Jon Kelvey

Mar 31, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Jon Kelvey

NASA and DARPA think nuclear thermal propulsion could be the best way to get humans to Mars. Elon Musk is keeping his faith in the brute force of burning hydrocarbons. Who is right? It turns out either could work, but there are a lot of “ifs” for both strategies. Jon Kelvey has the analysis. Elon Musk told an audience in 2016 that his vision of getting a million colonists to Mars could be achieved by sending 100 people at a time on six-month journeys aboard his massive Starship spacecraft.

Feb 29, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Jon Kelvey

Nation-states are blowing up satellites. Companies are launching megaconstellations of thousands of satellites. Dead rocket stages whiz around the planet for years. And yet, the International Space Station hasn’t been destroyed, payloads reach deep space unharmed, and we’re not trapped on Earth — at least not by debris. Either calamity is not upon us or we just don’t recognize it. Jon Kelvey takes the measure of Kessler Syndrome. Irony isn’t just limited to life in 1-g.

Jan 1, 2024 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Jon Kelvey

NASA faces its Mars conundrum Pilot on board January 2024 AIAA Bulletin Sparking your imagination to start 2024 Building on our Progress in 2024 Could a giant bat fly? FROM THE EDITORS: Aerospace America marks a milestone Keeping watch in cislunar space First on the scene Analyzing AI Space janitor Taming dead satellites Bolder than Webb?

Dec 31, 2023 | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | Jon Kelvey

During the years NASA has been planning its Mars Sample Return mission, coders were busy charting an artificial intelligence revolution, while robotics engineers continued making ever more sophisticated machines. Is it time to consider analyzing the samples on Mars instead of bringing the rocks and dirt home to search for organisms or evidence of ancient life? Jon Kelvey asked the hard questions and learned the harsh realities.

Dec 25, 2023 | inverse.com | Jon Kelvey

Space travel is hard. From building the rockets to braving the vacuum, surviving the radiation, and safely returning to terra firma, there are few things about it that don’t have a high potential to fail spectacularly. And yet when everything goes as planned — like when Curiosity touches down on Mars, the James Webb Space Telescope launches, or a spaceship grabs a sample of a hard-to-reach asteroid — space travel can seem easy, if not miraculous.