SpaceX plans to reach Mars by 2018

Elon Musk’s SpaceX isn’t dilly-dallying on its space exploration plans. Its founder has previously said he wanted to bring humans to Mars in 10 years. And it seems the first step is being taken. Musk announced on Twitter that he plans to send Dragon, the vehicle designed to fly people and cargo to Mars, by 2018. “Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018. Red Dragons will inform overall Mars architecture, details to come,” the tweet said.

There isn’t much information on it yet but another tweet from Musk says, “Dragon 2 is designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar system. Red Dragon Mars mission is the first test flight.” However, no plans of sending a human to Mars just yet. “But wouldn’t recommend transporting astronauts beyond Earth-moon region. Wouldn’t be fun for longer journeys. Internal volume ~size of SUV.” According to SpaceX, the Dragon’s first manned test flight is about two or three years away.

Source: CNET

Bill Nye’s LightSail spacecraft reboots and gets in touch with Earth

Josh Spradling / The Planetary Society

Bill Nye’s sunbeam-powered spacecraft caused quite a scare for him and his company Planetary Society when it lost the ability to send information back to earth. LightSail got cut off from communications a week after it launched on May 20^th due to a software glitch. They couldn’t get it to reboot remotely and so the engineers put their hope in the “natural reboot” that would happen when it collides with stray charged particles. Thankfully, that happened and they re-established connection with the spacecraft.

LightSail was inspired by Carl Sagan’s solar sailing idea, which imagines a spacecraft using the sun in the same way a sailboat uses the wind. This month’s test hopes to prove it can unfurl it sails. If successful, a second test run will happen in April next year. LightSail is built with a small satellite and four Mylar sails to ride solar radiation. The scientists hope to prove that solar propulsion can get rid of the need for boosters or fuel reserves in spaceflight.

Source: The Verge