Category: Space Sunday

The first all-European crewed space mission is currently underway at the International Space Station (ISS) – albeit through the auspices of two US-based companies and NASA.

The Axiom AX-3 mission lifted-off from Launch complex 39A at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida at 21:49 UTC on January 18th, carrying a crew of four aboard the Crew Dragon Freedom. As its name suggests, the mission is the third crewed flight to the ISS undertaken on a private basis by Axiom Space, utilising the launch capabilities of the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster and Crew Dragon capsule.

Delayed by 24 hours to allow for additional pre-flight checks, the launch was perfect, carrying mission commander and former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, representing Spain, his nation of birth (he holds dual Spanish and American citizenry), vehicle pilot Walter Villadei of the Italian Air Force, making his first fully orbital flight into space, having previously flown as a member of Italy’s sub-orbital flight with Virgin Galactic, and mission specialists Marcus Wandt, a reservist in the European Astronaut Corps, and Turk Alper Gezeravcı who becomes his country’s first astronaut.

Following launch, the Falcon 9’s first stage made a successful landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base south of Kennedy Space Centre, whilst the dragon went on to a successful orbital insertion and separation from the booster’s upper stage, to start a 36-hour gentle rendezvous with the ISS, the Crew Dragon gently raising its orbital altitude to match that of the ISS before closing to dock with the station.

The latter took place at 10:42 UTC on Saturday, January 20th, 2024, when Freedom latched on to the forward docking port on the station’s Harmony module and pulled into for a hard dock. 90 minutes later, with post-flight checks completed and the AX-3 crew able to change from their pressure suits to less restrictive flight wear, the hatches between station and capsule were opened, and López-Alegría led his crew out to be greeted 7 members of ISS Expedition 70.

The mission – which is due to last some 14 days at the station – marks the sixth orbital flight for López-Alegría. He first flew in 1995 on the second mission of the US microgravity laboratory, a research module carried within the payload bay of the space shuttle prior to the development of the ISS.  He subsequently flew on STS-92 and STS-113 whilst the ISS was being constructed, prior to serving as ISS mission commander for the Expedition 14 rotation in 2006-2007. He also served as the head of NASA’s ISS Crew Operations office (1995-2000) and is also a former NASA aquanaut, serving on the first NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) crew aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory, in October 2001. Having joined Axiom in 2017, he first flew aboard Crew Dragon in the AX-1 mission in April 2022.

The remaining three AX-3 crew are all orbital rookies making their first stay in space. However, their presence on the ISS means that the station now has its largest ever international crew, with two US citizens, three Russians, a Dane, and a Japanese astronaut making up the ISS expedition crew.

We’ve got so many nationalities represented on board, and this is really symbolic of what we’re trying to do to open it up not only to other nations, also to individuals to researchers to continue the great work that’s been going on onboard the ISS for the last two decades plus.

– Michael López-Alegría

While aboard, Ax-3 crewmembers will live and work alongside the station’s current residents, performing experiments and research started with the first two Axiom missions, with a focus on human spaceflight and habitability in microgravity environments, a goal very much in keeping with international research on the station and of particular interest to Axiom Space, which plans to operate its own orbital facilities, initially docked their own modules with the ISS prior to separating them to become a dedicated orbital facility when the ISS is decommissioned in 2030.

In addition, the AX-3 crew will conduct research into AI and human health – the mission includes an experiment from Turkey called Vokalkord, which uses AI algorithms to diagnose several dozen diseases by analysing a cough or someone’s speech -; experiments with high-strength alloys, with implications for in-space construction and assemblies as well as other biology and physics-related work.

China’s SpaceX? Sort-of, But Not Exactly

A glance at the image above might initially suggest it is one from the history books: an early flight test of the Falcon 9 reusable first stage out of SpaceX’s flight test centre at McGregor, Texas. However, the landscape isn’t entirely in keeping with that of McLennan and Coryell counties, Texas, whilst a closer look at the booster might reveal something of the truth, thanks to the large red flag painted thereon.

The craft is in fact the Zhuque-3 vertical take-off, vertical landing unit 1 (VTVL-1), a test article developed by Chinese private sector launch start-up Landspace. It is intended to pave the way for a semi-reusable launch vehicle called Zhuque-3 (“Vermillion bird-3”), which is intended to have the same overall launch capabilities as Falcon 9 (up to some 21 tonnes to low-Earth orbit (LEO) when flown fully expendable, and between 12.5 and 18.4 tonnes when the first stage is to be re-used). However, to call it an outright “Falcon 9 clone”, or a “copy” of SpaceX’s work would not be strictly accurate.

Whilst there is much about Falcon 9 which likely influenced the Zhuque-3 design, the fact is that its looks are as much about the old axiom, form follows function, as much as any “copying” of SpaceX; the overall design and appearance of the booster and its landing legs are simply the result of their form being the most logical to meet the requirements of their functionality (hence why, in aircraft design, for example, vehicles designed for a specific task by different nations can often end up appearing quite similar, even if not direct copies).

Similarly, and while SpaceX fans have pointed to Landspace also “copying “SpaceX in the use of stainless steel for the rocket and the use of methlox – liquid methane/liquid oxygen – engines (all of which are used by SpaceX in their Starship / Super Heavy combination), the fact is that the Chinese commercial space sector has been dabbling in methlox propellants since around 2015, pre-dated Starship development, whilst the use of stainless steel in the Zhuque-3 rocket is perhaps more the result of Landspace already having experience in fabricating rocket cores out of it via their operational Zheque-2 launch vehicle than any attempt to copy someone else’s work. While also is not to say that SpaceX haven’t cut a path that other companies around the world can follow.

The first (expendable) launch of Zhuque-3 is expected in 2025, and will mark a further expansion of China’s commercial space sector, in which Landspace is just one of a number of companies developing or operating launch systems and developing semi-reusable launchers. Just how much competition there is already in the market is perhaps illustrated by the fact that some news agencies reported on the Zhuque-3 test flight by using video footage of the second test carried out by China’s iSpace company of their Hyperbola-2 VTVL test vehicle, which took place in December 2023!

Such is the broad and rapid pace of reusable booter development in China’s commercial space sector, footage similar to this video showing the first VTVL test of the iSpace Hyperbola-2 booster VTVL test article (and which I covered at the time), was mistakenly used by some news outlets to report on the January 19th Zhuque-3 VTVL test. Video credit: iSpace via SciNews

Overall, the Chinese commercial market is as richly diverse as the developing commercial space sector in the US, and with China enjoying good trade relations with a number of Asian countries looking to develop space-based capabilities, there is good potentially for interest in using these vehicles to gain something of an international footprint.

Three Mini Mission Updates

Peregrine Mission One

Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One (aka Peregrine or Peregrine One), is now officially over. As I’ve previously reported, the NASA-funded private mission to put a lander on the surface of the Moon under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme, got off to a flying start with a January 8th, 2024 ride to TLI (trans-lunar injection) aboard the maiden flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. However, some time after the separation of the lander from the rocket’s Centaur upper stage, a propellant leak occurred which resulted in the lander entering an uncontrolled tumble, shifting it away from its rendezvous with the Moon and starving it of the propellants needed to make a landing even if it could get there.

On January 14th, the lander crossed the orbital path of the Moon, and shortly after that, gravity took over and started pulling it back towards Earth. As a result, on January 18th, 2024, the craft re-entered the atmosphere over the South Pacific, where it proceeded to burn-up. However, analysis of data returned by the craft as it headed back to Earth revealed a possible cause of the propellant system failure, as related by Astrobotic CEO John Thornton during a press briefing on January 18th:

The valve separating the helium and oxidiser in the lander’s propulsion system did not re-seal properly. This allowed a rush of helium to enter the oxidiser tank, raising the pressure to the point where the tank ruptured.

This knowledge actually helped in securing the lander’s final demise: by characterising the nature and direction of the leak, together with the rate of loss of remaining gases, flight engineers were able to put the lander into a more controlled entry into the atmosphere, pushing itself farther over the South Pacific to avoid the risk of any components surviving re-entry from falling over land masses.

Despite the loss, Astrobotic remain upbeat about their next lunar mission – again supported by NASA – which will hopefully see the company’s Griffin lander deliver NASA’s VIPER rover to the Moon in 2024.

 Japan’s “Sniper” Achieves Lunar Landing But Not Without Issues

Meanwhile, Japan became the 5th country to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon when their Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM)  touched-down near Shoji Crater close the Moon’s equator at 15:20 UTC on January 19th, 2024 (00:20 on January 20th, Tokyo time).

Launched in September 2023 alongside Japan’s X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), SLIM – nicknamed “Moon Sniper” – took a leisurely trip to the Moon, spiralling slowly away from Earth to enter lunar orbit on Christmas Day 2023, orbiting the Moon at an altitude of just under 600 km. The orbit was then eased down to around 50 km, and than further reduced to a point just 20 km above the lunar surface, where the descent proper began, curving the lander in towards its target zone. At 5 km above the Moon, the descent became vertical, with livestream telemetry showing everything to be spot-on.

At 50 metres above the surface, the vehicle translated in flight, moving horizontally to position itself directly over a pre-planned landing point, before descending to a successful soft-landing. It was this final manoeuvre which formed one of the key goals for the mission. Usually, landing zones for robot vehicles are planned well in advance and encompass  elliptical areas around 10 km wide and a couple of dozen in length. However, SLIM carried modified facial recognition software which allowing it to monitor its descent and adjust its position autonomously by matching surface features scanned by its cameras with high-resolution images of the landing site stored in its navigation system. At 50 metres, the craft was able to confirm its desired landing point – an area just 100 metres across by contrast to normal landing zones and then manoeuvre itself to a landing with it.

But while the landing was successful, it became clear something was wrong; there was no sign that the battery system powering the craft was receiving energy from the lander’s solar array. After investigating the issue for a number of hours, engineers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) concluded that while SLIM had landed within the desired zone, for some reason its wasn’t correctly oriented for its solar array to receive sunlight, leaving it trapped on battery power, which would expire within hours.

Prior to completely exhausting the battery, attempts were made to put the lander in a dormant mode, the hope being that as the Moon moves in its orbit over the next few days, sunlight will fall onto the lander’s solar array, and power will start to be generated, allowing to to wake itself up and start surface operations.

While both of the mini-rovers – LEV-1 and LEV-2 are thought to have successfully reached the surface of the Moon, at the time of writing, their status is unknown.

Even if the lander cannot recover itself with the aid of sunlight, SLIM is a very successful mission: demonstrating the means to make landings on other bodies with near pinpoint accuracy will be of vital importance in unfolding efforts to explore and develop the Moon and to further explore Mars both robotically and (eventually) with human missions.

Ingenuity Suffers Communications Glitch

NASA’s Mars Helicopter Ingenuity completed its 72nd flight on January 18th, 2024, but not without incident. Lifting-off from sand dunes some 800-900 metres from the Mars 2020 rover Perseverance, the helicopter was engaged in a brief “pop-up” test flight intended to see it climb vertically to 12 metres altitude, hover, and then descend back to a landing.

Telemetry received via the rover indicated that the first elements of the flight were successful – but all contact was lost during the descent phase. For a time it was unclear if the use was a communications drop-out, or something more drastic, and with Perseverance out of direct line-of-sight with the helicopter, determining which was initially difficult.

In recent flights Ingenuity has been ranging ahead of the rover, acting as an airborne scout for possible driving routes. At the end of its 71st flight, the helicopter suffered a slight issue, causing a premature landing somewhat further than planned from the rover; as a result this flight was to confirm all flight systems and software were operating nominally, prior to resuming normal operations and allowing the helicopter to come back closer to the rover.

Following the loss of signal, telemetry was reviewed to see if it revealed any indication of a serious issue and possible vehicle loss. None was found, so engineers determined it was likely a comms problem and ordered Perseverance to change its communications parameters and lengthen the time periods it listens for Ingenuity’s transmissions.

As a result, in the early hours of January 21st (UTC), communications were once again established, allowing more data on the final phase of the flight to be relayed to Earth for study. Currently, Ingenuity remains grounded, and mission planners are considering ordering Perseverance to drive a point where it can see Ingenuity to allow for a visual inspection of the helicopter.

On Monday January 8th, 2024 United Launch Alliance completed the maiden launch of their Vulcan Centaur rocket with complete success, silencing critics and demonstrating that the caution and most recent delays around the launch (outside of those coming from the payload side) were worth it.

Lift-off came at 07:18 UTC as the two Blue Origin BE-4 motors of the 62-metre tall vehicle’s core stage ignited together with the two solid rocket boosters strapped on either side of it, lighting up the sky at Cape Canaveral Space Force station as the rocket climbed into a pitch-black sky. At 2 minutes into the flight, their job done, the solid rocket boosters shutdown and separated, leaving the rocket’s core to continue to power it upwards for a further three minutes before its liquid propellants were expended, and it separated to fall back into the Atlantic Ocean. The Centaur upper stage coasted for some 15 seconds before igniting it own pair of RL-10 motors in the first of three burns to place the vehicle and its payload into a trans-lunar injection (TLI) orbit and the first phase of what was hoped would be a looping trip to the lunar surface.

As I’ve previously noted, Vulcan Centaur is slated to replace ULA’s Atlas and Delta workhorses as a highly-capable, multi-mission mode payload launch vehicle in both the medium and heavy lift market places. Initially fully expendable, the vehicle may evolve into a semi-reusable form in the future, ULA having designed it such that the engine module of the core stage could in theory be recovered. It is also intended to become a human-rated launch vehicle. The Centaur upper stage is also designed with enhancement in mind, with ULA indicating that future variants might be capable of orbiting on an automated basis as space tugs or similar, once in orbit.

Whilst the vehicle carried a critical payload, the flight was actually regarded as a certification flight rather than an operational launch; one designed to gather critical performance and other data on the rocket which can be feed back into any improvements which might be required to make the vehicle even more efficient, etc.

A second certification flight is due to take place in April 2024, again with a critical payload – this one in the form of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser cargo vehicle Tenacity, the first in a number of these fully reusable spacecraft which will help to keep the International Space Station (ISS) supplied with consumables and equipment, as well as helping in the removal of garbage from the station and the return of instruments and experiments to Earth.

While the launch of the Vulcan Centaur was a complete success – doing much too potentially boost ULA’s position as it seeks a buyer – the same cannot be said for its primary payload, which now looks set to make an unwanted return to Earth.

Peregrine Mission One (or simply Peregrine One), was to have been America’s first mission to land on the surface of the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Financed in a large part via NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme, this mission is nevertheless regarded as a private lunar mission, carrying some 20 experiments and instruments allowing it to operate in support of NASA’s broader lunar goals.

At first everything seemed to be going well with the mission. The lander rode the Vulcan Centaur to orbit before it powered-up its own flight systems and ‘phoned home to say it was in good shape. Then, some 50 minutes after launch, and the Centaur upper stage having completed its final burn to set the lander on its looping course to the Moon, Peregrine One separated from its carrier.

All appeared to go well in the hours immediately following separation, but following an attitude adjustment, telemetry started being received suggesting the craft was in difficulties and was unable to correctly orient itself. It was not initially clear what was wrong with the lander, and in an attempt to find out, Astrobotic – the company responsible for designing and building it – ordered camera mounted on the lander’s exterior to image its outer surfaces for signs of damage. The very first image returned showed an area of the craft’s insulation around the propulsion system – required to make the descent and soft-landing on the Moon – had suffered extensive damage, with propellants leaking into space from around it.

This, coupled with the telemetry gathered from the lander caused Astrobotic to determine that one of the vehicle’s attitude control system (ACS) thrusters was still firing well beyond expected limits, most likely due to a failed / stuck valve, placing the vehicle in an uncontrollable tumble.

If the thrusters can continue to operate, we believe the spacecraft could continue in a stable sun-pointing state for approximately 40 hours, based on current fuel consumption. At this time, the goal is to get Peregrine as close to lunar distance as we can before it loses the ability to maintain its sun-pointing position and subsequently loses power.

– Astrobotic statement, Monday, January 8th

Initially, it had been hoped that the craft would still reach the Moon and make what is euphemistically called a “hard landing” (that is, crash into it) around the time of the planned landing date of February 23rd, engineers having calculated that by then, even if the rete of propellant loss slowed over several days and ceased, the craft would have insufficient reserves to make a controlled landing. However, by mid-week it was clear even this would not be the case; the leak had put Peregrine One on a much more direct path towards the Moon’s orbit than had been intended such that on January 12th, an status update from the company noted:

Peregrine remains operational about 238,000 miles from Earth, which means we have reached lunar distance! Unfortunately, the Moon is not where the spacecraft is now, as our original trajectory had us reaching this point 15 days after launch, when the Moon would have been at the same place.

– Astrobotic statement, Friday, January 12th

However, the one “good” piece of news through the week was that as time progressed, the propellant leak deceased, and some steps to help stabilise the vehicle – and maintain its orientation to the Sun such that its solar arrays could continue to received energy and power the vehicle’s systems – could be taken. These in turn allowed a number of the experiments on the lander to be powered-up. While they are not operating in their intended modes (or location), it is hoped that they will still be able to gather data on the radiation environment in interplanetary space around the Earth and the Moon.

The most recent projections from Astrobotic (January 14th) suggest that as the Lander has in sufficient velocity to complete escape Earth’s gravity well, it will likely start to “fall back” to Earth in the coming weeks, and orbital mechanics being what they area, most probably slam into the upper atmosphere and burn-up.

Given Peregrine One’s involvement in the CLPS programme, NASA has been monitoring the Peregrine One situation closely, and on January 18th the agency and Astrobotic are due to convene a telecon in order to review Astrobotic’s efforts to recover the craft and what they have learned. In the meantime, agency officials have noted that the failure of Peregrine One to successfully achieve a lunar landing will not in any way impact CLPS.

Artemis 2 and 3 Slip

On January 9th, 2024, NASA announced America’s return to the Moon with crewed missions at the head of Project Artemis is to be further delayed.

In the announcement, made in part by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, it was indicated that the upcoming Artemis 2 mission around the Moon and back, and intended to take place in November 2024, will now not take place before September 2025. Meanwhile, the first US crewed mission to the surface of the Moon will now occur no sooner than September 2026.

The reasons given for the delays relate most directly to Artemis 2. In particular, there are a number of new systems and capabilities in development as a part of the overall Artemis programme which are now far enough along that it makes sense to delay Artemis 2 to leverage them, as they offer increased safety at the pad and prior to launch – such as improved means for crew egress from the launch vehicle in an emergency, and faster propellant loading capabilities.

Another cause for the delay is on-going concerns about the performance of the ablative heat shield on the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MCPV). Whiles the shield did its job and protected the unscrewed capsule of Artemis 1 during its passage back into the Earth’s atmosphere at the end of that mission in November 2022, it still showed signs that rather than charring in place, some of the material actually peeled away from the vehicle as it charred, which is not supposed to happen.

Finally, concerns have recently been raised about the electrical system managing the crew abort system rockets, designed to haul the Orion capsule and its crew clear of the SLS rocket if the latter suffers a serious failure during the initial ascent to orbit. As a result, further tests have been requested on that system.

I want to emphasize that safety is our number one priority. And as we prepare to send our friends and colleagues on this mission, we’re committed to launching as safely as possible. And we will launch, when we’re ready.

– Jim Free, NASA’s Associate Administrator

The announcement was, oddly, seen as a cause for vindication among some SpaceX fans – the private launch company has been cited as a potential reason for delaying the Artemis 3 programme, given they are still a long way from demonstrating they have the ability to supply NASA with an operational lunar landing vehicle and the means to get it to lunar orbit.

However, even the addition of a further 11 months to the Artemis schedule still leaves SpaceX with precious little time to achieve those goals in a manner which meets NASA’s safety requirements. As such, the concerns about SpaceX being able to meet current Artemis time faces, as highlighted (again) in 2023 by the US Government Accountability Office (which has an uncannily accurate eye for predicting programme slippages and their causes) still remain valid.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: lunar losses and delays; strings and rings” →

For 40 years, the European Space Agency (ESA) has been at the forefront of space innovation and exploration – although its work and contributions have oft been overshadowed by those of NASA and Russia -, and that drive to innovate is set to continue through the next decade and beyond.

To demonstrate this, on January 3rd, 2024, ESA issued a video showcasing upcoming projects and innovations which will help define the future of crewed and uncrewed voyages into orbit which are being driven from with Europe, either as direct ESA projects, ESA partnerships or ESA-supported private ventures. In particular, the 2:32 minute video (including end credits) showcases the following projects and launch vehicles:

• 0:26: Space RIDER:  (Reusable Integrated Demonstrator for Europe Return) – a small-scale reusable lifting body supported by an expendable service module and capable of delivering 600 kg of payload to low-Earth orbit on missions of up to 2 months at a time. Payloads are intended to be experiments and science instruments, which the vehicle returns to Earth at the end of a mission. Designed to be launched atop ESA’s Vega-C launch vehicle, Space Rider will land horizontally, gliding to a landing under a parafoil, and the vehicle’s qualification flight is expected to take place in 2025.

• 0:33: Prime Micro-launcher – a UK-led (by Orbex) private sector launcher designed to leverage the growing cubesat market, and deliver up to 150 kg of payloads to 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), primarily from the UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Isles, and potentially from Portugal’s Azores International Satellite Launch Programme (ISLP) facilities, currently being developed on the island of Santa Maria.
• 0:44: Skyrora XL – a UK-developed 3-stage vehicle designed to place up to 315 kg into a 500 SSO from the UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport. Skyrora will be powered by its own in-house developed engines, including the Skyforce-2 70 kN motor, which is the focus of the video, and which uses liquid kerosene created from waste plastic as its propellant.

• 1:06: Isar Spectrum – a German-led project to develop a two-stage launch vehicle designed to deliver up to 1 tonne to LEO orbits out of Europe’s Spaceport at the Guiana Space Centre, Kourou in French Guiana, and up to 500 kg to SSO from the Andøya Spaceport, Norway.
• 1:26: second launch of Miura-1 – a Spanish-developed sub-orbital, reusable rocket system for flying experiments of up to 200 kg to altitudes between 80 and 110 km. The initial flight of the vehicle occurred in October 2023, but was only a partial success – range safety concerns limited the flight to less than 50 km altitude and the vehicle sank after splashdown, potentially due to its lower than intended altitude resulting in velocity-induced damage on impact with the sea. Once operational, Minura-1 will be Europe’s first fully-reusable launch vehicle and help pave the way for the Miura-5 orbit-capable launcher.
• 1:32: RFA-1 – a German-led project to build and fly a three-stage multi-role launch vehicle capable of delivering up to 1.6 tonnes to LEO, 1.35 tonnes to polar orbit or 450 kg to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). The first orbital flight attempt is due to take place from the UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport in the summer of 2024.
• 1:52: Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration (SUSIE) – potentially Europe’s most ambitious launcher vehicle development programme. A25-tonne lifting body intended to be launched atop the Ariane 64 booster, SUSIE – which is being developed for ESA by ArianeSpace – will be able to deliver either payloads of up to 7 tonnes to orbit when operating autonomously, or crews of up to five astronauts to orbital space facilities. The vehicle is intended to form the upper stage of the launch vehicle, requiring no fairings to protect it during orbital ascent. Following atmospheric re-entry, the vehicle will make a tail-first propulsive descent and landing in a manner akin to the DC-XA demonstrator vehicle, flown in the mid-1990s.

• Propulsion systems featured in the video include:
  • 0:40: M10 liquid methane-liquid oxygen motor currently being developed for use on ESA’s future Vega-E booster by Italy’s Avio aerospace company.
  • 0:50: Parafin-liquid oxygen hybrid propulsion – an in-development rocket motor by Germany’s HyImpulse, and designed to power the first and second stages of the company’s proposed SL1 launcher, designed to lift up to 500 kg to low-Earth orbit (LEO).
  • 1:44: Prometheus – a reusable methane-fuelled rocket motor, currently in development on behalf of ESA and intended to power a reusable test vehicle called Themis, starting in 2025. Both Prometheus and Themis are intended to pave the way for the semi-usable Ariane Next, which will replace Ariane 6 in the 2030s.

 Athena: a Space Engine in the Palm of Your Hand

One European innovation not featured in ESA’s video is the Spanish-developed Athena propulsion system. A palm-sized unit specifically designed to manoeuvre small satellites and cubesats once they are in orbit, thus helping them to become more flexible in the range of uses to which they might be put. And it does so in a highly innovative manner – via an electrospray.

An electrospray is an apparatus which uses and electrical current to disperse a liquid through an emitter. The idea itself is not new; its underpinnings were theorised in the 1960s by Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor, after whom the most ideal form the liquid is forced into under the influence of the electrical current – the Taylor cone – is named.

Electrosprays are used in a number of fields of science, and they have spurred the use of electrical currents to direct the thrust of cold gas thrusters on satellites However, what makes Athena (the name standing for Adaptable, THruster based on Electrospray powered Nanotechnology, rather than being drawn from mythology, as is the case with main space-related projects) so unique is a combination of its tiny size coupled with the use of a non-toxic propellant that does not require complex tank storage and pressurisation.

The system comprises a set of seven electrostatically charged thrust emitters, each about two finger tips across and containing an array of 500 pinhole-sized thrust ports each. A conductive salt is passed through these emitters, the electoral charge accelerating the particles and directing them into a cone of unified thrust which can be turned on and off by applying / removing the electrical current. The result is a set of tiny thrusters with practically no moving parts and a propellant which can be stored in a simple, compact container. This means that the overall mass of Athena thrusters and their propellant source is much lower than “traditional” cold-thrust systems, but they are capable of exceptionally fine control.

The current versions of Athena can be used on satellites of up to 50 kg, and can produce a sustained thrust of up to 20 m/s, if required. They are ideal for use on 10-cm-on-a-side cubesats, with the team behind them hoping to scale them up for use with smallsats of up to 300 kg mass.

Vulcan Set to Send Peregrine to the Moon

Monday, January 8th, 2024, is a major date for America’s United Launch Alliance (ULA), as the company seeks to successfully complete the first launch of its new Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Designed to replace ULA’s workhorse Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, Vulcan Centaur has had its share of hiccups and delays in getting to this point. This maiden flight had originally been targeting a 2019 date – although that was admittedly highly ambitious, given ULA only really started developing the vehicle in 2014 and hit some technical issues along the way as a result; other matters outside of ULA’s control – such as the SARS-COVID 19 pandemic and issues with the development of its payload – also contributed to the 4-year delay.

For the company, a lot is riding on this launch. Technically referred to as a certification flight, rather than an operational launch, the two-stage rocket will nevertheless be carrying a functional payload in the form of Peregrine Mission One (aka Peregrine One). This is a privately-built but NASA-funded lunar lander, developed as a part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme, designed to help pave the way for the agency’s crewed Artemis Moon landings with various robotic missions and vehicles supplied by the private sector.

The launch is designed to be the first of seven through the year, with the second (in April) serving as the final certification flight, although it will also carry a payload aloft in the form of the first Dream Chaser cargo vehicle to fly into space and delivery supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. After this, Vulcan Centaur will complete a series of US government military launches. Assuming this first flight is a success, and the same is true for the rest planned for 2024, they will vindicate the faith customers have in Vulcan Centaur – despite he delays in its development, the rocket already has 70 customers lined-up and waiting their turn to fly payloads aboard it.

This maiden flight is important in two other ways as well. It will be the first operational use of the Blue Origin BE-4 engine. This the the engine that will be used to power the first stage of Blue Origin’s upcoming heavy lift launcher, New Glenn. The latter is due to make its maiden flight towards the end of the year, so the data gathered from this flight and those that follow between it and the first flight of New Glenn will provide invaluable data on overall engine performance for Blue Origin as they move ever closer to their own launch.

Finally, and as I’ve recently noted, ULA is apparently up for sale. Ergo, a good maiden flight for the Vulcan Centaur would significantly enhance the company’s attractiveness to its potential buyers – whilst equally, a failure could cause one or more of the trio of potential buyers to either rethink or withdraw their offer.

For Astrobotic Technology, the company behind Peregrine One, the launch is equally important; after proposing and subsequently cancelling two prior lunar missions, it represents the company’s chance to both become the first private venture space vehicle to (hopefully) land on the Moon and confirm their position as a capable supplier of lunar lander services to NASA (in fact, the company is due to fly a second mission to the Moon in November 2024, also funded via NASA’s CLPS and featuring NASA’s VIPER lunar rover).

Peregrine One will deliver 90 kg of mixed payload to Mons Gruithuisen Gamma in the northern hemisphere of the Moon. Comprising experiments from the United States and Germany, the payload also includes time capsules from both of those nations, plus Argentina, Canada, Hungary, Japan, the Seychelles and the UK, as well as small rover vehicles – Iris, built by Astrobotic Technology and Carnegie Mellon University, designed to be a technology demonstrator; and Mexico’s Colmena, a set of 5 tiny little rolling landers, each just 12 cm across and weighing 60 grams, which will be catapulted from the lander and operate wherever they roll / bounce to.

If successful, Peregrine Mission One will likely be followed by two further Peregrine-class landers in additional to the November 2024 Griffin Mission One which will carry NASA’s VIPER rover, as mentioned above. Each of the follow-up Peregrine landers will carry increasingly heavier payloads, thus demonstrating the lander’s overall capabilities.

In the meantime, objections to the Peregrine Mission One landing have been lodged by the Navajo Nation. Their objections have been raised as the lander will carry a sealed container bearing DNA samples from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his late wife, Majel Barratt-Roddenberry (Christine Chapel from the original series / Lawaxana Troi from The Next Generation / Deep Space Nine and the voice of the computer in both the original series and The Next Generation), and DNA samples together with memory files and some of the cremated remains of Star Trek actors Nichelle “Uhura” Nichols, James “Scotty” Doohan and Deforest “’Bones’ McCoy” Kelley). In particular the Navajo Nation state that placing human DNA on the Moon would desecrate a sacred place. In response, it has been pointed out by some associated with Peregrine Mission One  that human DNA is already present on the surface of the Moon in the form of human waste contained within the 100 bags of waste material collectively dumped out of their vehicles by the six Apollo crews who landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972, whereas the container of DNA as remains will stay within the lander vehicle, and will not be deposited on the lunar surface.

The Vulcan Centaur launch is scheduled for 07:18 UTC, Monday, January 8th, 2024 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base at the start of a 45-minute window, and will be livestreamed on You Tube. Further launch opportunities are available at 24-hour periods through the 9th to 11th January, with launch windows of between 1 and 9 minutes. Assuming the launch goes ahead as planned, the lander will depart Earth orbit 1 hour and 18 minutes after launch, boosted by the Vulcan Centaur’s upper stage. It is due to land on the Moon on February 23rd, 2024.