Daily Archives: December 9, 2021

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. SpaceX will launch a new space observatory for NASA overnight and you can watch the action live online.

The private spaceflight company will launch the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) on one of its previously flown Falcon 9 rockets. The frequent flier is scheduled to blast off at 1:00 a.m. EST (0600 GMT) from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center here in Florida.

You can watch the launch live in the window above and on the Space.com homepage, courtesy of SpaceX. Live coverage will begin about 15 minutes before liftoff. You can also watch the launch directly via SpaceX and on YouTube.

Related: Our X-Ray universe: Amazing photos by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory

The IXPE satellite will provide astronomers with a new tool to probe the mysteries of the universe. The refrigerator-sized satellite is equipped with three identical telescopes that will be able to study the polarization of light (meaning which direction the light particles are scattered) from cosmic sources such as black holes and neutron stars. With IXPE's observations, astronomers will be able to study the structure and mechanisms that power these types of enigmatic cosmic objects.

"IXPE will help us test and refine our current theories of how the universe works," Martin Weisskopf, the mission's principal investigator said during a prelaunch briefing on Tuesday (Dec. 7). "We may even discover more exciting theories about these exotic objects than what weve hypothesized."

Thursday's flight is the 28th Falcon 9 mission for SpaceX so far in 2021. The flight also marks the second rocket launch from the Cape this week. Early Tuesday morning (Dec. 7), an Atlas V blasted off from an adjacent launch pad, carrying a mix of payloads into space for the U.S. government.

Related: SpaceX's most-flown Falcon 9 rocket is a sooty veteran after 10 launches

Thursday's pre-dawn flight will continue a busy month here on the Space Coast, with as many as five rocket launches on the calendar for December. Those launches include four Falcon 9s and one United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V. So far, two of the five have blasted off without a hitch.

To ensure that Thursday's Falcon 9 rocket is ready to fly, SpaceX briefly fired up the nine Merlin 1D engines on the rocket's first stage on Saturday (Dec. 4). The test, called a static fire, is a routine part of SpaceX's prelaunch procedures and helps engineers know that the rocket is ready to fly.

SpaceX then confirmed that everything was "go" for launch on Thursday morning with a 2.5-hour window.

After the rocket successfully carries the IXPE satellite into space, its first stage will touch down on SpaceX's drone ship, "Just Read the Instructions."

Forecasters at the 45th Space Delta have said that there's a 80% chance of favorable conditions for liftoff Thursday morning, with the primary concerns being cumulus clouds and thick clouds. If necessary, there is a backup attempt slated for Friday, with conditions also at 80% "go."

Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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SpaceX will launch a new X-ray space telescope for NASA early Thursday. Here's how to watch live. - Space.com

Elon Musk said he's constantly juggling his work at Tesla and SpaceX.

As the richest man in the world and the CEO of multiple companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, Musk said he tries to split his time evenly between the two companies, but it depends on "the kind of crisis of the moment."

"I triage the tasks and try to do the things that are most useful or where I'm most needed it varies from one week to the next," he said on Monday at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Summit.

Musk said that he works seven days a week and some "pretty crazy hours." Historically, the CEO has said he has worked up to 20 hours a day. In 2018, Musk said on the podcast Recode Decode that his work at Tesla and SpaceX sometimes drove him to sleep on his factory's floor and work over 120 hours a week. Though, the CEO said later that year that he scaled back to 80 to 90-hour work weeks.

"Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week," Musk said at the time.

Most recently, Musk has had to focus his attention on a "crisis" at SpaceX. During The Wall Street Journal conference, Musk said that SpaceX's Starship spaceship has consumed a large portion of his time.

In November, Musk said that SpaceX planned to launch Starship into orbit by January or February. On Monday, Musk expressed doubt as to whether Starship would be able to launch in 2022 at all.

"This absorbs more of my mental energy than probably any other single thing," he said. "It is so preposterously difficult, that there are times where I wonder whether we can actually do this."

Musk expressed concern over SpaceX's progress with the engines for the Starship rocket last month. Over Thanksgiving weekend, Musk sent a company-wide email saying SpaceX faces a "risk of bankruptcy" if it cannot achieve a flight rate for its Starship rocket of at least once every two weeks in 2022. As a result, Musk and SpaceX employees worked over the holiday weekend to fix the engine-production issue.

Tesla and SpaceX are not the only companies in which Musk is heavily involved. The billionaire is also the CEO of Neuralink, a company that is developing implantable brain chips, and The Boring Company, a tunnel-construction company.

Much like Tesla and SpaceX, Musk's other two companies also have lofty goals. Musk has said that he plans for Neuralink to begin implanting chips in human brains within the next year. Similarly, The Boring Company is working on multiple hyperloop projects in Las Vegas and California.

More here:

Musk splits time between Tesla, SpaceX 'crisis of the moment' - Business Insider

Later this month SpaceX will send another Cargo Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) laden with supplies and science experiments.

In a video (below) released this week, NASA shed some light on the kind of research heading to space.

The science gear destined for the space station this month includes a handheld bioprinter that uses a patients own skin cells to create a tissue-forming patch for covering a wound to accelerate the healing process.

The technology, if proved to be effective, could be used to quickly heal skin injuries in space, though it could also be used by patients on Earth.

Pharmaceutical company Merck is continuing a protein crystal growth study that could result in a more affordable and convenient way to deliver cancer treatment drugs via injection at a doctors office rather than intravenously in a clinical setting.

After discovering how spaceflight can increase the virulence of potentially harmful microbes that could lead to weakened human immune function, this research will evaluate changes in immune status among astronauts by examining astronauts blood and saliva samples before, during, and after a mission.

The results could help scientists to better assess the risk that infectious microbes may pose to space crews, and may lead to the creation of effective countermeasures. Improved understanding of how stress can diminish immune function also could improve care for those with compromised immune systems on Earth, NASA said.

This research will profile and monitor plant growth in microgravity conditions. The aim is to learn more about how plants sense and adapt to changes in their environment so that scientists can create improved systems for growing plants in space. Plants could serve as an important part of human life support systems for long-duration spaceflight and habitation of the moon and Mars, NASA said.

For a number of years, astronauts aboard the ISS have been cultivating, harvesting, and consuming a range of vegetables as part of experiments aimed at understanding and improving plant growth in space.

Proctor & Gamble will test the effectiveness of Tide Infinity, described as a fully degradable detergent specifically for use in space, so that astronauts on long-duration missions can feel more comfortable in clean garments and avoid the shame of smelly socks. At the current time, clean clothes are sent up in regular resupply missions, but this wont be possible on longer voyages.

From a scientific standpoint, the major challenges for off-planet laundering include the strict requirements for compatibility with the air purification systems, the limited amount of water available per each wash treatment, and the requirement that the laundry wash water be purified back to drinkable water, said Mark Sivik, a research fellow at P&G.

Sivik added that once Tide Infinity has been proven in space, the technology behind it could be used to advance sustainable, low-resource-use laundry solutions on Earth.

Crewmembers will test a manufacturing device that processes heat-resistant metal parts in microgravity conditions.

Researchers expect more uniform microstructures and improved mechanical properties in superalloy parts processed in microgravity versus those processed on Earth, NASA said. The more advanced materials could improve the performance of turbine engines in industries that include aerospace and power generation.

Students also have the chance to send science experiments to the ISS. NASA-funded experiments on the upcoming Cargo Dragon flight include one from Columbia University that will study antibiotic resistance in microgravity and another from the University of Idaho that will look at how microgravity impacts bacteria-resistant materials.

Go here to read the rest:

Check out the science heading to the ISS on the next SpaceX Crew Dragon flight - Digital Trends

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has blasted off with NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) satellite. First announced in 2017, the IXPE is the first satellite capable of measuring the polarization of X-rays that come from cosmic sources, such as black holes and neutron stars.

The fridge-sized satellite has three telescopes that can track and measure the direction, arrival time, energy, and polarization of light. When data from all those telescopes is combined, NASA can form images that could give us more insight into how mysterious celestial objects those that emit X-ray work. For instance, they're hoping it can give us a more thorough look at the structure of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant with a neutron star rapidly spinning in its center.

By observing black holes, the IXPE will help scientists gain more insight and broaden humanity's knowledge on the regions of space we still barely know. It could provide clues on why they spin and how they gobble up cosmic materials, though it could also lead to new discoveries. Martin Weisskopf, the mission's principal investigator, said during a briefing: "IXPE will help us test and refine our current theories of how the universe works. We may even discover more exciting theories about these exotic objects than what we've hypothesized."

SpaceX used a Falcon 9 rocket from a previous mission for this launch. If all goes well, the rocket's first stage will land on the company's drone ship "Just Read the Instructions" after ferrying IXPE to space.

Read the original:

SpaceX launches a NASA telescope that will observe black holes - Yahoo! Voices

Tesla and SpaceX are constantly in the news, for reasonspositiveandnegative. Whats undeniable is that both companies are doing incredible work in the arenas of electric cars and spaceflight, powered by thousands of ultra-skilled workers. What tech skills are these companies looking for?

For an answer, we can turn to Emsi Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes millions of job postings from across the country. Based on that data, we can analyze the skills that popped up most in Teslas job postings over the past 90 days. Take a look at the chart:

As you can see, Tesla is intensely interested in technologists who areskilled in Python, which is an ultra-popular generalist language. It also needs employees skilled in the principles of software engineering andproject management; given the complexity of projects (and challenges) facing the automaker, whoever takes those engineering and management roles will certainly have to be very, very good at multitasking.

Over at SpaceX, Python is also critical, along with Linux, C++, software engineering, and a bunch of health-related skills (its easy to surmise the lattermost deal with astronaut health in some way). Heres the overall skills breakdown over the past 90 days:

At both Tesla and SpaceX, job interviews will focus on your problem-solving abilities. Although Elon Musk, CEO of both companies, likely doesnt interview every single engineering candidate anymore, hetold the World Government Summitin 2017 that he liked asking interviewees, Tell me about some of the most difficult problems you worked on and how you solved them.

Chances are good that hiring managers and recruiters at both companies ask some variation of that question. And to be fair, its a straightforward line of questioning: If you can describe how you solved a problem in granular detail, your potential for landing a job at either company will rise. (If you werent responsible for tackling your previous companies challenges, by contrast, you likely wont be able to provide anything besides generalitiesand youll be in serious trouble.)

Even if youre not applying for a job at Tesla or SpaceX, keep in mind that providing as much detail as possible in response to job-interview questions is always important. Youll give the recruiter and/or hiring manager a better picture of how exactly youll add value to your prospective employer, including your unique approach to problems.

Before heading into any interview, its key to review a few relevant stories from your professional background. Rehearse beforehand, preferably with a friend or trusted colleague. If you know ahead of time that the interviewwill involve a whiteboard or keyboard test, practice with a few online challenges or tests before your interview.

One last, fun thing to mention: Musk has also asked prospective SpaceX engineers a fun little brainteaser:

Youre standing on the surface of the Earth. You walk one mile south, one mile west, and one mile north. You end up exactly where you started. Where are you?

The easy answer: the North Pole. However, as you can tell from the comments when we originally posted the question on Dice,there are lots of creative responses(still on Earth, anywhere with a broken compass, and so on). Although tech companies have largely stopped asking brainteasers in favor of other kinds of questions, theyre still a fun way to demonstrate how you think through a problem.

Membership has its benefits. Sign up for a free Dice profile, add your resume, discover great career insights and set your tech career in motion. Register now

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30 Tech Skills That Tesla, SpaceX Want from Job Candidates - Dice Insights