Artificial Intelligence algorithms are introduced in this work as a tool to predict the performance of new chemical compounds as alternative propellants for electric propulsion, focusing on predicting their ionisation characteristics and fragmentation patterns. The chemical properties and structure of the compounds are encoded using a chemical fingerprint, and the training datasets are extracted from the NIST WebBook. The AI-predicted ionisation energy and minimum appearance energy have a mean relative error of 6.87% and 7.99%, respectively, and a predicted ion mass with a 23.89% relative error. In the cases of full mass spectra due to electron ionisation, the predictions have a cosine similarity of 0.6395 and align with the top 10 most similar mass spectra in 78% of instances within a 30 Da range.

Today\'s world of space\'s primary concern is the uncontrolled growth of space debris and its probability of collision with spacecraft, particularly in the low earth orbit (LEO) regions. This paper is aimed to design an optimized micro-propulsion system, Cold Gas Thruster, to de-orbit the PSLV debris from 668km to 250 km height after capturing process. The propulsion system mainly consists of a storage tank, pipes, control valves, and a convergent-divergent nozzle. The paper gives an idea of the design of each component based on a continuous iterative process until the design thrust requirements are met. All the components are designed in the CATIA V5, and the structural analysis is done in the ANSYS tool for each component where our cylinder tank can withstand the high hoop stress generated on its wall of it. And flow analysis is done by using the K-$\epsilon$ turbulence model for the CD nozzle, which provides the required thrust to de-orbit PSLV from a higher orbit to a lower orbit, after which the air drag will be enough to bring back to earth\'s atmosphere and burn it. Hohmann\'s orbit transfer method has been used to de-orbit the PSLV space debris, and it has been simulated by STK tools. And the result shows that our optimized designed thruster generates enough thrust to de-orbit the PSLV debris to a very low orbit.

The moon is a treasure trove of valuable resources. Gold, platinum, and many rare Earth metals await extraction to be used in next-generation electronics. But there's one resource in particular that has excited scientists, rocket engineers, space agency officials, industry entrepreneurs--virtually anyone with a vested interest in making spaceflight to distant worlds more affordable. If you split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then liquefy those constituents, you have rocket fuel. If you can stop at the moon's orbit or a lunar base to refuel, you no longer need to bring all your propellant with you as you take off, making your spacecraft significantly lighter and cheaper to launch.

Last Thursday, a shiny new SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sat perched atop NASA's historic Pad 39A, at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, waiting to briefly fire its engines. The exercise was part of a routine pre-launch test. What wasn't routine was the presence of a Crew Dragon capsule atop the slick black-and-white Falcon. The domed capsule, which can accommodate up to seven passengers, represents the next big step in SpaceX's evolution and in NASA's dependency on a commercial space industry. The test simulated all of the events of an actual launch, though with the rocket secured to the pad.

This is literally a robotic intestine puking rocket fuel. It's being developed in Japan, by roboticists from Chuo University and JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. You'll be relieved to learn that it's a robotic intestine puking rocket fuel with a purpose: It's designed to replicate the peristaltic motion of a real intestine in order to gently mix ingredients to make solid rocket fuel. The researchers say their machine is safer than conventional mixers because the fuel doesn't experience high shear stress inside the undulating rubber tubing and is never in contact with metal, avoiding the risk of fire and explosions. The idea is to turn the solid rocket fuel manufacturing process into a continuous operation rather than a discrete one, replacing rocket fuel mixing bowls that give you fuel in batches with a system that can just continuously pump out fuel instead.

When building a controller for a physical process, traditional control theory requires a mathematical model to predict the behavior of the process so that appropriate control decisions can be made. Unfortunately, either many real-world processes are too complicated to accurately model, or insufficient information is available about the process environment. In addition, optimal control strategies can themselves exhibit undesirable complexity. However, a human controller can often acquire relatively simple strategies to effect near-optimal control from operational experience. This article reports on experiments performed using a black-box simulation of a spacecraft.

From a vacuum Martian airship to an artificial gravity chamber, NASA has revealed a host of new proposals that could push human and robotic exploration of space even further. The space agency is investing in 22 early-stage projects for further development, many of which tap into ideas that once existed only in science fiction. While the radical projects could take years before they can be used in a NASA mission, if at all, the agency says they could soon'expand how we explore the universe.' Among the proposals, NASA invested in a radical idea to create a sci-fi-like Mach Effect Thruster propulsion system. This would produce thrust'without the irreversible ejection of propellant, eliminating the need to carry propellant' NASA has selected Phase I and II awards for its 2017 Innovative Advanced Concepts portfolio.

NASA engineers are testing the high-power solar electric propulsion systems that could soon push exploration missions further into deep space. A stunning new image from the agency's Glenn Research Center shows a Hall thruster ahead of ground testing in a vacuum chamber. The device is said to have three times the power of existing systems, and the experiments in the vacuum chamber will put it to the test of a simulated space environment, allowing engineers to see how it performs. NASA engineers are testing the high-power solar electric propulsion systems that could soon push exploration missions further into deep space. A stunning new image from the agency's Glenn Research Center shows a Hall thruster ahead of ground testing in a vacuum chamber In the image, NASA engineer Dr Peter Peterson can be seen preparing the high-power thruster – a device that the agency says is'critical' in the future of deep space exploration.

It takes a lot of fuel to break free from Earth's gravity and navigate outer space. A staggering 90 percent of a rocket's initial mass is made up of propellant. What if we could trim that fat, launch spaceships with minimal resources, and collect the rest of what we need along the way? Such "massless exploration" is very likely our future in space. Imagine we wanted to rendezvous with a distant asteroid and bring back samples from its surface. "Today, that mission would have to be launched with enough propellant for the entire round trip," Kyle Doyle, program manager of Cornell's Cislunar Explorers, told Digital Trends.

In his iconic science fiction novel Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke describes how humanity first mistakes a large inbound spacecraft for an asteroid and then interacts with the mysterious alien ship. The founders of Made in Space, a small company with big dreams of manufacturing materials in space, are clearly fans of the book, because they have named their latest venture Project RAMA. Made in Space's plan seems like science fiction as well: the company wants to turn asteroids into spacecraft. The company is serious--and so, apparently, is NASA. The agency has agreed to pay as much as 100,000 to Made in Space to conduct a feasibility study on the concept.