Day: August 12, 2024

https://www.popsci.com/science/spacex-mercury-water-pollution/

SpaceX’s Starship launches at the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas, have allegedly been contaminating local bodies of water with mercury for years. The news arrives in an exclusive CNBC report on August 12, which cites internal documents and communications between local Texas regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency.

SpaceX’s fourth Starship test launch in June was its most successful so far—but the world’s largest and most powerful rocket ever built continues to wreak havoc on nearby Texas communities, wildlife, and ecosystems. And after repeated admonishments, reviews, and ignored requests, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) have had enough.

The issues stem from a complaint filed to the TCEQ just over a year ago on August 6, 2023. The letter reportedly cited 14 separate incidents regarding “environmental impacts from the Facility’s deluge system” stemming from “discharging deluge water without TCEQ authorization.”

Water deluge systems work in tandem with flame deflectors to mitigate the intense heat, energy, and sound that accompany orbital rocket launches. Despite Starship possessing 33 methane- and liquid-oxygen fueled Raptor engines that generate a collective 16.7 million pounds of thrust, such a system was not installed at the Boca Chica Starbase before its first launch, although they are now in place.

[Related: SpaceX’s Starship launch caused a ‘mini earthquake’ and left a giant mess.]

The news comes the same day as the FAA’s announcement that it was indefinitely postponing a series of four public environmental impact assessment meetings. The four scheduled events were focused on Starship’s future test launches at SpaceX’s spaceport near Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX hoped to receive approval to increase its total number of Starship tests there to 25 annual launches.

Local residents near Boca Chica have frequently voiced concerns about potentially dangerous conditions created by the 15-story-tall Starship’s engines. SpaceX’s neighbors have described a liftoff’s deafening noise and physical effects as “truly frightening.” Dust plumes created from the spacecraft’s 16.7 million pounds of thrust have allegedly caused health issues, while bowling
ball-sized debris from a launch site’s 25-foot-deep crater has severely damaged vehicles and shattered windows. In April 2024, 27 community and environmental organizations published an open letter voicing anger with the tests while highlighting Starbase’s proximity to indigenous sacred lands.

A fully reusable Starship system is key to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s goal of eventually transporting humans to Mars. Before that, however, it is currently scheduled to ferry NASA’s Artemis 3 mission astronauts to the moon sometime in September 2026. It is unclear how or if the charges will affect that timeline for both the private space company and NASA. But even if the timeline remains the same, at least one recent study has raised concerns about the effects of Starship’s massive landing thrusters on surrounding lunar surface conditions.

“We will get back to you,” an FAA spokesperson told Popular Science earlier today ahead of CNBC‘s story. They have not responded to requests for a follow-up at the time of writing.

This story is developing…

The post SpaceX accused of dumping mercury into Texas waters for years appeared first on Popular Science.

via Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now https://www.popsci.com

August 12, 2024 at 02:45PM

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2418409/how-to-record-audio-files-under-windows-11-using-on-board-tools.html

via PCWorld https://www.pcworld.com

August 10, 2024 at 07:02AM

https://www.engadget.com/home/a-3d-printer-is-building-homes-for-a-texas-community-225830280.html?src=rss

It’s taken almost two years but a planned community of homes made with a gigantic 3D printer in Georgetown, Texas is almost complete.

Reuters reports that the homes, which are part of a community called Wolf Ranch, are being built with a large 3D printer called the Vulcan that’s 45 feet wide and weighs more than 4.75 tons. The project is part of a joint venture with the 3D printing construction developer ICON and the home construction company Lennar. It started in November of 2022 and crews are close to completing its goal of building 100 homes with the Vulcan by the end of the summer. Homeowners have already started moving into some of the completed 3D printed homes that range in price from $450,000 to $600,000. More than a quarter of the homes have been sold.

ICON

ICON’s 3D printer uses a mixture of concrete powder, water, sand and other materials to lay out stacks of tube-shaped concrete to construct walls and eventually a whole house. The homes are single-story dwellings with three to four bedrooms that take around three weeks to print. The foundation and metal roofs are made the old-fashioned way with human crews.

Once printed, the walls look like giant stretches of corduroy, but they are designed to be resilient and sustainable even in extreme weather. They are also water resistant and energy efficient. The contemporary ranch-style designs for the houses were provided by the architectural firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, according to an ICON press release. The construction process has also been streamlined over the course of the project. ICON senior project manager Conner Jenkins told Reuters that construction started with five different building crews but it’s since been whittled down to just one crew and one robot printer.

The only downside is the thickness of the walls interferes with WiFi signals. Residents have had to use mesh internet routers with broadcast signals located throughout the home instead of just a single router.

ICON isn’t just using its large scale 3D printer to make homes on Earth. NASA is reportedly interested in using the technology to build structures on the moon for its Artemis Moon exploration program scheduled to launch its first crew in September 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/aNzpi0M

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

August 8, 2024 at 06:06PM