Robot Metalsmiths Are Resurrecting Toroidal Tanks for NASA
30 Aug
Science & Technology

Robot Metalsmiths Are Resurrecting Toroidal Tanks for NASA

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NASA Space Technology In the 1960s and 1970s, NASA spent a lot of time thinking about whether toroidal (donut-shaped) fuel tanks were the way to go with its spacecraft. Toroidal tanks have a bunch of potential advantages over conventional spherical fuel tanks. For example, you can fit nearly 40% more volume within a toroidal tank than if you were using multiple spherical tanks within the same space. And perhaps most interestingly, you can shove stuff (like the back of an engine) through the middle of a toroidal tank, which could lead to some substantial efficiency gains if the tanks could also handle structural loads.Because of their relatively complex shape, toroidal tanks are much more difficult to make than spherical tanks. Even though these tanks can perform better, NASA simply doesn’t have the expertise to manufacture...
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Mock shuttle Pathfinder restored atop its stack at Alabama rocket center (photos)
30 Aug
Science & Technology

Mock shuttle Pathfinder restored atop its stack at Alabama rocket center (photos)

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NASA Space Technology The mock space shuttle orbiter Pathfinder is seen atop its external tank and boosters after a mutli-year, multi-million dollar restoration effort at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Alabama.(Image credit: U.S. Space & Rocket Center)Pathfinder is back in its "space," three and a half years after it "landed" on Earth.An early mockup of NASA's now-retired winged orbiters, Pathfinder was returned to its position atop a space shuttle propulsion "stack" at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama on Wednesday morning (Aug. 28). The lift signaled that a multi-million-dollar restoration effort is nearing completion."Returning Pathfinder to the shuttle stack after an extensive restoration process is a major milestone for us," Kimberly Robinson, CEO and executive director of the Space & Rocket Center, said in a statement provided to collectSPACE. "We...
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NASA’s inspector general predicts continued cost growth for SLS mobile launch platform
30 Aug
Science & Technology

NASA’s inspector general predicts continued cost growth for SLS mobile launch platform

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NASA Space Technology WASHINGTON — A contract to build a second mobile launch platform for the Space Launch System could end up costing NASA more than six times its original value, a report by the agency’s inspector general concluded.The Aug. 27 report by NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) concluded that NASA could end up spending $2.5 billion on a contract with Bechtel to design and build Mobile Launcher 2 (ML-2), the launch platform that will be used by the larger Block 1B version of SLS, and may not be ready to support a launch until 2029.NASA awarded Bechtel the contract for ML-2 in August 2019 valued at $383 million, with the platform scheduled for delivery to NASA by March 2023. However, costs have grown significantly while schedules slipped. A previous OIG audit of the...
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NASA’s Endurance Mission Measures Earth’s Ambipolar Electric Field for First Time
30 Aug
Science & Technology

NASA’s Endurance Mission Measures Earth’s Ambipolar Electric Field for First Time

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NASA Space Technology First hypothesized more than 60 years ago, the ambipolar electric field is a key driver of the polar wind, a steady outflow of charged particles into space that occurs above Earth’s poles. This electric field lifts charged particles in our upper atmosphere to greater heights than they would otherwise reach and may have shaped our planet’s evolution in ways yet to be explored.Collinson et al. report the existence of a +0.55 ± 0.09 V electric potential drop between 250 km and 768 km from a planetary electrostatic field generated exclusively by the outward pressure of ionospheric electrons; they experimentally demonstrate that the ambipolar field of Earth controls the structure of the polar ionosphere, boosting the scale height by 271%. Image credit: NASA.Since the 1960s, spacecraft flying over Earth’s poles have detected a stream of particles flowing from...
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