Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
Monday, December 05, 2022
Sunday, December 04, 2022
With the NASA-led Artemis 1 mission to the moon still ongoing and the Capstone probe collecting information on the moon’s orbit, a joint Japanese, UAE, SpaceX mission is scheduled to launch a probe tasked with landing on the lunar surface. The Japanese lander, the Hakuto-R M1, will take a UAE rover, dubbed “Rashid,” to the lunar surface, with landing scheduled for March 2023. Rashid is designed to snap pictures of the lunar surface and examine its electrically charged environment. The launch has been delayed due to ongoing problems with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Saturday, December 03, 2022
Friday, December 02, 2022
Thursday, December 01, 2022
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Tuesday, November 29, 2022
Monday, November 28, 2022
Sunday, November 27, 2022
NASA’s heavy lift Space Launch System (SLS) has certainly faced criticism. It is too expensive and too complex. The SLS is also not a sustainable rocket for sending people back to the moon.
All of those criticisms are valid. However, NASA’s monster rocket has just sent an uncrewed Orion space capsule around the moon. The launch of the Artemis 1 mission is an eloquent answer to the critics, at least in the short term.