Set for a November launch, the small satellite mission will use lasers to search for water ice inside the darkest craters at the Moon’s South Pole. The Moon’s poles offer a tantalizing opportunity for human explorers: There may be reservoirs of water ice there that could be purified as drinking water, converted into breathable oxygen, and used as fuel by astronauts. These reservoirs are inside permanently shadowed craters – regions where the Sun never rises above crater rims.
See original article on Moon Daily
This Flag was flown onboard the successful “Straight Up” Satellite Launch Mission
Launch Date: July 1, 2022
Customers: United States Space Force and Department of Defense Space Test Program
Today, Wednesday 29th of June, ECAPS test team completed hot fire testing of our 300th thruster at our test facility in Grindsjön Sweden.
The 300th thruster was a 1N thruster which will be delivered to one of our many customers of our world class high performance green propulsion for satellite applications.
For more information, please contact: Robert de Try (Site Director, Bradford ECAPS) Email: robert.detry@bradford-ecaps.com
Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, have built some of the largest rocket engines ever to light up the icy reaches of space. Now Marshall and its commercial partners have delivered one of the smallest propulsion systems in its history, designed to help propel an upcoming NASA mission to shed new light on the Moon’s South Pole – in search of a much more useful type of ice. Read More…
Presentation on Emerging Green Propellant Technologies for SmallSATS
Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9 at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex in White Oak, Maryland is in high demand after a recent upgrade that has enabled it to recreate flows at speeds of Mach 18, the US Air Force has said.
High hypersonic vehicle testing at speeds of Mach 18 was started last summer after a 2 month calibration process. The long-awaited capability, which allows for testing at speeds never before realized in a US AIr Force Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) facility has been in high demand since the calibration was completed.
“Every customer this fiscal year has a portion of their test matrix that is using Mach 18,” said John Lafferty, Tunnel 9 technical director. “They have been waiting for this.”
Prior to the calibration of Mach 18, the maximum speed offered at Tunnel 9, or at any AEDC facility, was Mach 14. Customers needing results at higher Mach simulations would be required to extrapolate the Mach 14 test conditions to the higher Mach numbers.
Read the complete article on aerospacetestinginternational.com