Top Tweets for #ArtemisProgramStory

My student’s lunar lander plume research made it onto TV! Yes, he is prototyping with 2x4’s and zip ties. I’m mentoring him to build fast & cheap then iterate before getting to the higher fidelity, higher spend rate. The most important thing is to start testing as quickly as possible. For now this is just exploration of phenomenology. It is a multi-plume experiment to observe what happens along the plume reflection planes during descent. I believe it has never been studied experimentally before, though we saw evidence of it during the Firefly lunar landing. These early, low-budget tests will show us *what* we need to measure, so then we can figure out *how* to measure it, and only then can Noah design and build a high-fidelity apparatus that can make worthwhile quantitative measurements. It would be foolish to build high-fidelity from the start because we aren’t smart enough; anything we build would probably be wrong. I’ve been through this R&D cycle many times. The first apparatus you build is never right. It takes at least three iterations to get good results. Therefore, we start with 2X4s, zip ties, cardboard, and duct tape. https://t.co/ifmBLr6ZAG

This week we completed direct field acoustic testing on our Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander, a major flight‑qualification milestone.    We surrounded the fully integrated lander with a ring of 34‑ft speaker towers to generate a near‑diffuse acoustic field, matching the New Glenn payload fairing environment at over 138 decibels overall sound pressure level. MK1 ran in a flight-like configuration: tanks pressurized with helium and nitrogen, batteries powering the vehicle, with all critical avionics and guidance systems operating.    43 triaxial accelerometers measured response during a two‑minute exposure at protoqualification levels. Because the lander's vibration environment is driven by acoustic loads, this test replaces traditional shaker-based vibration testing and more accurately represents ascent conditions.    Next stop: @NASA_Johnson for thermal vacuum chamber testing.

💡ARTEMIS 2 UPDATE - NASA/CSA/ESA officially targeting the week of February 6th for Artemis 2 launch to the Moon! "The first launch window...during the week of February 6...Thereafter, we are planning one launch window per month for the following months." - Canadian Space Agency Statement to TLP The first launch window is expected to be 2 hours in length in the evening Eastern time.