/sci/ - Science & Math

Exclusive interview with Tom Mueller, China to send new modules space station and co-orbiting Hubble-clone
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https://www.space.com/tom-mueller-impulse-space-mira-spacecraft
> Impulse Space CEO Tom Mueller talks early days at SpaceX, moon bases and a booming space industry (exclusive)
> An exclusive interview with SpaceX's co-founding engineer whose new space logistics firm is shaking up the business.
> Space.com: When you departed SpaceX to form Impulse Space, what were your goals and visions for the company when you started out?
>Mueller: What I wanted to do was to make it easier to get everywhere else above LEO to these higher energy orbits. That's where we come in. Adding low-cost efficient propulsive spacecraft that can go to LEO on reusable launch vehicles and then go everywhere else in the inner solar system.
> When we start building things in LEO, people are going to realize pretty fast that it's 20 times easier energy-wise to get matter from the moon than it is from the surface of Earth. It will just be economically the right path to get it from the moon and from near-Earth object. Every metal that we know of is on the moon. So If you can build stuff in space, then go get those minerals from space. If it's needed and technology is being developed, it's just a matter of when.
> The first thing is we have a Mira spacecraft here that's complete that we're now shipping to Vandenberg and it flies on the Falcon 9 Transporter-9 mission in November.
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https://spacenews.com/china-to-send-new-modules-and-co-orbiting-spacecraft-to-tiangong-space-station/
> China to send new modules and co-orbiting spacecraft to Tiangong space station
> Expansion hubs, new modules, inflatable habitats and more planned for China’s space station
> “We will build a 180 tons, six-module assembly in the future,” Zhang said. Tiangong currently has three modules, each with a mass of around 22 tons.