Month: May 2022

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Almost every aspect of modern society relies on materials of limited quantity on Earth. In order to live within the limits set by our planet, we have to figure out how to make the most of what we extract and reuse whatever we have extracted. A new study released this week looks into how close we are to reaching that ideal for 61 different metals.

Along the way, its authors figure out how long different metals stay in circulation before they’re lost and identify the stage at which those losses take place. While a lack of recycling is a major roadblock on the way to a circular economy, it’s far from the only one. For many metals, including some critically important ones, we discard huge amounts that are present in the ores that we mine for different elements.

Mind your metals

Tracking that many metals through their entire life cycle is a huge task, but the authors were able to build on previous work by Japanese researchers who developed a software model called MaTrace. The model is designed to track the flow of materials from production to loss, estimating losses at each stage of the material’s life cycle based on empirical data.

Enlarge / The Starliner spacecraft launches Thursday evening on top of an Atlas V rocket. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann)

Welcome to Edition 4.43 of the Rocket Report! Thanks for your patience last week with me for not putting out a newsletter—I’ve tried to reward it this week with an extra-long version. I would also like to extend our congratulations to Boeing, NASA, and United Launch Alliance on a successful launch of the Starliner spacecraft, and a good orbital insertion. Next comes a rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station on Friday.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Relativity Space completes stage tests. The California-based launch company announced this week that it has successfully completed a mission duty cycle test for its Terran 1 rocket’s second stage, running the full test duration (see video from the company’s test stage in Mississippi). Finishing this test means that the company believes that the upper stage, and all of its subsystems, are ready for flight. Relativity Chief Executive Tim Ellis has previously said he is highly confident that the Terran 1 rocket will make its debut launch from Florida this year.

Enlarge / The retro-futuristic styling of the Ioniq 5 refers back to the Hyundai Pony of the mid-1970s. (credit: Hyundai)

Hyundai and Kia are recalling nearly 20,000 of their newest electric vehicles. The problem affects the impressive Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6, a pair of EVs built using the Korean OEMs’ new E-GMP platform.

Specifically, the issue has to do with the EVs’ parking brake function. If a voltage fluctuation occurs while the vehicle is parked and turned off, a command signal from the shifter control unit could disengage the parking pawl, potentially allowing the car to roll away.

The issue was identified by the automakers in Korea; Hyundai says that it received four claims of Ioniq 5s being affected.