The Starliner Story

Boeing has been in partnership with NASA going all the way back to the beginning. From Mariner 10 to the Shuttle program and the critical Saturn V rocket that took people to the Moon, the aerospace company has been a reliable and innovative player in the space sector.

So it’s no surprise that when NASA was looking for a small reusable spacecraft, Boeing’s Starliner design was an easy pick.

Over ten years, Starliner has faced issues getting off the ground. Setbacks are normal when developing new technology to meet NASA’s standards. However, software defects caused the first orbital test in 2019 to end without the uncrewed craft docking with the ISS.

It was deemed a partial success by Boeing, as the spacecraft was able to make a soft landing back on Earth. However, the issues would have ultimately caused the destruction of the vehicle if they had not been caught and corrected.

A clear plan to address the issues was laid out, and another uncrewed test was planned for 2020. However, the pandemic and even more problems, including a launch cancellation, pushed the completion of this milestone to 2022.

Back to June 5 2024. After setbacks, mishaps and a launch delay, the Boeing Starliner Crewed Flight test finally launched aboard the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

However, as the spacecraft neared the moment of docking with the ISS, some of its thrusters were not performing as expected, and there were leaks in its helium system. Helium gas is critical to push propellant to the thrusters, so this was a concerning development.

The spacecraft was ultimately able to dock with the ISS, and the astronauts were safely disembarked.

The end of an era

When NASA decided to end the Space Shuttle program in 2011 due to the increasing resources required, it became dependent on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to send astronauts to space.

While there were many factors that drove NASA to partner with private companies and commercial space organizations, the motivation for the commercial crew program was clear. NASA needed reliable transportation to continue to send astronauts to space from North America at a price it could afford.

This led to the Commercial Crew Program, with more than US$8 billion invested to develop, test and certify new transport vehicles.

While NASA has always used commercial contractors to build space technology, the agency has then gone on to operate it. What makes the commercial program different is that now companies are being trusted to operate the services as well.

Enter SpaceX Dragon and Boeing Starliner. Since 2010, each company has been awarded funding in different rounds to develop crew vehicles. In 2014, the largest amount of funding was split between the two companies, with Boeing receiving almost US$2 billion more than SpaceX.

The latter is now about to send their ninth crewed mission to the ISS (ten if you include the private flight), not including the numerous uncrewed resupply missions they have completed.


2001 Mars Odyssey

Mission: This Mars orbiter was launched with the intention of detecting water and ice on the planet, as well as studying its composition.

Agency: NASA

Launch date: April 7, 2001

Updates available here.

Aditya-L1

Mission: The mission, which name means “Sun” in Sanskrit, was launched to conduct a comprehensive study of the Sun, sitting at the Lagrange point L1 between the Sun and Earth.

Agency: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

Launch date: Sept. 2, 2023

Updates available here.


Self-growing bricks for Mars

For the past few years, Congrui Jin and her research group have used bacteria and fungi to heal cracks in concrete. Jin, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, now wants to take her idea to space. Her self-growing bricks could one day build habitats and other structures for human explorers on the red planet.

The concept would involve sending bacterial and fungal spores and a bioreactor to Mars. The bioreactor is needed for the microbes to survive because Mars’ natural environment would be too harsh for them. But Mars would provide the rest of the necessary ingredients for the self-growing bricks, including dust and soil, sunlight, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water from melted ice.

In turn, the bacteria can produce oxygen and organic carbon to support the fungi. The process, once all of these ingredients are inside the bioreactor, would also create calcium carbonate to serve as the glue.

The bacteria, fungi and minerals will bind Martian soil together to form blocks, which can later be used to make floors, walls and even furniture.

Jin’s group, which includes some students, screens the most suitable types of fungi and bacteria and tests which ones work best together. The team is also building a bioreactor to calibrate the atmosphere, pressure, temperature and illumination required to grow the bricks.

“The very important feature of this technology is its autonomous nature, and it doesn’t require any human intervention,” Jin said. “We initially just need to provide small quantities of spores to start this process, and the rest is automatic.”

Flying TitanAir

Saturn’s moon Titan has long intrigued astronomers with its thick atmosphere and lakes and rivers of methane. It’s a unique place in our solar system in which chemistry that’s taking place may be similar to what occurred on early Earth. A rover-size drone called Dragonfly is expected to launch for this moon in 2027 to study its fine-grained, drier organic material.

Quinn Morley, principal investigator at Planet Enterprises in Gig Harbor, Washington, and his collaborators at Washington State University and other institutions envision a complementary Titan mission to explore the wetter regions of the intriguing moon. The seaplane-like design, called TitanAir, would soar through Titan’s atmosphere and sail on its lakes.

TitanAir could reach the moon about a decade after Dragonfly “to help unlock key secrets of this alien planet,” Morley said.

The front section of the plane’s wing would “drink” liquid methane that forms on the wing’s surface as the plane flies through rain clouds. The liquid collected inside the wing could be analyzed by instruments and transmitted back to Earth.

A small rover or helicopter could fly to places the plane can’t reach and return samples to the plane. Beginning in the fall, Morley wants to partner with engineering student design teams at Washington State on ideas for TitanAir.

“The analysis of clouds, lakes, and shorelines allows us to attack the search for life in three unique ways with one spacecraft,” Morley said in an email, “increasing our chances of unlocking these profound mysteries.”


Moon 2024

In the half-century since people visited the Moon, NASA has continued to push the boundaries of knowledge to deliver on the promise of American ingenuity and leadership in space. And NASA will continue that work by moving forward to the Moon with astronauts landing on the lunar South Pole by 2024.

NASA is implementing the President’s Space Policy Directive-1 to “lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system.” NASA stands on the verge of commercializing low-Earth orbit. These experiences and partnerships will enable NASA to go back to the Moon in 2024 – this time to stay. NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration is the biggest rocket ever built, the Space Launch System (SLS), the Orion spacecraft and the Gateway lunar command module. With its partners, NASA will use the Gateway lunar command module orbiting the Moon as a staging point for missions that allow astronauts to explore more parts of the lunar surface than ever before

Aeronautics

NASA’s work in aeronautics has made decades of contributions to aviation, national security and our economy. Ongoing research and testing of new aeronautics technologies are critical in these areas and will help the U.S. lead the world in a global aviation economy, with increasing benefits worldwide. Developing quiet supersonic transport over land, and quieter, cleaner aircraft technologies are two ways NASA is transforming aviation.

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