Saturday Space Reads
Because we all need a little space on Saturday.
Life on the Moon’s South Pole isn’t all sunshine and roses – literally, there is very little sunlight at all. NASA’s Artemis astronauts will experience truly otherworldly phenomena, from a floor of sharp lunar regolith shards that’ll have them singing Annie Lennox, to giant shadows – including the permanently shadowed Shackleton Crater. And, despite NASA’s ShadowCam finally illuminating the crater in an image, no one has actually gone down there. So, here’s hoping The Thing isn’t on our astronauts’ Halloween watch list this year.
We love to hate on helium, particularly when it comes to rocket leaks, but there’s a reason we keep coming back to the element. It’s light and it’s a (figuratively) cool cucumber, meaning it can commingle with other elements without throwing a fit. But helium’s small size makes it easy for it to slip through the cracks. The question is: does that mean finding a new gas, or making better valves?
This edition of Saturday Space Reads is brought to you by the Space Resources program at the Colorado School of Mines.
With Starliner finally back on home turf, you’d think it would finally be curtains for the Boeing-built spacecraft. However, NASA continues to stand behind the company. This article explores why that is (hint: it may have something to do with avoiding a power trip from a man rhyming with “Husk”).
We’ve covered it in the past, but this dramatic telling of the Europa Clipper’s brush with death is worth a read.
Saving the Europa Clipper was not the only heroic feat to take place at the US space agency this month. In another act of vigilant finesse, Voyager 1 engineers pulled off a thruster swap on the 47-year-old deep space traveler, letting it live to see another (dark) day.
If there’s more than one way to skin a cat, there must be more than one way to make a planet, an astronomer thinks. Published in Nature this month, a team of astronomers are exploring a “top down” method of planet formation.
Shubhanshu Shukla, India’s first space-bound astronaut in 40 years, will assist commander and longtime NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson on Axiom-4, a mission to the International Space Station launching in the spring of next year. This article reviews how Shukla is preparing to be the inaugural astronaut from India on the ISS.
An interesting space watch is this video by a content creator called smallstars, which discusses the tradeoffs between less vs. more first stage engines in powering super-heavy rockets like Starship. It won’t be surprising to most that SpaceX went with more.
Saturday Space Jam:
This edition of Saturday Space Reads is also supported by the Open Lunar Foundation. Open Lunar's work sets precedents, creates pathways, and builds projects that enable a peaceful, cooperative lunar presence. Learn more about Open Lunar's work by joining their upcoming events.
