SpaceX Falcon 9 gains X-Wing style Hypersonic Fins

Elon Musk tweeted over the weekend: "Testing operation of hypersonic grid fins (x-wing config) going on next flight."

"Grid fins are stowed on ascent and then deploy on reentry for 'x-wing' style control."

"Each fin moves independently for pitch/yaw/roll."

Another tweet: "Autonomous spaceport drone ship. Thrusters repurposed from deep sea oil rigs hold position within 3m even in a storm."

And still another: "Base is 300 ft by 100 ft, with wings that extend width to 170 ft. Will allow refuel & rocket flyback in future."

In sum, Musk is showing off rockets with 'X-wings' and landing pads in the sea, said The Verge; Dante D'Orazio wrote about the Tweets on Sunday: The latest version of SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket has a set of four independently adjustable fins.

"The grid fins are designed to deploy only after takeoff, when they'll work together with thrusters to help the rocket maneuver itself into position for those spectacular vertical landings."

UPI noted the fins are referred to with 'x-wing config.' for the shape they make jetting out in four separate directions.

Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch said the fins "could help spacecraft navigate upon re-entry after delivering personnel or cargo to an orbiting space station." The new modifications to the rocket should make atmospheric navigation easier, he added.

As Musk also revealed, SpaceX is developing seafaring spaceport drones for landing, as TechCrunch put.

These could be a safe and reliable targets for landing spaceships and, Etherington said, also mean that re-entering craft are away from any populated areas.

This is an autonomous spaceport platform, using thrusters from oil rigs. The Verge said that the spaceports at sea are designed to give the reusable rockets a place both to land and refuel before taking back off for space.

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has gained worldwide attention for a series of historic milestones.

It is the only private company ever to return a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit, which it first accomplished in December 2010, said the SpaceX site.

The company made more history in May 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft attached to the International Space Station, exchanged cargo payloads, and returned safely to Earth.

International Action Against Ozone Depleting Substances Claim Gains

Minimum concentration of ozone in the southern hemisphere for each year from 1979-2013 (there is no data from 1995). 

Each image is the day of the year with the lowest concentration of ozone. A graph of the lowest ozone amount for each year is shown.

Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/M. Radcliff

Worldwide action to phase out ozone-depleting substances has resulted in remarkable success, according to a new assessment by 300 international scientists.

The stratospheric ozone layer, a fragile shield of gas that protects Earth from harmful ultraviolet light, is on track to recovery over the next few decades.

The Assessment for Decision-Makers, a summary of the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 2014, provides new information to affirm that the 1987 international agreement known as the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer has successfully resulted in global international policies to reduced levels of ozone-depleting substances.

The report is conducted by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and co-sponsored by NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the European Commission.

Science teams from these organizations and other countries have been monitoring the ozone layer on the ground, by balloon and with a variety of satellite instruments dating back to NASA's Nimbus 4 satellite, launched in 1970.

The most current ozone hole satellite data comes from the Ozone Monitoring and Profiler Suite (OMPS) instrument on the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite (Suomi NPP), and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument and Microwave Limb Sounder (OMIMLS) on NASA's Aura satellite.

"It is particularly gratifying to report that the ozone layer is on track for recovery to 1980 benchmark levels by mid-century," said Paul A. Newman, chief scientist for atmospheres at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and a co-chair of the WMO/UNEP report.

"Many of these early signs of ozone improvements are due to decades of work and contributions by NASA and NOAA instruments and scientists."

Ozone depleting substances are also powerful greenhouse gases. The Montreal Protocol provided a double benefit: stopping ozone depletion, and slowing the growth of greenhouse gases.

“Substitutes for ozone depleting substances are ozone safe, but many are powerful greenhouse gases.

These substitutes could offset the climate gains achieved by the Montreal Protocol in the future," Newman said.

The Assessment for Decision-Makers, a summary of the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 2014 is the first comprehensive update in four years.

The full report will be available in early 2015.