Image (Credit): The 31st SpaceX commercial resupply mission to the ISS, seen here, lifted off on a Falcon 9 rocket from our Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:29 p.m. EST, Monday, November 4, 2024. (NASA)
A SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket launched the loaded Dragon capsule from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The Cargo Resupply Services (CRS)-31 mission successfully met up with the station earlier today so that the 6,089 pounds of cargo could be unloaded.
As far as the election, the busy astronauts had an opportunity to be part of today’s election, as noted in an earlier post.
Image (Credit): A graphic from 2014 showing NASA’s approach to a human presence on Mars. This has been superseded by the Artemis program, but many elements remain the same. (NASA)
Well, the evidence continues to build on the difficulty of space travel and the need for greater study. This time its a report from The Guy Foundation in England, established by Geoffrey and Kate Guy to “facilitate exploration into quantum effects in biology and the role it could play in advancing medicine.” The 94-page report is titled The Health Hazards of Space Travel: Novel Insights from Quantum Biology.
You can read it this weekend at your leisure, but the bottom line is stated succinctly in the executive summary, further summarized here:
...space travel seems likely to induce accelerated ageing in astronauts…associated with the disruption of cellular bioenergetics which could have other, perhaps more worrying health consequences.
…complex long-lived organisms, such as humans, will not be able to adapt to the unnatural environment of space, while shorter-lived, rapidly evolving ones, such as bacteria will.
At this stage, the following factors seem particularly significant…
zero gravity…;
{i}ncreased radiation…;
[t]he lack of a magnetic field…; and
[a] lack of near-infrared radiation.
Further experiments are urgently needed to improve our understanding of the underlying causes of space-induced ill health, and potential approaches to mitigate it.
The bottom line is that if we want to spread more than bacteria throughout the solar system and beyond, we need to get to work on these issues.
I am hoping Mr. Musk and friends are reading this before jumping off a cliff (or Earth in this case) with Mars-bound Starships. In fact, it may encourage Mr. Musk to use some of his funds to study these issues rather than play games with politics here are Earth. The $47 billion spent on Twitter would have gone a long way to help Mr. Musk achieve his dream of a Mars-based society, if that really is his dream.
Image (Credit): The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft approaching the ISS on March 16, 2023. (NASA)
“When you look at these recent incidents over the last handful of weeks, it does lead one say that it’s apparent that operating safely requires significant attention to detail as hardware ages and the pace of operations increases…Both NASA and SpaceX need to maintain focus on safe Crew Dragon operations and not take any ‘normal’ operations for granted.”
-Statement by Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) committee member Kent Rominger, as quoted by Space News, regarding recent SpaceX mishaps, including three recent Falcon 9 rocket issues as well as a parachute problem during the October 25th return of Crew-8 on a Dragon capsule from the International Space Station (ISS). After the splashdown, all four astronauts were hospitalized for observation.
It was not a good week for the US space industry. One major US space company is looking to exit the business while the head of another US space company is holding secret talks with Putin.
In the first case, Boeing’s bleak finances may be pushing it to consider the sale of its space business, which includes the troubled Starliner capsule most recently stuck at the International Space Station.
Fortune magazine highlighted comments by Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortber, at his first earnings conference call on Wednesday, where he stated:
We’re better off doing less and doing it better than doing more and not doing it well…What do we want this company to look like five and 10 years from now? And do these things add value to the company or distract us?
This follows rumors that Boeing has been talking with Blue Origin about handing off some of its NASA-related portfolio.
It would appear that Boeing, which has been with NASA since the Apollo program, is having some second thoughts about its role in the space program as it deals with Starliner troubles, airplane manufacturing issues, and an ongoing worker strike.
And then we read about Elon Musk having help secret talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin since at least 2022. You may remember Mr. Musk raised concerns in Washington when it was learned that he turned off his Starlink system when the Ukranians were planning an attack against invading Russian.
Some in Congress are already calling for an investigation into these discussions, given the role of SpaceX in critical Department of Defense contracts. Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the House Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, stated:
We should investigate what Elon Musk is up to to make sure that it is not to the detriment of the national security of the United States.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson also has some questions, stating:
I don’t know that that story is true. I think it should be investigated…If the story is true that there have been multiple conversations between Elon Musk and the president of Russia, then I think that would be concerning, particularly for NASA, for the Department of Defense, for some of the intelligence agencies.
It has become increasingly apparent that Mr. Musk’s excellence in creating companies will always be trumped by his bone-headed ego. He cannot help but be the center of attention rather than the competent engineer. He should really stay away from social media and social relationships until he can get his ego under control.
As I said, it was not a good week for the US space industry.
“A reasonable individual can look at a situation such as that of a very wealthy individual who has government contracts coming into the government where he would be put in a position where he could influence current and future contracts and regulations of his businesses.”
-Statement by John P. Pelissero, the director of government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, as quoted by The Hill. The reference is to Elon Musk and his potential role leading a new “government efficiency commission” should Donald Trump become president. Mr. Musk, who has received billions in government contracts, is currently attending Trump rallies and spending millions of his own funds to support the Trump campaign. In the same article, former Federal Communications Commission Chair Tom Wheeler stated,
If he is that dependent on the decisions of government, he either needs to totally divest in order to do anything in government, or not take the kind of positions that have been promised or been suggested.
