar surface.
Mikrin has presented a concept of Russian lunar orbital station.
"We propose that the base block of the station should be created in accordance with the composition of the current Russian segment of the ISS, and include a node module, a scientific/ energy module, and a propulsion module," Mikrin said.
And a graphic emerged from China about their lunar missions and there's a lunar station in it.
All of this is somewhat funny because NASA received a cold shoulder from Canada about participating in the Gateway Station, the Russians have been stating they want an equal say in running the NASA project, and an advisory board was very unhappy with the plans for the station and return to the Moon. ex Administrator Griffin called the Gateway 'stupid.' The Chinese were not impressed either in the past.
Yet, here's Russia talking about their own lunar station and China has started releasing graphics of their lunar station.
“He also said the Soviet-created ‘command’ missile system ‘Perimeter’ capable of transmitting launch commands to intercontinental missiles after an enemy nuclear strike on Russia has been modernized.”
“‘The ‘Perimeter’ system is functioning, and it is even improved,’ said V. Yesin.”
“Answering the question if the ‘Perimeter’ system can guarantee a retaliatory strike in the case of an enemy preemptive attack, the general said: ‘When it is working, we will already have few means remaining – we can launch only the missiles which survive after the aggressor’s first strike.'”
“The expert also stated that ‘we still don’t have an effective response to American medium-range missiles in Europe.'”
“‘Perimeter’ (in English Dead Hand) is an automated command and control system for a massive nuclear retaliatory strike developed in the USSR. According to open information, the ‘Perimeter’ system was created as a component part of the Airborne Command Post (VKP) system under the codename ‘Link’ developed in the Soviet Union.”
China also showed off a flying wing UAV that could be a carrier based drone.
J-20:
J-20s, at least three, possibly more, participated in the airshow at Zhuhai.
The J-20 overflew the Zhuhai airshow with its weapons bay open. It showed it could carry six missiles: four in the main bay and one in each of the secondaries.
China is making significant advances on the fighter front.
J-31/FC-31:
Sources stated the Chinese government has given AVIC a contract to develop the J-31 into an aircraft suitable for the Chinese military due to the J-15 problems.
H-20:
Reports are starting to circulate the Chinese will unveil the H-20 next year. Accurate? Who knows.
Unknown Tonopah aircraft:
Satellite images were censored of an unknown aircraft at the famous Area 51.
Northrop Grumman Stealth Transport:
Was this a cockpit mockup of an undisclosed stealthy transport aircraft?
The powerhouse that will help NASA’s Orion spacecraft venture beyond the Moon is stateside. The European-built service module that will propel, power and cool during Orion flight to the Moon on Exploration Mission-1 arrived from Germany at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday to begin final outfitting, integration and testing with the crew module and other Orion elements.
The service module is integral to human missions to the Moon and Mars. After Orion launches on top of the agency’s Space Launch System rocket, the service module will be responsible for in-space maneuvering throughout the mission, including course corrections. The service module will also provide the powerful burns to insert Orion into lunar orbit and again to get out of lunar orbit and return to Earth. It is provided by ESA (European Space Agency) and built by ESA’s prime contractor Airbus of Bremen, Germany. NASA’s prime contractor for Orion, Lockheed Martin, built the crew module and other elements of the spacecraft.
Russian press quotes an industry source as saying that the Avangard boost-glide system (Project 4202) "will begin combat duty by the end of 2019." The first regiment will include two UR-100NUTTH/SS-19 missiles, each armed with a single boost-glide vehicle. The missiles will be deployed in silos of the Dombarovskiy missile division. Later the number of missiles in the regiment will be increased to six; a second regiment with six missiles is expected to be deployed by 2027. The source also said that it's possible that the deployment will begin without additional flight tests of the vehicle.
The Russians are bizarrely claiming the drone attacks against their airbase in Syria were directed by a US Navy P-8 Poseidon. The US and its allies refute this.
The Russian Army has supposedly received 1800 UAVs in the last six years.
The Russians have developed a biomimic UAV in the shape of an owl.
China will perform a first test flight of a full-scale 20-metric ton model of a successor to its Shenzhou spacecraft for human spaceflight next year, a senior official at the craft’s designer said last week.
The next-generation crewed spacecraft will be the payload for the first flight of the Long March 5B launch vehicle, a variant of the Long March 5 and designed for lofting large modules of the planned Chinese Space Station (CSS) into low Earth orbit.
In 2016, China use the first flight of the Long March 7 medium-lift rocket to launch a scale model of a new return module to test re-entry and landing profile for new spacecraft.
“The full model will be tested next year,” Li Ming, vice president of the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), told SpaceNews, and confirmed the mission would include the full spacecraft including re-entry and orbital modules.
“The key issue is to test the new shape and reusable technologies. This capsule will be reused after recovery from space,” Li Ming said at the International Astronautical Congress, held Oct. 1-5 in Bremen, Germany.
The test of the spacecraft will not include environmental controls or systems required to support astronauts, but focus on testing avionics, separation events, heat shielding, parachutes and recovery operations, similar to the mission profile NASA’s Orion flew in 2014 when a Delta 4 heavy rocket sent the unmanned capsule 5,800 kilometers above the Earth to test re-entry systems.
With the second refitment of INS Vikramaditya over, the country’s lone operational aircraft carrier will be entering the sea-trial stage by next week. The short refit, at an expense of Rs 705 crore, was carried out at the Cochin Shipyard and the aircraft carrier is now docked at Ernakulam Wharf, prior to the commencement of the sea trials.
During an onboard visit arranged by the Navy for media persons on Saturday, Commanding Officer of INS Vikramaditya Captain Puruvir Das said the refitment of the ship has been completed.
“However, a few tests, including the checks on the ship’s boilers, are underway. Soon, we will start the sea trials, which will take place off the Kochi and Goa coasts. We are hopeful of returning to the Western Naval Command without delay,” he said.
NASA will lead the development of the Gateway, a permanent spaceship orbiting the Moon, to serve as a home base for human and robotic missions to the surface of the Moon and ultimately, Mars. The first orbiting lunar laboratory will be a temporary home and office for astronauts for up to three months at a time, with cargo deliveries likely scheduled when crew are not present.
The agency is seeking input from U.S. companies regarding logistics requirements to supply the Gateway. This request, published Oct. 23, 2018, will help NASA understand service options to transport cargo, equipment and other goods like food to and from the orbiting spaceship nearly 240,000 miles from home. Responses are due to NASA by Nov. 2, 2018.
NASA is interested in a logistics module capable of carrying pressurized and unpressurized cargo. The agency anticipates needing at least three cargo delivery missions, with the first mission potentially delivering a robotic arm provided by an international partner to the Gateway in 2024. The first two logistics modules will likely launch on commercial rockets, but after Gateway assembly, NASA’s Space Launch System will be available as well.
