Elizabeth Jens | |
|---|---|
 Jens in 2019 US Embassy Canberra video | |
| Born | |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Alma mater | University of Melbourne Stanford University |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| Thesis | Hybrid rocket combustion and applications to space exploration missions (2015) |
Elizabeth Jens (born 1984) is an Australian propulsion engineer who works at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Jens is from Torquay, Victoria. [1] [2] She decided at the age of twelve that she wanted to be an astronaut, after seeing a talk from one of the Apollo astronauts in Geelong. [3] She went to school at Sacred Heart College, Geelong, where she was encouraged to study maths and physics. [2] She studied at the University of Melbourne, graduating with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and bachelor's degree in physics in 2008. [2] [4] She attended an introductory course at the International Space University at Ames Research Center. [3] She completed her graduate studies as a Fulbright scholar (sponsored by BHP) and Rotary International Scholar at Stanford University. [5] [6] [7] After her Masters, Jens joined Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an intern, before beginning a PhD in aeronautics and astronautics. [2] Jens was an Amelia Earhart Fellow in 2012 and 2014. [8] [9] She completed her PhD, "Hybrid Rocket Combustion and Applications to Space Exploration Missions" in 2016, under the supervision of Brian Cantwell and Scott Hubbard. [10] [11] Whilst still a student, Jens was recognised as an Emerging Space Industry Leader. [12]
Jens works on a cold-gas subsystem for Mars 2020. [2] She is also designing the propulsion systems for interplanetary SmallSat missions. [13]
Jens is involved with several initiatives to increase Australia's investment in the space industry. [14] [15] [16] She appeared on Australia's Science Channel as an expert discussing Elon Musk's Mars plan. [17] She took part in the Australia SXSW Festival. [18] [19] She supports Tech Girls Canada. [20] In 2018 Jens was listed as a Game Changer by Vogue (magazine). [21] [22]
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American aerospace manufacturer, space transportation services and communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX manufactures the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, several rocket engines, Dragon cargo, crew spacecraft and Starlink communications satellites.
The hypothetical colonization of Mars has received interest from public space agencies and private corporations, and has received extensive treatment in science fiction writing, film, and art.
A human mission to Mars has been the subject of science fiction since the 1880s, and of aerospace engineering and scientific proposals since the late 1940s. Plans include landing on Mars for exploration at a minimum, with some considering exploring its moons Phobos and Deimos. Long-term proposals have included sending settlers and starting terraforming of the planet.
The space policy of the Barack Obama administration was announced by U.S. President Barack Obama on April 15, 2010, at a major space policy speech at Kennedy Space Center. He committed to increasing NASA funding by $6 billion over five years and completing the design of a new heavy-lift launch vehicle by 2015 and to begin construction thereafter. He also predicted a U.S.-crewed orbital Mars mission by the mid-2030s, preceded by the Asteroid Redirect Mission by 2025. In response to concerns over job losses, Obama promised a $40 million effort to help Space Coast workers affected by the cancellation of the Space Shuttle program and Constellation program.
Mars atmospheric entry is the entry into the atmosphere of Mars. High velocity entry into Martian air creates a CO2-N2 plasma, as opposed to O2-N2 for Earth air. Mars entry is affected by the radiative effects of hot CO2 gas and Martian dust suspended in the air. Flight regimes for entry, descent, and landing systems include aerocapture, hypersonic, supersonic, and subsonic.
The SpaceX Red Dragon was a 2011–2017 concept for using an uncrewed modified SpaceX Dragon 2 for low-cost Mars lander missions to be launched using Falcon Heavy rockets.
SpaceX Mars program is a development program initiated by Elon Musk and SpaceX in order to facilitate the eventual colonization of Mars. The program includes fully reusable launch vehicles, human-rated spacecraft, on-orbit propellant tankers, rapid-turnaround launch/landing mounts, and local production of rocket fuel on Mars via in situ resource utilization (ISRU). SpaceX's aspirational goal has been to land the first humans on Mars by 2024, but in October 2020 Elon Musk named 2024 as goal for an uncrewed mission. At the Axel Springer Award 2020 Elon Musk said that he is highly confident that the first crewed flights to Mars will happen in 2026.
Artemis 2 is the second scheduled mission of NASA's Artemis program, and the first scheduled crewed mission of NASA's Orion spacecraft, currently planned to be launched by the Space Launch System in September 2023. The crewed Orion spacecraft will perform a lunar flyby test and return to Earth. This is planned to be the first crewed spacecraft to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Formerly known as Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2), the mission was renamed after the introduction of the Artemis program. Originally, the crewed mission was intended to collect samples from a captured asteroid in lunar orbit by the now canceled robotic Asteroid Redirect Mission.
SuperDraco is a hypergolic propellant rocket engine designed and built by SpaceX. It is part of the SpaceX Draco family of rocket engines. A redundant array of eight SuperDraco engines provides fault-tolerant propulsion for use as a launch escape system for the SpaceX Dragon 2, a passenger-carrying space capsule.
A super heavy-lift launch vehicle (SHLLV) is a launch vehicle capable of lifting more than 50 tonnes (110,000 lb) or 100 tonnes (220,000 lb) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO), more than a heavy-lift launch vehicle.
Jim Cantrell is an American entrepreneur, mechanical engineer and road racer. He is the CEO and co-founder of Phantom Space Corporation, which seeks to build space transportation technology. After working at the French Space Agency CNES and the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, he worked as an independent consultant to aerospace companies for fifteen years and was on the founding teams of SpaceX and Moon Express. He was the CEO and one of the co-founders of Vector Launch.
The billionaire space race is the rivalry among entrepreneurs who have entered the space industry from other industries - particularly computing. This private industry space race of the 21st century involves sending rockets to the ionosphere, orbital launch rockets, and suborbital tourist spaceflights.
The Mars race; or race to Mars; or race for Mars; is the competitive environment between various national space agencies, "New Space" and aerospace manufacturers involving crewed missions to Mars, land on Mars, or set a crewed base there. Some of these efforts are part of a greater Mars colonization vision, while others are for glory, or scientific endeavours. Some of this competitiveness is part of the New Space race.
This is a corporate history of SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company founded by Elon Musk.
Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster is an electric sports car that served as the dummy payload for the February 2018 Falcon Heavy test flight and became an artificial satellite of the Sun. "Starman", a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit, occupies the driver's seat. The car and rocket are products of Tesla and SpaceX, respectively, both companies headed by Elon Musk. The 2008-model Roadster is personally owned by and previously used by Musk for commuting to work. It is the first production car launched into space and first to orbit the sun.
Margarita Marinova is a Bulgarian aeronautical engineer. She is the Senior Mars and Vehicle Systems Development Engineer at SpaceX.
The Falcon Heavy test flight was the first attempt by SpaceX to launch a Falcon Heavy rocket on February 6, 2018 at 20:45 UTC. The successful test introduced the Falcon Heavy as the most powerful rocket in operation, producing five million pounds-force (22 MN) of thrust and having more than twice the lift capacity of United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy.
Starship is a fully reusable two-stage launch vehicle in development by SpaceX, consisting of a first stage booster named Super Heavy and a second stage spacecraft named Starship. Starship is expected to be the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket in the world, capable of producing 72 meganewtons (MN) or 17,000,000 pound-force (lbf) of thrust at lift-off—more than twice that of a Saturn V rocket. Starship is capable of launching 100 metric tons (220,000 lb) to low Earth orbit as well as higher Earth orbits, the Moon, or Mars; the latter three would necessitate transferring propellant in orbit. To accommodate Starship's features, a non-traditional launch pad would be used, including a launch tower that can lift and recover both stages. Both stages will be constructed out of stainless steel and use the Raptor engines, which burn liquid oxygen and methane for propulsion.
Raptor is a family of full-flow staged-combustion-cycle rocket engines developed and manufactured by SpaceX for use on the in-development SpaceX Starship. The engine is powered by cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen (LOX), called methalox, rather than the RP-1 kerosene and LOX, called kerolox, used in SpaceX's prior Merlin and Kestrel rocket engines. The Raptor engine has more than twice the thrust of SpaceX's Merlin engine that powers their Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles.