Main Engine Cut Off

Last week, I talked about the failure of Schiaparelli, the recent issues with Juno, and how the teams in charge of those missions responded with spin and damage control. We were lucky to get more details about both of those topics this week.

The HiRISE camera on NASA’S Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took a higher-resolution photo of the Schiaparelli impact site, and it‘s really worth looking at closely. You can see the main crater, the heat shield impact, the backshell, and the parachute. Some additional reports are coming out that indicate the failure may have been caused by unexpected movement of the parachute. More interestingly, it’s possible this was something seen during testing but was never addressed because it was deemed too unlikely to warrant a proper fix. Not a very good look, if that turns out to be the case.

On the Juno front, a mission status report from 3 days ago confirms that the spacecraft exited safe mode, but didn’t say much about the valve issues with the main engine. “The team is still investigating the cause of the reboot and assessing two main engine check valves.”

That single, somewhat vague sentence does not inspire a lot of confidence. My hunch is that these issues are worse than they’re letting on, and Juno may be stuck in a 53-day orbit for its entire mission, which is currently planned to end in February 2018 with a dive into Jupiter’s atmosphere. However, the team has indicated that an extension is possible if the spacecraft does get stuck in its 53-day orbit. I have to assume the mission extension would be approved, but Juno isn’t out of the weeds yet.

Political vs. Financial Capital

Spending so much time thinking about Schiaparelli’s failure and Juno’s issues led me to some interesting thoughts about how these missions are funded and sustained, and how missions in the future may differ.

It comes down to the difference between political and financial capital, and I ruminated on that topic in this week’s podcast episode.

Government missions and programs are funded and supported with political capital, and future missions by private organizations, like SpaceX’s Red Dragon, will similarly rely on financial capital. That is a key difference that will obviously change the way missions are planned and carried out. There’s a lot more to this topic than that, so I’d recommend checking out the episode as a nice follow-up to some of the ideas I wrote about last week.

Tiangong–2 and CZ–5 Rollout

What has to be the coolest item of the week is the photo leading off this issue. Tiangong–2 deployed a small satellite—Banxing–2—complete with its own propulsion system to loiter near and provide imagery of the orbiting complex. Right now it’s hanging out below the station, but in the future will take some photos from above it, with the Earth in the background.

Photos of spacecraft in orbit are always fascinating to look at, and this one is no exception. Though, Banxing–2 does make me think about its infamous ancestor.

Here on Earth, China began rolling out the first CZ–5 for its launch next week. This will be China’s largest launch vehicle yet, and, carrying around 25 metric tons to LEO, will come in at #2 on the list of actively-flying launch vehicles by payload capacity—second only to the Delta IV Heavy. CZ–5 will be the backbone of the launch campaign for the Tiangong–3 modular space station, and will play a major role in China’s launch vehicle family. Keep an eye out for its launch next week, on November 3rd.

Thank you!

Thanks for reading the second issue of Main Engine Cut Off Weekly. Each week, I bring you what I find interesting and important in spaceflight, and you can get it however you like best—blog, podcast, or this here column. If you like what I’m doing, I’d really appreciate your support. Head over to Patreon and become a patron for as little as $1 per month. Everything I do is supported entirely by readers and listeners like you, and every little bit of support helps. Big thanks to those of you out there supporting!

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Thanks for reading, and I’ll talk to you next week.

— Anthony