Space exploration thread

[ScienceRocks]

All missions and latest advances in space exploration goes here.


NASA building a better solid rocket booster for space launch system rocket

October 3, 2012 by Bill Hubscher

ATK employees at the company's Promontory, Utah facility prepare a segment of a qualification motor for NASA's Space Launch System for transport. Credit: ATK (Phys.org)—The largest and most powerful solid rocket booster ever built for flight is being assembled for NASA's Space Launch System at ATK Space Systems in Brigham City, Utah, incorporating new cost-savings measures. The SLS will launch NASA's Orion spacecraft and other payloads beyond low Earth orbit, and provide an entirely new capability for human exploration.

Although similar to the solid rocket boosters that helped power the space shuttle to orbit, the five-segment SLS boosters include several upgrades and improvements implemented by NASA and ATK engineers. In addition, the SLS boosters will be built more affordably and efficiently than shuttle boosters, incorporating new and innovative processes and technologies. "America's next steps in deep space exploration build on the lessons learned from our nation's rich human spaceflight history.

By using the best-of-the-best from shuttle and improving on previous investments, we will produce the needed solid booster for the first SLS flights," said Dan Dumbacher, NASA's deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C. "We are encouraged by the progress being made at ATK. Their commitment to deliver a safe and high-quality rocket booster is vital as we build SLS to enable exploration to new frontiers in the solar system." New process improvements have been implemented throughout the manufacturing of Qualification Motor-1, the next full-scale test article for SLS booster. Four case segments have now been cast, and the motor will begin assembly in the test stand next month in preparation for a ground test in the spring of 2013.

The forward segment of the qualification motor for NASA'S Space Launch System is transported through manufacturing and assembly at ATK's facility in Promontory, Utah in preparation for a full-scale ground test there next spring. Credit: ATKImplementing new handling processes, ATK estimates the total assembly time for the SLS booster can be reduced by approximately 46 percent overall. In one area, ATK optimized inspection methods and replaced x-ray inspections with an ultrasonic examination of the booster's nozzle, allowing technicians to evaluate the hardware on the production floor.

In another, ATK reduced the number of moves from 47 to seven during one phase of booster assembly, reducing the chance of any damage in transit and greatly reducing the time it takes to complete that production process. "By improving upon proven Space Shuttle solid rocket motor hardware and operations, our shared goal is to deliver a safe, affordable and sustainable launch vehicle," said Alex Priskos, SLS booster manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "We are embracing innovation both technically and in our management processes as we design and build SLS. Through the use of new streamlined approaches and techniques we have been able to drive down costs and enhance the reliability of the hardware."

The booster team has successfully completed its Booster Requirements Review confirming the five-segment solid rocket motor had a well-understood set of requirements. The review, held at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, included independent consultants and determined the team is ready

Read more at: NASA building a better solid rocket booster for space launch system rocket

 

[ScienceRocks]

Researchers working on dilithium-powered fusion impulse engines

Researchers working on dilithium-powered fusion impulse engines | DVICE

Hear that, Star Trek? Technology is catching up! The University of Alabama's Aerophysics Research Center, NASA, Boeing, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are all getting together to develop an "impulse engine" that's powered in part by "dilithium crystals."

Here's how the scientists describe their own research:

"Star Trek fans love it, especially when we call the concept an impulse drive, which is what it is. The fusion fuel we're focusing on is deuterium [a stable isotope of hydrogen] and Li6 [a stable isotope of the metal lithium] in a crystal structure. That's basically dilithium crystals we're using."

We would be remiss, of course, if we didn't point out that in reality (that is, in Star Trek), dilithium is not quite the same as lithium-6 (which would be, uh, hexalithium?), and also, dilithium regulates the matter/antimatter reaction in the warp drive, not the impulse drive. So good, we've gotten all of our hrrumphing out of the way, let's move on.

The drive should/would/will be based on the principle of Z-pinch fusion. A Z-pinch, for you physics fans, is when you run a huge jolt of electricity through an array of tiny wires, turning them into a plasma and generating a massive magnetic field at the same time. The field "pinches" the plasma, collapsing it down onto a core of deuterium and lithium, causing those atoms to fuse and releasing a big burst of fusion energy- more than it took to set the Z-pinch off in the first place. Here's a picture of what it looks like when they do a Z-pinch on the Z Machine at Sandia National Labs:



At full throttle, the impulse engine will produce Z-pinches nearly continuously, and astronauts onboard a spaceship using this method of propulsion would feel a series of pulses as opposed to some non-stop beastly acceleration. The acceleration will be beastly, though: the researchers say the impulse engine would generate "millions of pounds of thrust out the back of this thing--on the order of Saturn-V-class thrust."

Since a fusion-driven impulse engine is far more efficient than a conventional rocket engine, you can go much farther, much faster, on a lot less fuel, meaning that a trip from Earth to Mars could take just six weeks instead of six months or more. And as for speed, the impulse engine may be able to propel a spacecraft at up to 62,600 miles per hour. This is quite fast, although not up to Star Trek's definition of full impulse, which (depending on who you ask) is probably somewhere between 16 and 17 million miles per hour.

There are a bunch of things that the researchers need to figure out before they're ready to fire this thing up. They need to the the fusion to be self-sustaining, of course, but they also need to figure out how to channel the resulting, er, explosion in the right direction (i.e. away from the spaceship), probably using some sort of magnetic nozzle. It's going to take some work, and some time, but smart people are actually working on a fusion-driven impulse engine as we speak. Wow.

 

[ScienceRocks]

UAHuntsville student seeking ‘Holy Grail’ of rocket propulsion system

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Can a device formerly used to test nuclear weapons effects find a new life in rocket propulsion research? That is the question in which researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville seek an answer.

A new massive device is being assembled at the university’s Aerophysics Research Center on Redstone Arsenal, where a team of scientists and researchers from UAHuntsville’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Boeing and Marshall Space Flight Center’s Propulsion Engineering Lab are busy putting together a strange looking machine they’re calling the “Charger-1 Pulsed Power Generator.” It’s a key element in furthering the development of nuclear fusion technology to drive spacecraft.

The huge apparatus, known as the Decade Module Two (DM2) in its earlier life, was used on a contract with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) for research into the effects of nuclear weapons explosions.

UAHuntsville was first informed about its availability in 2009, several years after the research contract for which it was originally designed came to an end.

Reassembling several huge pieces of industrial equipment, the components were delivered in five shipments to the Aerophysics Research Center from San Leandro, Calif. When assembled, the unit will tip the scales at nearly 50 tons, and will be “one of the largest, most powerful pulse power systems in the academic world,” according to university officials.

With all units now in place, UAHuntsville engineering professor and project head Dr. Jason Cassibry says the team is busy cleaning up the components, which picked “a lot of dirt” after sitting in a lab for nearly 10 years, then being shipped across the country.

Refurbishment will include replacement of about 100 large resistors, and securing 15,000 gallons of transformer oil for the Marx tank, which holds the capacitors and prevents arcing between them. “That’s a big hurdle, but we’ll get there,” says Cassibry.

UAHuntsville - News - Items

 

[ScienceRocks]

This real photograph of Titan shows two thin haze layers, now known to change with the seasons. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cassini (Phys.org)—Detailed observations of Saturn's moon Titan have now spanned 30 years, covering an entire solar orbit for this distant world. Dr Athena Coustenis from the Paris-Meudon Observatory in France has analysed data gathered over this time and has found that the changing seasons of Titan affect it more than previously thought. Dr Coustenis presented these results at the European Planetary Science Congress in Madrid on Friday 28th September.

Explains Dr Coustenis, "As with Earth, conditions on Titan change with its seasons. We can see differences in atmospheric temperatures, chemical composition and circulation patterns, especially at the poles. For example, hydrocarbon lakes form around the north polar region during winter due to colder temperatures and condensation. Also, a haze layer surrounding Titan at the northern pole is significantly reduced during the equinox because of the atmospheric circulation patterns.

This is all very surprising because we didn't expect to find any such rapid changes, especially in the deeper layers of the atmosphere." The main cause of these cycles is solar radiation. This is the dominant energy source for Titan's atmosphere, breaking up the nitrogen and methane present to create more complex molecules, such as ethane, and acting as the driving force for chemical changes. Titan is inclined at around 27 degrees, similar to the Earth, meaning that the cause of seasons – sunlight reaching different areas with varying intensity due to the tilt – is the same for both worlds. Says Dr Coustenis, "It's amazing to think that the Sun still dominates over other energy sources even as far out as Titan, over 1.5 billion kilometres from us."

Read more at: Saturn's moon Titan shows surprising seasonal changes

 

[ScienceRocks]

More evidence that Voyager has exited the solar system

http://blog.chron.co...e-solar-system/

Something very, very interesting is happening with Voyager 1, the human probe that’s the very farthest from Earth.
New data from the spacecraft, which I will discuss below, indicate Voyager 1 may have exited the solar system for good. If true, this would mark a truly historic moment for the human race — sending a spacecraft beyond the edge of our home solar system.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Group Sends First Rocket Under Deal With NASA
By KENNETH CHANG
Published: October 7, 2012

A rocket launching on Sunday night inaugurated a new era for NASA in which private companies ferry people and supplies to the International Space Station.

The company behind this effort is Space Exploration Technologies of Hawthorne, Calif. — SpaceX, for short — which launched its Falcon 9 rocket at 8:35 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The rocket is carrying a cargo-only capsule called Dragon that contains about 1,000 pounds of food, clothing, equipment and science experiments, including 23 designed and built by students. The cargo also includes a freezer that can store laboratory samples at temperatures as low as 300 degrees below zero. The goods are scheduled to reach the space station on Wednesday, and the capsule would stay docked for a few weeks.

“It actually marks the beginning of true commercial spaceflight to take cargo to the International Space Station for us,” Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., the NASA administrator, said during a video chat on Google Plus on Friday.

SpaceX successfully launched a capsule to the space station in a test flight in May, but Sunday’s launching is the first of a dozen flights under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

The student projects come through a program run by NanoRacks, a company that arranges for experiments to fly to the space station, and the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. They include one from middle school students in Santa Monica, Calif., who want to know whether Silly Putty — a non-Newtonian dilatant fluid, in scientific terms — has different properties in the weightlessness of space than it does on Earth.

Under the plans, the SpaceX spacecraft will return to Earth near the end of October and splash down about 250 miles off the coast of Southern California. A successful mission would restore some of NASA’s ability to bring back items from the space station, which it lost with the termination of the space shuttle program last year.

A second company, the Orbital Sciences Corporation of Vienna, Va., is preparing its rocket for a test flight this year from Wallops Island, Va., and hopes to begin cargo runs to the space station next year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/s...cket-holding-cargo-to-space-station.html?_r=0

SpaceX Falcon Rocket Flies

Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, launched the first of 12 cargo missions to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, restoring U.S. access to the orbital outpost for the first time since the space shuttles were retired last year.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule blasted off at 8:35 p.m. EDT on Sunday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, just south of the NASA's now-dormant shuttle launch pads.


The 157-foot tall rocket tore through warm, partly cloudy skies, arcing out over the ocean as it headed into orbit for a Wednesday rendezvous with the space station.

The Dragon cargo capsule is filled with 882 pounds of food, clothing, science gear and equipment for the station, including a freezer to transport medical samples to and from orbit. For the ride up, the freezer also was stocked with a treat for the crew -- chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream.

SpaceX nailed a practice run to the space station in May, clearing the way for the company to begin working off its $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly supplies to the station, a $100 billion research laboratory that is owned and operated by 15 nations.

Since the shuttle's retirement last year, NASA had been dependent on Russian, European and Japanese freighters to keep the station stocked. SpaceX is one of two firms it hired to fly cargo to the station. The second company, Orbital Sciences Corp., plans to debut its Antares rocket later this year.

If all goes as planned, Dragon will be reloaded with about one ton of returning science experiments and equipment no longer needed aboard the station and sent back to Earth on Oct. 28.

 

[ScienceRocks]

China to collect samples from Mars by 2030: Xinhua

China is planning to collect samples from the surface of Mars by 2030, according to the chief scientist of the country's lunar orbiter project, state media reported Wednesday.

Ouyang Ziyuan said the mission would have three stages—remote sensing, soft-landing and exploration, and return after automatic sampling, Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying in a lecture organised by the Chinese Society of Astronautics. Ouyang also briefed attendees on the tests and work to be carried out by China's lunar probe, the Chang'e-3, which is expected to touch down on the moon in the second half of 2013. He said the probe could help build a telecommunications network that would cover a future Mars probe and said samples taken from the moon would be returned to earth, Xinhua reported. The landing planned for next year would be China's first on the lunar surface and mark a new milestone in its space development.

Read more at: China to collect samples from Mars by 2030: Xinhua

 

[ScienceRocks]

Astronomers Reveal Planet Is Made Of Diamond

A planet about 40 light years away and twice the size of Earth is made largely out of diamond, astronomers have said.

The rocky planet, called 55 Cancri e, which is in the constellation of Cancer, is orbiting a sun-like star that is visible with the naked eye.

From http://news.sky.com/...made-of-diamond

 

[Mr. H.]

That's a big carat.

 

[eots]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSBSd_z9lmY]Operation Elevation...The Space elevator..music by eots - YouTube[/ame]

 

[ScienceRocks]

Mineral-hunting Polaris moon rover detailed


Mineral-hunting Polaris moon rover detailed | DVICE

Polaris is the latest robotic rover getting ready to roll. It's tasked with digging four feet into the surface of the moon to check for the water, oxygen and nitrogen that would be critical in establishing lunar bases there in the future.

Polaris is intended to deploy sometime before 2012 ends by way of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Its ultimate destination is the moon's north pole, where scientists believe they might find the all-important ice they are looking for, more likely in the pole's craters where the water wouldn't be evaporated by the heat of the sun.

The rover will have to be able to roll into those craters and still be able to catch the sun's rays; given that the sun is low in the sky at the poles, Polaris needs to have that odd spine of solar arrays to make sure it gets every bit of sun possible. Polaris needs to generate 250 watts of power to operate its drill. That means positioning is vital, and the rover will use software written by those robo-nuts at Carnegie Mellon University to position itself to get the most sun possible.

One lunar day is rougly 29 of our days long, with a good 10 days worth of daylight. During that time, the rover will try to dig at over 100 sites over the span of three miles. Then comes a two-week lunar night, when the temperature plunges. If the rover can survive beyond the initial 10-day mission and through a night, researchers hope Polaris will be able to operate indefinitely.

As you can see in the image above, Polaris, like Curiosity, is pretty large. It's five and a half feet high, seven feet wide and eight feet long. It is relatively lightweight at 150 pounds, built out of alloys and composites that won't contaminate any samples. It will also able to carry another 150 pounds, plus its all-important drill.

Polaris's wheels are also custom-built for the task. The two-foot wheels, also made from composite, are built with a special suspension system that will allow the rover to navigate the rougher terrain of the craters along the northern pole, steady as she goes at around one foot per second.

Astrobiotic Technology, a specialized company spun out of Carnegie Mellon University, built the Polaris Rover prototype. NASA is currently funding the project and supplying specialized ice-prospecting gear. The team is hoping to get more funding, possibly from Google's Lunar X Prize, to continue refining the prototype and its software.

The Polaris mission could be able to answer some questions we have around the prospects of building bases on the moon. To see Polaris take a stroll, check out the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YVuoTZBX5Tc

 

[ScienceRocks]

Favorites Emerge in the New Moon Race

"Twenty-five teams are officially in the running for the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP), the $30 million prize for soft-landing a privately funded spacecraft on the moon. As the 2015 deadline approaches, however, it has become clear which teams are the early leaders in the chase to pull off a feat achieved only by two world superpowers, and not since the 1970s."

Twenty-five teams are officially in the running for the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP), the $30 million prize for soft-landing a privately funded unmanned spacecraft on the moon. As the 2015 deadline approaches, however, it has become clear which teams are the early leaders in the chase to pull off a feat achieved only by two world superpowers, and not since the 1970s.

"This is really a predictable watershed year for the competition," says Bob Richards, co-founder and CEO of Moon Express, one of the top contenders in the competition. Richards spoke to PM by phone as he drove to his team's headquarters at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Bay Area. A rocket launch must be booked two years in advance, according to Richards, "so if you don't have a launch contract 24 months before the expiry of the prize, you're just not credible."

Richards is coy about the contract status of Moon Express. "We have launch arrangements, but we can't disclose or discuss them at this time," he says. But just as important as sealing the deal on a launch contract to be consummated years from now is the development of the lander hardware and software—that's what this competition is all about. "You can buy everything you need to get 249,999 miles" of the quarter-million-mile distance from the Earth to the surface of the moon, Richards says. It's that last mile that counts. "What you can't buy is the lander system itself that does the final braking and does the landing. That doesn't exist."

http://www.popularmechanics.com/sci...in-the-new-moon-race-13623282?click=pm_latest

 

[ScienceRocks]

Unprecedented: Amateur astronomers discover a planet with four suns

George Dvorsky

Two volunteer astronomers have confirmed the existence of a Neptune-like planet that has four suns, making it the first quadruple star system ever discovered. The planet, which is 5,000 light years away from Earth, closely orbits one pair of stars, which in turn forms a unit that revolves around a second pair at a distance of around 1,000 AU.

Illustration by Ron Miller.

The amateur astronomers took part in the Planet Hunters citizen science project, and were able to confirm the system with help from professionals in the U.K. and U.S.

Binary star systems are fairly common, but it's exceptionally rare for them to feature planets. As a result, astronomers have speculated that the odds of finding a planet in a quadruple system were extremely low. This new find, therefore, came as a complete surprise.



Full size
The discovery of the planet, which has been named PH1 after the Planet Hunters project, was made by Kian Jek of San Francisco and Robert Gagliano from Cottonwood, Arizona, who were using Planethunters.org, a website that utilizes human pattern recognition to identify planetary transits in data that's made available to the public (specifically, scans that are gathered by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope).

Looking at the data, the duo noticed faint dips in light caused by the planet passing in front of its parent stars. Following their immediate observation and announcement, a team of professional astronomers took over and confirmed the presence of a quadruple system using telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.



Full size
What the astronomers still don't understand, however, is how the gas giant, which is just slightly larger than Neptune, avoids being pulled apart by the intense gravitational forces exerted on it by the four nearby stars. And indeed, the planet's proximity to such large gravity wells place it in an incredibly complex gravitational environment — but it sits in an apparently stable orbit. Lead researcher Chris Lintott from the University of Oxford described it as "really confusing."

Regardless, PH1 has now been classified as the first confirmed planet to orbit an eclipsing binary in a hierarchical quadruple star system. And given that the most distant stars are only 1,000 AU away, the night sky must be nothing short of spectacular.

Details of the study can be found at arXiv.
Unprecedented: Amateur astronomers discover a planet with four suns

 

[ScienceRocks]

Earth-sized planet found just outside solar system
October 16, 2012 by Seth Borenstein

(Phys.org)—European astronomers have discovered a planet with about the mass of the Earth orbiting a star in the Alpha Centauri system—the nearest to Earth. It is also the lightest exoplanet ever discovered around a star like the Sun. The planet was detected using the HARPS instrument on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. The results will appear online in the journal Nature on 17 October 2012.

Alpha Centauri is one of the brightest stars in the southern skies and is the nearest stellar system to our Solar System—only 4.3 light-years away. It is actually a triple star—a system consisting of two stars similar to the Sun orbiting close to each other, designated Alpha Centauri A and B, and a more distant and faint red component known as Proxima Centauri. Since the nineteenth century astronomers have speculated about planets orbiting these bodies, the closest possible abodes for life beyond the Solar System, but searches of increasing precision had revealed nothing. Until now.

"Our observations extended over more than four years using the HARPS instrument and have revealed a tiny, but real, signal from a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B every 3.2 days," says Xavier Dumusque (Geneva Observatory, Switzerland and Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto, Portugal), lead author of the paper. "It's an extraordinary discovery and it has pushed our technique to the limit!"

Alpha Centauri B is very similar to the Sun but slightly smaller and less bright. The newly discovered planet, with a mass of a little more than that of the Earth, is orbiting about six million kilometres away from the star, much closer than Mercury is to the Sun in the Solar System. The orbit of the other bright component of the double star, Alpha Centauri A, keeps it hundreds of times further away, but it would still be a very brilliant object in the planet's skies.

Earth-sized planet found just outside solar system

Let's send a probe!

 

[aalok]

Space exploration from single flight hardware can be reused, which allows greater exploration. Private interests have begun to create more competition and greater government task in space exploration, the desire.

 

[TNHarley]

I hate when people say they hate space exploration. "it's a waste of money" they say. How is that smartphone or calculator doing? Wait, that doesn't count right?

 

[mamooth]

Exploration for its own sake is noble, but settlement has to go down a more realistic path.

For example, Mars is a big gravity well, way far away, with an unbreathable atmosphere mucking things up even more. That makes it stink in the near-term as a settlement area. We can't do anything on Mars we couldn't do better on the moon or in earth orbit. Take the baby steps first.

We need some large spinning stations, for the simulated gravity, so people can actually live there long-term. And to build that (barring some miracle tech), we'd need some mass-launchers here on earth. Big rail guns that can fire bulk goods into space, something we do have the techonology for. Not for people, as the G-forces involved would squish people.

 

[ScienceRocks]

I think we should also start at the moon to for your reasons...
1# Less gravity
2# Resources

Easier to build a larger ship in orbit around the moon. We're not going to mars in a fitted space shuttle. I'd rather spend money on science and space than in Afighastan...

Science and Techonology is something we must do if we wish to compete with China, Japan, South Korea and most of europe.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Massive new rocket being planned by SpaceX

18th October 2012

200-ton capacity behemoth could transport humans to Mars.

Earlier this year, SpaceX's Dragon became the first commercial vessel to dock with the International Space Station. Founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk, the space transport company is planning the first test launch of its Falcon Heavy next year. This will have more than four times the payload-to-LEO capacity of the Falcon 9 used to deliver the Dragon capsule into orbit.

However, an even larger rocket is now being planned. Elon Musk claims it would use an entirely new engine and fuel type, "several times" as powerful as the 160,000lb-thrust (712kN) Merlin 1 series that powers the Falcon 9. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell had recently hinted at a project with similar characteristics, describing multiple engines with "more than 1.5 million pounds" of thrust and a payload range of 150-200 tons.

By comparison, next year's Falcon Heavy will have a capacity of 53 tons, while NASA's Space Launch System planned for 2017 will have 70 tons initially, later being upgraded to 129 tons. The Saturn V used to deliver men to the Moon had a capacity of 120 tons. SpaceX's rumoured super rocket – at potentially 200 tons – would therefore be the largest and most powerful rocket ever built by a wide margin, easily big enough to send astronauts to Mars. Entire space stations and super-sized satellites could also be delivered to orbit in a single launch.

The project is being kept under wraps for now, but Elon Musk has promised more details in "between one and three years".

Massive new rocket being planned by SpaceX


Personally, I wouldn't send humans on such a small ship to Mars. I'd use this to put 3-4 parts of a ship that I'd build around earth that would. I feel that it would be best to power it with ion engines powered by nuclear. SCREW chemical, too slow.

I'd want it to be capable of being reused again and again.

It would be humanities first planetary class ship.

Something like this
-Ion engine
-nuclear reactor drive
-With possibly 2-3 departments for life support, lander, ect.
-The human living quarters would instead be made of what the bigelow space station concept. NOT mental. Bigelow Commercial Space Station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[whitehall]

All dressed up and nowhere to go.