08/30/2022 – Ephemeris – The Space Launch System (SLS) will evolve over time

This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, August 30th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 20 minutes, setting at 8:22, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:04. The Moon, 3 days past new, will set at 10:02 this evening.

The Space Launch System or SLS rocket that’s used for Artemis I is not the final configuration of the rocket to be flown. For Artemis I and II, which will take astronauts around the Moon and back, the SLS is in its Block 1 configuration with an Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, or ICPS as the upper stage. After the Moon landing by Artemis III, the upper stage will be replaced by the Exploration Upper Stage with nearly four times the thrust of the other. That’s Block 1B. After Artemis VIII, or the eighth launch of the SLS, NASA will have run out of solid booster segments left over from the Shuttle program and will have them replaced with more powerful boosters, making it Block 2. With Block 1 the ICPS needs the core stage to get into a highly elliptical orbit, to send the Orion capsule to the Moon. The ICPS cannot do it by itself.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT – 4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Diagram comparing SLS variants. The chart also shows the cargo variant, one of which was supposed to launch the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. That launch has since been reassigned to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, due to SLS delays. The Falcon Heavy is not as powerful as the SLS, so the Europa Clipper spacecraft will take longer to reach Jupiter’s vicinity (6 vs. 3 years), but will save $2 billion in launch costs. Click on the image to enlarge it. Credit: NASA.

02/22/2021 – Ephemeris – What’s happening with NASA’s Artemis Moon Program

This is Ephemeris for Monday, February 22nd. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 6:21, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:30. The Moon, 3 days past first quarter, will set at 5:28 tomorrow morning.

It appears that the Artemis Moon Program is still on schedule despite a new administration and a setback when a few weeks ago an all up 8 minute firing of the 4 main engines of the Space Launch System Core Stage aborted after little over a minute. (NASA is scheduled to repeat this Green Run test this week) The first launch of the complete rocket is slated for later this year with an uncrewed lunar orbit mission. Recently NASA announced that Elon Musk’s SpaceX was awarded the contract to launch the first two lunar gateway modules on a single Falcon Heavy rocket. The two modules, Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) will be placed in low earth orbit. From there the PPE would use its ion engines to propel the two modules out to a near rectilinear halo orbit of the Moon over many months.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

SLS first green run of all 4 RS-25 engines mounted on the core stage for the Artemis-1 mission on a test stand at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Credit: NASA.

An artist’s depiction of the Lunar Gateway PPE and HALO modules in lunar orbit. The PPE module is the part with the solar panels. Credit: NASA.

 

12/30/2019 – Ephemeris – Some space advances this year

Ephemeris for Monday, December 30th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 5:10, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:20. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 9:45 this evening.

Let’s look back at space activity this past year. SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket twice successfully for commercial payloads. It also performed the Demo 1 flight to send a uncrewed Dragon 2 to the International Space Station. That went off without a hitch. However when testing the same capsule a month later it was destroyed in a fueling mishap that postponed further flight tests until next month. The other Commercial Crew contractor Boeing was having problems with its Star Liner capsule. The latest being a mishap with their test flight to dock with the ISS. Supposedly a timing malfunction caused it to use too much fuel, so it ended in the wrong orbit. However it did land safely.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, carrying the U.S. Air Force’s Space Test Program 2 Mission, lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., June 25, 2019. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

The Demo 1 Dragon docking with the International Space Station. Credit NASA

Starliner Orbital Test Launch on an Atlas 5. Credit Boeing.

04/16/2019 – Ephemeris – Last week was quite a week in astronomy and space

Ephemeris for Tuesday, April 16th. Today the Sun will be up for 13 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 8:28, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:55. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 6:23 tomorrow morning.

Last week was quite a week in astronomy and space. Wednesday was the announcement that the Event Horizon Telescope team had actually imaged the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87, using eight sub-millimeter radio telescopes observing from five continents simultaneously. We’ll have to wait a bit to get an image of the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole. Later that Day SpaceX launched their Falcon Heavy rocket to loft an Arab communications satellite into orbit. The three boosters landed safely. Thursday the Israeli privately financed Beresheet lunar lander almost landed safely on the Moon. Unfortunately its rocket engines failed during its landing attempt. They will build another and try again.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The first image of the black hole in M87. Credit Event Horizon Telescope.

A 5,000 light year long jet from the black hole M87* that’s actually aimed mostly toward us. So the accretion disk in the black hole image is like a halo around the event horizon seen from near the pole of rotation. Credit: NASA/The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

Falcon Heavy leaves the pad. April 10, 2019. Credit SpaceX.

A selfie image of part of the Beresheet lander moments before contact was lost from the Beresheet spacecraft during its descent to the Moon. Credit: SpaceIL/Israel Aerospace Industries.

02/26/2018 – Ephemeris – The Falcon Heavy, a game changer

Ephemeris for Monday, February 26th. The Sun will rise at 7:25. It’ll be up for 11 hours and 1 minute, setting at 6:26. The Moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 5:52 tomorrow morning.

It’s been 20 days since SpaceX launched their massive Falcon Heavy rocket. Basically three Falcon 9’s strapped together, it’s now the most powerful rocket now in service, whose payload mass to orbit was only exceeded by the Saturn V Moon rocket of the Apollo days. Where the Saturn 5 was more than a billion dollars to launch and the Space Launch System (SLS) now being built with a similar price tag, a Falcon Heavy launch is supposed to be less than 100 million dollars. The next version of the Falcon 9, Block 5, should be powerful enough to launch astronauts to the space station, the original task for the Falcon Heavy. This may mean that the Falcon Heavy may have a short life span. This is because the next rocket is coming off the drawing boards, or rather CAD programs, the BFR, the Mars rocket will be even more powerful and reusable.  However the low price tag of a Falcon Heavy launch may be too inexpensive to pass up, even for NASA for heavy satellites of deep solar system missions

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Test launch of the Falcon Heavy, as it clears the tower on February 6, 2018. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit: SpaceX.

The side boosters landing back at the Cape. Click on the image to enlarge. Credit: SpaceX.