so it appears that the launch of NASA's
perseverance Rover has been delayed
again this is getting a bit too close
for our taste now because the launch
window is only one month wide and
China's Mars mission meanwhile surprise
is not being delayed so will China's
Mars mission be able to reach Mars
before NASA then we of course have to
take a look at the current progress of
starship at Boca Chica updates regarding
Elon's annual starship presentation
Dr. Zubrin saying that SpaceX could land on
Mars before 2030 the first joint mission
of SpaceX and space force and also the
progress at Blue Origin and the ula our
obligatory SLS rant SpaceX forcing
Europe to go reusable a bit on the Lightsail 2
mission and even a steampunk robot
for icy moon exploration really a lot
to talk about so stay tuned
so before we come to the delay of NASA's
perseverance Rover and what an
embarrassment it would be if China would
launch their Mars rover before NASA
let's first analyze the current progress
of starship at Boca Chica on the
weekend the latest Raptor engine SN27 arrived at the launch pad where the
starship SN5 prototype is
currently attached by the way SN5 has
already successfully completed a series
of cryo pressure tests
nothing leaked or ruptured which is a
very good sign because as you know
starship SN3 collapsed during such a
cryogenic pressure test another hurdle
is out of the way and now having
installed the raptor engine static fire
tests are commencing this is another
hurdle which cost the lives of some
other starship prototypes should
starship SN5 survive the static fire
tests there is a good chance that we can
still witness the 150 meter hopping test
this week cameron county road closure
dates indicate that we can see the hopping
test as soon as on Wednesday July the
8th with back up dates on the following
two days so fingers crossed to finally
see this epic event because it's been 10
months now since the last time we could
see such a spectacular event with
starhopper and the annual starship
presentation will take place in
September this year as Elon indicated
in this tweet here this makes sense as
the last starship presentations also
took place in the September timeframe
hopefully we can learn some interesting
updates on the efficiency of the new
304 l stainless steel alloy and some
design changes for starship and
super-heavy maybe even an updated
roadmap for future starship Moon and
Mars missions ok so now finally about
the Mars perseverance rover we remember
that initially the launch of this
important mission was set for the 17th
of July the Mars launch window by the
way is only open from mid-july to
mid-august the cause for this delay were
some problems with the ground support
equipment but now the launch has been
delayed again to the 30th of July
because of some problems with the Atlas
5 rocket upon which the rover will be
launched yeah the ula rocket that
figures if the launch gets delayed to
after mid August then that's it
then we have to wait a full 26 months
for the next launch window to open and
that would be super embarrassing not
only because by that time we might
actually see SpaceX cargo starships
launched towards Mars but no because the
Chinese also have their own Mars mission
in the pipeline and guess what this one
is not being delayed its launch is
still set for between the 20th and 25th
of July as initially planned the
perseverance rover is really important
because it will have a lot of
instruments onboard such as the SHERLOC instrument which would be able to
detect organic molecules and thus to
indirectly detect the presence of
potential Martian life while the Chinese
Mars mission doesn't contain an
instrument for such a purpose still it
is a very complex mission it consists of
an orbiter a lander and a rover
scientific instruments include a
ground-penetrating radar a
meteorological measurement instrument
and a magnetic field detector so the
Chinese Mars rover could offer some
valuable insights on Mars local magnetic
field strength weather and possible
permafrost layers below the ground it
would be super embarrassing if NASA's
Mars rover would only make it to Mars in
2022 so we really hope that NASA and ula
will get their problems under control
talking of ula they now got the first BE-4
engine delivered from Blue Origin for
their future Vulcan rocket this is the
future rocket that will be so totally
reusable that it can even get this reuse
the engines
the engines these are by the way the
same engines that will power the new
Glenn rocket of Blue Origin which already
has been flying since a long long time
in these renderings here in reality
however who knows when ula and Blue
Origin a perfect match we'd say a
perfect match
and besides ula and Blue Origin what
else is super-slow ladies and gentlemen
that's right
SLS the SLS Center core avionics check is
currently going on at Stennis Space
sorry I mean Stennis I'm probably not
allowed to say this anymore right it's
it's not it's not PC right anyway this
Center core avionics check is the second
of eight green run tests of the SLS
Center core for artemis one and to
further show their unconditional support
and endless love for SLS NASA ordered
additional space shuttle we mean of
course SLS solid rocket boosters from
Northrop Grumman for an additional six
Artemis missions so until Artemis nine
Artemis one will be the uncrewed test
flight of Orion launched with the SLS to
circle the moon Artemis 2 will be a
crewed circling of Orion around the moon
so basically an almost one-to-one repeat
of Apollo 8 only 53 years after Apollo 8
and then Artemis 3 will finally foresee
the first manned
I mean crewed manned is also not PC enough landing on the moon which is
currently planned for 2024 we still kind
of doubt that NASA will be able to pull
this off especially with all the
political opposition and it's not even
sure if NASA will actually get the
necessary budget in order to perform
this feat but we shouldn't worry because
if NASA won't do it then SpaceX will
certainly land their own astronauts on
the moon with starship probably around
that time in other News dr. Robert
Zubrin the famous author of the case for
Mars says that
he believes SpaceX could land astronauts
on Mars before 2030 he said quote if
starship is flying regularly to
low-earth orbit by 2024 the next
president will ask his or her advisors
can we get to Mars before the end of my
second term the answer will be yes so
then it will happen by making the
mission practical SpaceX will make it
sellable we partly agree with dr. Zubrin
here as we also believe that a crewed
SpaceX Mars mission could very well
happen before 2030 but we kind of doubt
that NASA could have starship
human-rated
so fast of course we hope to be
surprised but you shouldn't forget how
slow NASA usually is with such things in
our opinion it's more likely that SpaceX
will just completely bypass NASA and
land their own people on Mars with
starship and super-heavy because
remember that thanks to the income from
Starlink by the mid-2020s SpaceX will
have enough funds to carry out their own
Moon and Mars missions regarding space
force the youngest branch of the u.s.
forces just launched their very first
mission it certainly is a top secret
mission flying a troop of Space Marines
to low-earth orbit to space force's
secret space station where they will
perform zero-g combat training in order
to prepare for future zero-g space
battles right almost this first mission
of space force was a gps satellite so
really very very humble beginnings at
least it was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9
rocket a very smart choice by the way
on June the 30th working together with
spaceX is already certainly a big step
into the right direction
now when starship will be finished we
said it time and time again and we
maintain our position we will sooner or
later see a space force variant of
starship
especially after Elon's remarks on that topic about which we talked
in this video here in other news SpaceX
is not only completely disrupting the
launch business of the old complacent
companies like ula and agencies like
Roscosmos but No Europe is also
feeling the pressure from SpaceX
so much so that Thierry Breton the European
Commissioner for internal market has
said that Ariane 6 will basically be
DOA
because of SpaceX and that if Europe
wants to stay competitive it needs to
start working on a fully reusable Ariane seven ASAP that's already a quite good
insight but we think even so it might be
too late
Ariane six is scheduled to have its first
test flight in 2021
so Ariane 7 is extremely unlikely to have
first test flights before 2025 best case
and as we know by that time starship
will have made all other Rockets really
all other Rockets completely obsolete so
we think that ula Roscosmos and Ariane
space will end up being the Nokias of the
spaceflight industry that's what happens
when you sleep for too long and when you
sleep on innovation now the only chance
we think Europe will have will be to
charter some SpaceX starships for their
own missions and we are saying that as
Europeans in more positive news lightsail 2
which has been circling the earth
for one year now and as you remember was
launched into space among many other
payloads with a Falcon Heavy Bruce Betts
lightsail program manager and the chief
scientist at the Planetary Society said
that the overarching goal
technologically was to demonstrate
controlled solar sail propulsion and
this goal is now successfully completed
by lightsail 2 this is excellent news
because light sails are now the single
best technology
which could enable us to visit other
star systems in the coming decades no
other technology is currently advanced
enough to offer us that possibility
breakthrough starshot will attempt
exactly that so having a lightsail
adjust its trajectory is a super
important feat because without many course
corrections there cannot be a flyby of
exoplanets in nearby star systems and for
all of you steampunk lovers out there
which we hope there are many because come on steampunk is probably some of
the coolest stuff ever invented by
humans together with cyberpunk this
conceptual robot is being currently
investigated at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory this soccer ball-sized robot
called Sparrow
would hop around on Europa or Enceladus
it will old-school heat up water and
release the steam in a controlled manner
because the gravity is so low on these
moons the robot would be able to hop a
few meters with a single hop we think
that's a really cool idea which we hope
to see in action on Europa or Enceladus
hopefully before starship will land
there
and if you're wondering if spaceX would
actually be able to colonize the Moon
and Mars at the same time you can check
out this video right here so thanks for
watching the JS space report then I
would say see you next time and on 2 the future!
