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The newest prototype of SpaceXs moon-landing and Mars-colonizing spaceship, Starship, is expected to undergo its first high-altitude test flight this month. The giant spacecrafts development site in Boca Chica, Texas has been extremely busy over the past few weeks with preparation for the big test.

Starship is SpaceXs ultimate rocket designed for future interplanetary trips. Two previous prototypes, Starship SN5 and SN6, successfully performed 500-foot-high (150 meters) hops in a test flight last month. The latest prototype, SN8, aims to fly up to 50,000 feet (9.3 mile) above sea level, paving the way for SpaceXs next target to reach Earths orbit.

On Friday, Elon Musk said on Twitter that an orbit-reaching prototype called V1.0 would be revealed before the end of October. Starship update coming in about 3 weeks, he tweeted. The design has coalesced. What is presented will actually be what flies to orbit as V1.0 with almost no changes.

A number of smaller tests need to take place before SN8 takes to the sky. The giant cylinder-shaped rocket, weighing over 150,000 pounds, was rolled to the launch pad in Boca Chica and hooked into a ground support system on September 26. Due to weather-induced delays, SN8 was held on-site for four days before being lifted onto one of the pads test stands. Technicians then began the process of installing the mounts temporary hydraulic ram (used to simulate engine thrust) to the rockets thrust puck.

See Also: Elon Musk Says SpaceX Could IPO StarlinkBut Only Under One Big Condition

Like previous prototypes, SN8 will need to pass a proof test to make sure that the rocket (filled with liquid nitrogen) wont leak under the pressure equivalent to the thrust of three Raptor engines. SN8 will be the first Starship prototype to be fired up by three Raptor engines at the same time, which would more than 600 metric tons (1.3 million pound-force) of thrust.

After that, the rocket will be paired with a nosecone and flaps and undergo two or more static fire tests with the actual engines.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is assembling additionalStarship prototypes for more tests. The next-generation model, Starship SN9, is now fully stacked inside the Boca Chica facility. Local reporters have also spotted SN10 and SN11 at the development site, although SpaceX hasnt confirmed progress on those projects.

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SpaceXs Mars-Colonizing Starship Is Ready for Its First Huge Test - Observer

Mention space missions, what may first come to mind is either rocket blastoffs, spaceships voyaging toward another planet or astronauts walking in the black of vacuum in fat spacesuits. All of those things are made on Earth, but for both convenience and long-haul trips, building thingsin space is an increasingly important aspect of space travel.

If were going to colonize Mars, we absolutely have to have the ability to do manufacturing there and ideally using local materials, Andrew Rush, president of Made In Space, Inc., a Jacksonville, Florida startup specializing in 3D printing in space, tells Observer.

Made In Space is the first company to successfully manufacture an object in an off-Earth environment. In 2016, NASA commissioned Made In Space to install a permanent 3D printer on the International Space Station to produce tools, equipment and whatever onboard astronauts might need.

In a recent interview with Observer, Rush broke down the intriguing science of manufacturing in microgravity environments and why this technology is key in the human races quest for interplanetary industrialization.

How is 3D printing in space different than 3D printing on Earth?

The end goal is the same, which is to build stuff in real-time to meet user need. The biggest difference in space is that we dont have the benefit of gravity to help us put things where we want to put them, so we have to rely on other forces to do the depositing of material.

Also, in a zero-gravity environment, we dont have any natural convection like air currents that move naturally to help with cooling. So we have to build thermal control into the 3D printing system to keep the hot parts hot and the cool parts cool.

Basically you are creating an Earth-like environment inside the 3D printing machine.

Yes. Thats a good way to say it.

One of the great things about manufacturing in microgravity, though, is that we can actually make structures that wouldnt be able to support their own mass if they were on Earth. That allows us to do really interesting things. For example, we can make a spiderweb-like structure that can hold and stabilize its own weight in space. But if you put it down on the ground, it would collapse under the weight of its own mass.

With 3D printing, we can directly make that kind of objects in space instead of making it on Earthand then blasting it into space.

How big is the device thats currently on the space station?

Its about the size of a decent microwave. But really, the size of our printers depends on what needs to be printed and the amount of space available. We have some printers that can make structures much bigger than the printers themselves. They can operate outside the ISS in the vacuum of space.

What kind of objects has that printer made? And what are they made of?

It has made a wide variety of stuff, such as ratchets that can be used to tweak things down, radiation covers for different science experiments and student-designed art.

Right now, we have three materials on the space station. We have acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), which is kind of like Lego plastic and a common material used in 3D printers on Earth as well. Then, we have a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) thats a more flexible and food-safe plastic. Polyethylene is also what milk jugs are made out of. Then, we also have a Polyetherimide/Polycarbonate (PEI/PC), which is an aerospace-grade polymer that produces stronger, more heat-resistant materials. It can actually hold strength in a vacuum and a low-temperature environment in space.

Can you give an example of how 3D printing can be used in future space missions, such as colonizing Mars?

The key to colonizing anywhere is bringing tools and living off the land. If were going to colonize Mars, we absolutely have to have the ability to do manufacturing there and ideally using local materials. What weve been doing in space for the last several years is developing manufacturing technology that can work off of Earth. By the time we move to Mars, larger versions of these 3D printers can be used to lay foundations and build out our habitat there.

Speaking of Mars colonization, Elon Musk has said he wants to send one million people to Mars by 2050. Do you think thats a realistic timeline?

I think 2050 is a realistic target. Im very excited about returning humans to the moon in this decade. I think once we return to the moon, its realistic to say that Mars is within our reach in another 10 years.

Made In Space was the first company to send a 3D printer to the ISS (in 2016). How has 3D printing in space evolved in the past four years? Have you had any notable competitors?

Weve had some governmental competition. 3D printing is a high interest to the European Space Agency (ESA). Russia has done some experiments in this area. So has China. And weve seen other companies in the U.S. that are very interested, too.

How has COVID-19 affected your company, whether its R&D or the business side of things?

COVID-19 has obviously shocked every aspect of our personal and professional lives. Were not immune to that at all. Weve been extraordinarily fortunate to have customers, especially NASA.

Weve been trying really hard to make sure that were continuing to execute our visions while doing that in a way thats as safe as possible for our team and other organizations we work with.

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How 3D Printing in Space Will Help Put a Million People on Mars - Observer

Planetary scientists and artificial intelligence (AI) researchers have collaborated on a machine learning tool that helped discover new craters on Mars - including small impacts left by a meteor about eight years ago.

Between March 2010 and May 2012, a meteor flew over Mars, burned, and eventually disintegrated into smaller pieces that crashed into the planet's surface. This left unusually small - and relatively easy to miss, at only 4 meters (13 feet) wide - craters. With the help of its AI-driven tool, NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California are looking forward to reduced lead time and increased findings on the Red Planet's surface.

(Photo: Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)PASADENA, CA - MAY 27: Principal Investigator, HiRise Camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Brian Portock talks to reporters in front of an image of a crater taken during the descent of the Phoenix Mars Lander during an update briefing, two days after landing in a northern polar region of Mars, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on May 27, 2008, in Pasadena, California. The Phoenix Mars Lander is the newest hope in the search for signs of life on Mars. Fewer than half of the Mars missions have made successful landings. At a cost of $420 million, the Phoenix Mars Lander has flown 422 million miles since leaving Earth in August 2007.

Usually, NASA scientists have to manually analyze the images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in search of uncommon phenomena in the Red Planet's surface - avalanche, shifting sand dunes, dust devils, and more. Throughout the MRO's 14-year service, it has provided data that allowed the space agency to find more than 1,000 craters. Most of these discoveries begin with the Context Camera installed in the orbiter, taking extremely large yet low-resolution images of the planet's surface, covering hundreds of miles per shot.

RELATED: Elon Musk on Mars Colonization: "Good Chance You'll Die"

Craters are detected through their blast marks, making them visible from the low-res images. However, the craters themselves remain virtually invisible, which leads to the next process. Using the High-Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE). It provides clearer, more detailed pictures of the target. In fact, its vision system can detect even the tracks left behind by the Curiosity rover. Additionally, the research team allows the public to put in their specific request through the HiRISE HiWish website.

This next process, according to a NASA press release, takes around 40 minutes for a researcher to go through a single Context Camera image. To cut the time required, the JPL team created a machine learning tool called the Automated Fresh Impact Crater Classifier. The AI tool is a part of a wider effort among Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists called COSMIC - for Capturing Onboard Summarization to Monitor Image Change - that aims to continuously improve Mars orbiters.

JPL researchers trained the crater classifier by providing it with a total of 6,830 Context Camera images, including locations that contained impacts already identified and confirmed by HiRISE. The images provided to the machine learning tool also included images with no impacts, to also train the tool to identify what not to look for.

After the training phase, the crater classifier was deployed on Context Camera's repository of more than 100,000 pictures. A process that used to take 40 minutes is now accomplished on an average of 5 seconds, thanks to a set of high-performance computers operating in parallel within JPL's supercomputer cluster.

"It wouldn't be possible to process over 112,000 images in a reasonable amount of time without distributing the work across many computers," explained Gary Doran, a computer scientist at JPL. The team was challenged at first with running 750 copies of the classifier across the entire cluster.

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However, a human operator still checks the data returned by the AI tool. Kiri Wagstaff, also a JPL computer scientist, explained that AI tools still can't do the "skilled analysis" that a scientist can do.

Check out more news and information on Mars in Science Times.

Excerpt from:
A Machine Learning Tool Supports the Search for New Craters on Mars - Science Times

CHAPEL HILL A fund established byMorgan Creek Capital Managementto buy a stake in Elon Musks Space X has raised roughly $13.5 million.

The Chapel Hill-based firm closed on the round under the business nameMorgan Creek Private Opportunities, LLC Series F- SpaceX on Thursday, according to a securities filing.

Seventy-three investors from 45 states contributed to the round, which kicked off Sept. 17.

Founded in 2012, SpaceXs goal is to reduce space transportation costs to enable thecolonization of Mars. Already, it has developedseveral launch vehicles, theStarlinksatellite constellation, theDragoncargo spacecraft, and flown humans to the International Space Station on theCrew Dragon Demo-2.

Last month, it reached an agreement with the US Space Forces Space and Missile Systems Center to recover the first stage booster. In May, it also teamed up with NASA to use SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule for its first crewed launch in more than a decade.

Meanwhile, its also a busy time for Morgan Creek.

In October, it established another Opportunities Fund one of several in recent months toexplore blockchain opportunities. Total raised: $60.9 million.

The firm isa SEC-registered investment adviser providing investment management services to institutional and qualifying clients such as endowments, pension plans, foundations and family offices.

According to its website, the firm provides asset allocation, manager selection, and portfolio construction based on the University Endowment Model.

It also has offices in New York and Shanghai.

Beautiful sight: Trump hails NASA-SpaceX launch, Musk, astronauts

Chapel Hill firm raises $60.9M from 11 investors for blockchain opportunities fund

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Chapel Hill firm raises roughly $13.5M to buy stake in Elon Musk's SpaceX - WRAL Tech Wire

Buildings on Mars and other planets, scientists from the Singapore University of Technology and Design have proposed 3D printing using organic polymer chitin, which is found in the exoskeletons of crustaceans and insects. According to the authors of the development, this technology was originally created for waste-free ecosystems in an urban environment, but it turned out to be so effective that it can be used in the colonization of lifeless objects in the Universe.

Image via: Flickr.comSince shipping building materials to other planets can be incredibly expensive, scientists are looking for alternatives. It was proposed to use regolith to create premises on Mars. This is the dust and sand that covers the Red Planet, however, to obtain concrete, a lot of water is required, and its reserves are quite limited. The use of modern construction equipment also faces problems. Singaporean scientists seem to have found a way out. They propose to build buildings on a 3D printer using insect chitin. This material can be used for construction, and the animals themselves can become an excellent source of protein for colonizers.

Scientists have already conducted laboratory experiments in which they mixed a compound of chitosan and acetic acid with the mineral equivalent of Martian soil. The result is a high-quality and durable building material. Moreover, such production may be completely waste-free.

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Buildings on Mars to be 3D printed using insect chitin - The Times Hub

The moon is the new destination of the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and the United Arab Emirates. America had sent the first man to the moon in the 1960s and subsequently diverted its attention to concentrate on Mars, where it has two robots operating 24x7. China has landed its robot on the far side of the moon, an area no one has yet thought of exploring. Donald Trump wants NASA to revisit the moon and send a woman there by 2024.

On its part, the Los Angeles Times reveals the United Arab Emirates has plans for an unmanned mission to the moon, also in 2024. A top Emirati official says its success would mean the United Arab Emirates could become only the fourth country to achieve that milestone.

It has been active in the field of space research in recent years. An Emirati space probe is already heading to Mars. United Arab Emirates launched it a couple of months earlier.

Moreover, in preparation for the probable moon landing, it had sent one of its astronauts to the International Space Station. The purpose was to get trained, gain experience, and be acquainted with the intricacies of working in space. These might set the foundation for the future. In 2017, there was news that the United Arab Emirates UAE wanted to develop an astronaut corps.

Los Angeles Times quotes the ruler of UAE who conveyed via Twitter - "It will be an Emirati-made lunar rover that will land on the surface of the moon in 2024 in areas that have not been explored previously by human missions." He is Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who also serves as the vice president and prime minister.

He maintained silence on issues like areas that the United Arab Emirates would explore on the moon or the methodology of launching the rover into space.

The United Arab Emirates launched its mission to Mars from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. The name of its orbiter is "Amal" or "Hope." Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was involved in launching the probe to the red planet and said a decision on the moon rover's launch is yet to be taken.

Los Angeles Times describes the 22-pound moon rover. There would be a range of cameras and photographic equipment installed in it to study the surface. The rover would also check out the moon's mobility and the interaction of different surfaces with lunar particles. The United Arab Emirates is a late starter and is determined to make its presence felt.

It is obviously upbeat about its space-related activities. The United States, the Soviet Union, and China have proved their worth. Each country has an agenda of its own, which revolves around the availability of natural resources on the alien surface. It will provide an impetus to robotics, artificial intelligence, and Renewable Energy. These are important when planning for activities in remote regions.

The success of Moon mission 2024 would make the United Arab Emirates the fourth country to have accomplished the feat. Others like India and Israel tried but failed, and the United Arab Emirates is hopeful. Los Angeles Times adds that the Mars probe "Amal" would reach the red planet in February 2021.

That is the year the United Arab Emirates celebrates 50 years of its existence. By September, its Mars rover would become active. It would transmit data on the Martian atmosphere for sharing with others, and the United Arab Emirates hopes to colonize the planet by 2117, says Los Angeles Times.

According to Al Jazeera, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai emirate, announced that the Moon rover's name would be Rashid after his late father, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum. The ruler of Dubai emirate also said participating in the moon exploration is "part of the United Arab Emirates' space strategy." It would help build new knowledge capabilities and advance the country's "scientific, technical, and research environment." He also said the lunar rover's construction would be on the state's land and by its engineers.

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The United Arab Emirates eyes a foothold on the Moon plans for a crewless mission in 2024 - Blasting News United States