Month: August 2021

Once again, things are gearing up at SpaceX’s South Texas Launch Facility, located just outside the village of Boca Chica, Texas. In recent weeks, the aerospace community has been abuzz about the rollout and Static Fire test of the Super Heavy Booster 3 (B3) prototype. This was the first time a booster was tested, which will be responsible for launching the Starship to space in the near future. Since then, things have only ramped up some more.

First, there was the announcement on Aug. 2nd that the fourth Super Heavy prototype (the BN4) received a full complement of 29 Raptor engines and grid fins. This was followed on Aug. 3rd with news that BN4 was being moved to the launch pad and that the SN20 Starship prototype received a full six Raptor engines. On Aug. 6th, the denouement came with the stacking of both prototypes together, which resulted in the tallest rocket in the history of spaceflight!

Together, the integrated Starship stood around 120 meters (390 feet) tall, and 145 m (475 feet) tall with the addition of the orbital launch stand – which is taller than the Pyramid of Giza (138.5 m; 454 ft). The stacking was the first time that the Starship and Super Heavy were fully integrated, a major milestone for the company that puts them one step closer to making an orbital flight test.

The integration was part of an accelerated work order that came to be nicknamed the “Warp 9” surge. This included bringing hundreds of employees in from other sites around the country to assist in operations. By Friday, Aug. 6th, The two elements were integrated just long enough to get a sense of how they would hold up on flight day; and, of course, for observers to take millions of pictures, shoot videos, and live-tweet the event!

They were then unstacked and the SN20 was returned to the High Bay while the BN4 remained on the orbital launch stand. Next, the two elements are expected to undergo a series of ground tests, which will likely include Static Fire tests for the BN4 booster. This will allow the company to complete and integrate the final elements of the Starship at the Orbital Launch Site (OLS), which is where it will launch to conduct the orbital test flight.

While no date has been set for this crucial milestone yet (though it is still expected before the end of the year) Musk indicated via Twitter that he and his company had four major objectives scheduled for the next two weeks. These include adding the last of the heat shield tiles to the Orbital Starship element, applying thermal protection to the booster engines, the addition of ground propellant storage tanks, and a quick disconnect (QD) arm for the system.

This last element is crucial to flight tests since it connects power and fuel lines from the launch facility to the rocket prior to launch. It is also clear at this juncture that the orbital flight test will be made with the BN4 and SN20 prototypes. This was made evident from the way the BN4 was equipped with 29 Raptor engines, which is what the final design specifications call for (the Static Fire test with the B3 consisted of just three).

Similarly, the SN20 has been equipped with a full six Raptor engines, three optimized for sea-level thrust (identical to the 29 engines the Super Heavy relies on), and three optimized for thrust in the vacuum of space. In all previous flight tests, the prototypes were equipped with only three engines optimized for sea-level thrust since they were making a limited flight test (10 km; 6.2 mi in altitude) and flying strictly within Earth’s atmosphere.

This is known as the Karman Line, which is about 100 km (62 mi) above sea level and marks the boundary between Earth and space. Another indication is the way Grid Fins were installed on the BN4, which is the first prototype to receive them. These are essential to making a controlled descent and landing for all SpaceX boosters, which shows that the ground crews are hoping to retrieve it afterward.

Based on the flight plan SpaceX filed with the FCC back in May, the mission will see the booster element separate from the Starship approximately 170 seconds into flight. The Booster will then perform a partial return and make a soft splashdown roughly 32 km (20 miles) offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. The Starship will then achieve orbit before performing a targeted soft splashdown about 100 km (62 mi) off the coast of the Hawaiin island of Kauai.

Based on previous statements, the flight is also likely to have a ceiling of 200 km (~125 mi) above sea level. If that test goes as planned, SpaceX will be ready to embark on its first commercial flights, which include a lunar flyby planned for 2023. Known as the #dearMoon campaign, this flight will see Japanese billionaire and art collector Yusaku Maezawa and a crew of eight artists fly around the Moon.

Given the recent buzz about Branson and Bezos, it’s possible Musk might want to fly along with them! Be sure to check out this video of the SN20 and BN4 getting stacked together too, courtesy of NASA Spaceflight:

Further Reading: NASA Spaceflight

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Guest contribution by Willis Eschenbach

People keep talking about electric cars getting cheaper and more people using them. However, what they keep ignoring is that they are completely useless for long trips.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s climate spokesperson Allegra Stratton recently let the cat out of the bag when she revealed why she herself doesn’t use an electric vehicle:

“Net zero is the glide path. What we need to do faster – the science is clear – we need to change our CO2 emissions now so that we can stop the temperature rise by 2030.

She stated that she does not want to stop to charge her car when visiting elderly relatives “200,250 miles away.”

She claimed she visited her family across the UK, including Scotland, North Wales, the Lake District and Gloucester.

Because of this, she said, “These are all trips that I think would mean at least a pretty long stop.”

(I have to admit, I have to admire the otherworldly idiocy of anyone who seriously claims we can stop the temperature rise by 2030. So this is unfounded madness … but I digress.)

Well, here in Noherica, 250 miles is considered an easy morning commute … a map of Texas versus Europe shows why.

So I figured … how long would it be to stop charging for another 400 miles? I drive a 2016 Ram Ecodiesel pickup truck that has a range of about 500 miles, although the new ones have a range of about 1,000 miles. And I can “charge” it at the pump for another 500 miles in about five minutes.

Looking for information on this question, I see that the number in question is called “RPH”, which stands for “Range Per Hour”. This is how many kilometers of range you get per hour of charging. I find a page called How long does it take to charge an electric car that says:

The range per hour depends on how efficient your car is. Small electric cars with a full battery (e.g. Renault Zoe) are the most efficient and can reach a range of 30 miles per hour when charged at 7 kW. The largest electric cars with a full battery (e.g. Audi e-tron Quattro) are heavier and have a range of around 20 miles per hour at 7 kW.

YIKES! This is the charging rate for standard chargers. I can understand why the British climate spokeswoman doesn’t want to drive an electric car. When you stop to charge your Audi e-tron for another 400 miles, instead of the five minutes it takes me to charge my diesel pickup, you will twelve and a half hours to recharge.

But do not worry. This is Edmund King, the head of the British Automobile Association. He says drivers should take a break after driving 200 miles.

“Drivers who cover long distances should take regular breaks for safety reasons, so this is the ideal time to recharge the car. The fear of range will continue to decrease with more chargers and improved range for new models. “

Well, that makes perfect sense. Just stop for a quick ten hour lunch and you’ll be ready for your next 200 miles. And Elon Musk, Olympic gold medal winner for receiving most of the US taxpayer subsidies, does a similar thing with regard to the new Tesla Model S “long range”:

Musk said he sees no need for an electric vehicle with a range greater than 400 miles:

“What we see is that once you have a range of over 400 miles, more range doesn’t really matter. There are essentially no journeys over 400 miles where the driver doesn’t have to stop for toilet, food, coffee, etc. anyway. “

The comment has been criticized for failing to take into account the fact that 400 mile range is closer to 250-300 miles in colder climates and depending on the conditions.

Damn it, yes, I often have to stop ten hours for the toilet, food and coffee …

Call me crazy, but since the Tesla Model S runs for a cool $ 74,490 including ten-hour toilet breaks, I’ll probably stick with my Ram Ecodiesel.

w.

… h / t to the irrepressible James Delingpole for a few quotes …

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According to the most popular theories, evolutionary biologists claim that life on earth began about 4 billion years ago, beginning with unicellular bacteria and gradually giving way to more complex organisms. The first complex organisms in the form of fungi, algae, cyanobacteria and sponges emerged according to the same evolutionary schedule during the Neoproterozoic (around 800 million years ago).

However, based on recent findings on the Arctic Circle, it appears that sponges existed in the Earth’s oceans hundreds of millions of years earlier than we thought! These results were made by Prof. Elizabeth Turner of Laurentian University, who excavated the fossilized remains of 890 million year old sponges. If confirmed, these samples would be about 350 million years older than the oldest fossilized sponges.

Elizabeth Turner is Professor of Invertebrate Carbonate Sedimentology and Paleontology at the Harquail School of Earth Sciences at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. She is also a field geologist with 30 years of experience in Canada’s Northwest Territories specializing in the dynamics of carbonate and shale basins from the Proterozoic and Paleozoic Era. The study describing their research appeared in the July 28 issue of the journal Nature.

This is the skeleton of a modern bath sponge or horn sponge from Greece under a microscope, which has a similar structure to the fossils. Photo credit: Elizabeth Turner / Laurentian University

In summary, sponges are simple forms of life and one of the earliest forms of multicellular life. Genetic evidence from modern sponges suggested that the first sponges formed during the Neoproterozoic (about 1,000 to 541 million years ago), but fossilized remains from that period were missing. Turner discovered these fossils while doing fieldwork in the Mackenzie Mountain Range in Canada’s Northwest Territories as part of her PhD.

While this region, which borders on the neighboring territory of the Yukon, is now part of the Arctic Circle, it was 890 million years ago in a shallow inland sea in the middle of the supercontinent Rodinia – so much closer to the equator. Turner found these fossilized remains while researching limestone reef pockets and crevices that form in the presence of photosynthetic microbes known as cyanobacteria (also known as stromatolites).

These fossilized remains were worm-like in appearance and were likely formed in the presence of calcium carbonate-depositing bacteria, as evidenced by the networks of tubular structures and the presence of calcite crystals in and around them. These structures closely resemble the fibrous skeletons observed with the modern horn sponge, as well as structures in carbonate rocks that are attributed to the decay of these animals.

“They are really identical to the ones I had in my much older rocks,” Turner said in a recent interview with the CBC. “There weren’t any other really workable interpretations of the material.” The limestone deposits Turner found them also resemble the environments sponges live in today. Prof. Turner suspects that the structures could be the fossilized remains of horn sponges that lived between calcium carbonate reefs 890 million years ago.

These microscopic 890 million year old fossils found in the Northwest Territories are believed to be the remains of an ancient sponge. If that were the case, they would be by far the oldest animal fossils ever found. Photo credit: Elizabeth Turner / Laurentian University

Turner puzzled over these samples for decades and regularly returned to the Mackenzie Mountains to collect more samples. Then, between 2014 and 2021, researchers in Germany, the United States, and Korea published research showing how similar fossils might have formed from horn sponges. This led Turner to conclude that the worm-like fossils may not have formed in the presence of microbes, but were the result of sponges that existed 890 million years ago.

These results suggest that the evolution of early animals may have occurred independently of the “Great Oxygen Event,” which began about 2.4 to 2 billion years ago when photosynthesis metabolized atmospheric carbon dioxide and produced molecular oxygen. For the next billion years, much of this oxygen was taken up by the oceans and the earth’s crust, but by about 800 million years ago the oxygen levels are believed to have reached the point where they could support animal life.

Should these structures turn out to be fossilized remains of ancient sponges, this could mean that the evolution of the early animals occurred independently of this oxygenation event. Additionally, the reef pockets and crevices where they were found were too dark for photosynthetic cyanobacteria, so there was likely no competition between the sponges and other microbes.

However, they could still have been so close together that the sponges would have been able to take in some of the oxygen produced by the cyanobacteria (which was in short supply at the time). It would also mean that early animal life survived severe ice ages that occurred 720 to 635 million years ago – during the cryogenic era. All previously discovered samples are from periods that came after this geological period.

This is one of the sites in the Mackenzie Mountains of the Northwest Territories. The mountains contain limestone from huge ancient reefs where the fossils were found. Photo credit: Elizabeth Turner / Laurentian University

These include the 574 million year old fossils discovered in the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve on Newfoundland and the leaf-like marine animal called Dickinsonia, which is approximately 558 million years old. Since its publication, Turner’s study has been peer reviewed and several scholars have publicly endorsed its results – which is unusual as the peer review process is usually anonymous.

Other researchers remain skeptical, such as Jonathan Antcliffe, a paleontologist at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) in Switzerland, who has denied earlier claims about “oldest sponges”. There is also Qing Tang, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hong Kong, who compared these results to fossils dated to 635 million and 538 million years ago. Again, these fossils were believed to be the remains of sponges, but were later created by microbes. As Qing told the CBC:

“Overall, this discovery is very interesting. It will be a big step towards a better understanding of early animal evolution when the keratotic sponge interpretation is finally confirmed, especially given its age … However, as indicated in the title, these structures are best known as possible sponge fossils because of the relatively few features they conserve . “

Obviously, more testing will be needed to validate Turner’s conclusions and more samples from the region will likely be needed for comparison. As always, the reconstruction of the earth’s history and biological evolution is arduous. But with each new discovery, the secrets of how life began and evolved on our planet are slowly being revealed. This constant pursuit also helps in our search for life elsewhere in the solar system and (ultimately) in the universe.

Further reading: CBC, Natur

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