The Space Thread

[TaZZerath]

Ok so since I wasn't able to find a thread about Space-related stuff (either because I suck at searching or one just doesn't exist) and I'm a huge space nut alongside a Transformers aficionado, I figured I'd start one.

Big news today is that Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic after 14 years of development and two fatal accidents (one on the ground, one in the air) has succeeded in pushing the boundaries of space in their commercial spaceship Unity.

Full story at Spaceflight Now here Virgin Galactic accomplishes milestone test flight to the edge of space (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/12/13/virgin-galactic-test-flight/)

I like space related news (especially rockets) so if nobody's adverse to the idea I'll try and post things like this in this thread more often if anyone's interested

[UltraMarginal]

Be my guest, I love this stuff as well, I just never thought about posting anything here.
I'm a firm believer that the only way humanity is going to survive is by expansion and colonisation of space.

[TaZZerath]

Agreed. I love how 'New Space' has taken things in recent years. SpaceX especially. Musk might be a bit of a fruitloop but name me one genius who doesn't have some form of quirk :)

[Ralph Wiggum]

What’s the feeling like in SA right now with the Space Agency being headquartered over there?

There’s a bit of saltiness here in WA that we lost out, given we already have a fair bit of infrastructure like the Square Kilometre Array and New Norcia station for the ESA.

[1AZRAEL1]

Meteor Storm tonight too. But the weather looks to have killed seeing that. Just like the eclipse a couple of months back.

[TaZZerath]

What’s the feeling like in SA right now with the Space Agency being headquartered over there?

There’s a bit of saltiness here in WA that we lost out, given we already have a fair bit of infrastructure like the Square Kilometre Array and New Norcia station for the ESA.

BIG buzz actually. I have quite a few space friends here who are super stoked.

If I didn't love my job so much I'd definitely be looking out for any hires they'd be doing even if it was just a janitorial position :D

Sorry you guys missed out! At least now SA has something of value to add nationally :D

[TaZZerath]

RocketLab launched its third successful Electron rocket, this time contracted for launching 13 small satellites for NASA (http://parabolicarc.com/2018/12/16/rocket-lab-launches-nasa-cubesats-venture-class-launch-services-mission/)

For those who don't know, RocketLab are a New Zealand based company which have developed a lightweight, small rocket launcher called the Electron which uses a lot of 3D printing in its parts and also has a unique engine design which has an electrically-driven pump, rather than using part of its own propellant, which makes the engines way more efficient despite their relative small size.

The engines are clustered around the base leading many space fans to dub it the "Mini Falcon-9".

[TaZZerath]

On this week's episode of Scrubs...

http://parabolicarc.com/2018/12/18/tuesdays-word-scrubbed/

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--9H9HxRxq--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/lagrlabbnw5m6hskp4yk.jpg

[TaZZerath]

Sorry folks been on leave so a little behind the 8-ball on this one.

So first up, New Horizons (the revolutionary probe which visited Pluto for the first time in high detail a few years ago) has made a flyby of the most distant object we've been able to photograph to date, a Kuiper Belt Object by the name of Ultima Thule. And in the Christmas/Winter spirit, it looks like a rusty snowman :)

Ultima Thule the Snowman (https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/01/02/most-distant-object-ever-visited-resembles-rusty-snowman/)

In other space news, things are finally heating up this year with Commercial Crew operations. A Falcon 9 with the Dragon Crew capsule variant has rolled out to Pad 39A for tests ahead of its inaugural uncrewed test flight:

Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon Rollout (https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/01/03/spacex-crew-capsule-falcon-9-rocket-roll-out-to-pad-39a-in-florida-for-tests/)

Should be an exciting year for Commercial Crew. We finally get to see SpaceX bear fruit to a long awaited dream of providing American access to ISS and beyond again. Boeing should follow suit shortly with the capsule they've dubbed the StarLiner.

[kovert]

Hope you don't mind me posting some space related news here:

December 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 8. Launched in December 1968, the Apollo 8 mission saw the first humans orbit the moon. Frank Borman (last spaceflight), Jim Lovell (later commander of Apollo 13) and Bill Anders (first and only spaceflight) were the first people to see the far side of the moon with their own eyes.

It was the first flight of a Saturn V rocket with humans on board. Apollo 8 did not carry a Lunar Module as the craft was still not ready. The flight was instrumental in testing the Apollo hardware and tracking, paving the way for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's lunar landing on Apollo 11 in 1969.

Bill Anders took the famous 'Earthrise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise)' photo of Earth rising over the lunar horizon. The original orientation of the photo has the earth positioned to the left of the moon.

[TaZZerath]

Hope you don't mind me posting some space related news here

Heck no, the more the merrier! Thanks for sharing!

Oh and another update. China has made history by putting the first lander and rover on the far side of the moon.

Chang'e-4 Lands on the Far Side of the Moon (http://parabolicarc.com/2019/01/03/china-lands-change4-side-moon/)

So we'll finally get some high-res photos of the Ark, and hidden Decepticon forces :D

[kovert]

China has made history by putting the first lander and rover on the far side of the moon.

Would be cool if there was a live stream from the rover's camera.

[G1Optimal]

Would be cool if there was a live stream from the rover's camera.

Wouldn’t you you need a connection fastr than the speed of light to do that, you can literally say it woul be light years ahead of internet speeds here and would not work here if it did.

[kovert]

Wouldn’t you you need a connection fastr than the speed of light to do that, you can literally say it woul be light years ahead of internet speeds here and would not work here if it did.

Footage from the Apollo missions to the moon were transmitted live (delayed by a few seconds) on television back in the 1960s. Would it not be possible to do the same in the present day?

[Galvatran]

Wouldn’t you you need a connection fastr than the speed of light to do that, you can literally say it woul be light years ahead of internet speeds here and would not work here if it did.
What's needed is a Space Bridge.

Or a wormhole for those with less imagination.

[Sinnertwin]

What's needed is a Space Bridge.

Or a wormhole for those with less imagination.

Have you seen Event Horizon?
No thanks.

[1AZRAEL1]

Love how there's so much media coverage for this historic event :rolleyes:

[dirge]

Wouldn’t you you need a connection fastr than the speed of light to do that, you can literally say it woul be light years ahead of internet speeds here and would not work here if it did.

The moon is only light-seconds away from Earth. Enough of a delay you’d notice during a video call but not enough to get in the way or a live feed or convo.

[TaZZerath]

Things have been a bit quiet to start the year plus I've been getting back into the swing of things with my work schedule.

China have released some images (https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/01/13/china-releases-more-images-from-far-side-of-the-moon/) from its lunar lander and rover from the far side of the moon

SpaceX began its 2019 launch campaign (https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/01/11/spacex-begins-2019-with-eighth-and-final-for-upgraded-iridium-network/) the first of 18 launches planned with its final Iridium-NEXT satellite constellation payload completing their upgraded network. Hopefully we'll see at least another Falcon Heavy launch this year as well as the Dragon 2 tests for the Commercial Crew program. There will also be a Launch Abort test for Dragon 2 at some stage to test their SuperDraco thrusters can safely pull a capsule and its passengers to safety in case of a mid-launch emergency.

And continuing SpaceX news, The latest Dragon Capsule returned to Earth (https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/01/14/dragon-cargo-craft-returns-to-earth/) and The Starship Test Article (https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2019/01/spacex-starship-tests-boca-chica/) is getting ready to fly.

The Starship is a testbed for the next generation of SpaceX rockets and hardware so this is an exciting new step. Plus it looks like a siny 60's style old-school moon rocket :D

[GoktimusPrime]

Does anyone here watch SciShow Space? (or just SciShow in general)

[G1Optimal]

Footage from the Apollo missions to the moon were transmitted live (delayed by a few seconds) on television back in the 1960s. Would it not be possible to do the same in the present day?

Thought there may have been limits to it




The moon is only light-seconds away from Earth. Enough of a delay you’d notice during a video call but not enough to get in the way or a live feed or convo.

Cool

[TaZZerath]

Running SERIOUSLY behind on my Space updates!

The biggest news: on the weekend, SpaceX launched the first (unmanned) test flight of their Crew Dragon space transport capsule (http://parabolicarc.com/2019/03/02/nasa-spacex-launch-flight-test-space-system-designed-crew/). With a flawless liftoff, Crew Dragon has since been docked to the ISS (https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/03/03/spacex-crew-capsule-welcomed-aboard-space-station/) to begin a weeks worth of testing until it will be released for return to Earth. So far, so good!

The primary excitement around Crew Dragon is not only will NASA reduce its reliance on expensive Soyuz seats from Russia, but there's now another flight-capable orbital spacecraft available run by a private company with opens up all sorts of opportunities.

[DELTAprime]

How are SpaceX's finances? Are they in the shitter like Elon Musk other company Tesla?

[kovert]

From the ABC News website:

"Black hole image released by Event Horizon Telescope team in world first

Scientists have glimpsed the event horizon of a black hole for the very first time. Until now, every image of a black hole you have ever seen has been an artist's impression."

Read the full story here (https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-04-10/black-hole-event-horizon-telescope-announcement-astrophysics/10989534).

[Raider]

From the ABC News website:

"Black hole image released by Event Horizon Telescope team in world first

Scientists have glimpsed the event horizon of a black hole for the very first time. Until now, every image of a black hole you have ever seen has been an artist's impression."

Read the full story here (https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-04-10/black-hole-event-horizon-telescope-announcement-astrophysics/10989534).

It is absolutely amazing. The lead researcher who I understand "took" the photo (using that word really cheapens how complicated the process was) gave a TED talk about doing this around 2 years. Looks like she followed through as planned. Can't wait to see this develop as I am sure in the near future we will get even better images.

[Sinnertwin]

55 million light years away? That's something else. The distance alone bends the brain

[Raider]

55 million light years away? That's something else. The distance alone bends the brain

That distance is huge and is really hard to actually comprehend. Think about it this way, Neptune is around 4 light hours from Earth and it took Voyager around 12 years to get there.

I think I read somewhere that they needed something like 55 petabytes to take the picture.

[Sinnertwin]

1 light year is something like 6 trillion kilometers
Multiply that by 55 million and its... i don't think I have enough zeroes on my phone

I was reading that too. They couldn't use the internet and had to transport hard drives around. Wow.

[Raider]

This is the TED talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIvezCVcsYs) I was talking about.

[Sinnertwin]

This is the TED talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIvezCVcsYs) I was talking about.

Amazing

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah, when looking at the blurry orange doughnut, considering that immense distance it's really a super ultra high resolution image!

[kovert]

July 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing. Although Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin on Apollo 11 were the to first humans to set foot on the moon (with Michael Collins orbiting overhead in the command module), they were not the first to travel there. Apollo 8 (Borman, Lovell and Anders) was the first to orbit the moon in 1968. Apollo 10 (Stafford, Cernan and Young) earlier in 1969 tested the lunar module in low lunar orbit to pave the way for Apollo 11's first lunar landing attempt. Had the landing not been successful, it is likely Apollo 12 (Conrad, Bean and Gordon) would have made the first lunar landing.

It is worth watching the video at the top of this page (https://www.google.com/doodles/50th-anniversary-of-the-moon-landing) in full screen.

[dirge]

July 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing. Although Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin on Apollo 11 were the to first humans to set foot on the moon (with Michael Collins orbiting overhead in the command module), they were not the first to travel there. Apollo 8 (Borman, Lovell and Anders) was the first to orbit the moon in 1968. Apollo 10 (Stafford, Cernan and Young) earlier in 1969 tested the lunar module in low lunar orbit to pave the way for Apollo 11's first lunar landing attempt. Had the landing not been successful, it is likely Apollo 12 (Conrad, Bean and Gordon) would have made the first lunar landing.

It is worth watching the video at the top of this page (https://www.google.com/doodles/50th-anniversary-of-the-moon-landing) in full screen.

I love how NASA short-fueled the LEM on the Apollo 10 mission to make sure the astronauts weren't tempted to land on the moon - as they'd not have enough fuel to return to lunar orbit.

[kovert]

I love how NASA short-fueled the LEM on the Apollo 10 mission to make sure the astronauts weren't tempted to land on the moon - as they'd not have enough fuel to return to lunar orbit.

Cernan mentioned something about that in the documentary 'When We Left Earth - The NASA Missions'. "Don't give them an opportunity to land. Because they might."

But he was given the opportunity to land on the moon as commander of Apollo 17.

[kovert]

For those interested in Project Apollo, check out the 2014 NASA documentary The Journeys of Apollo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNJpoP642wc) narrated by Peter Cullen.

[kovert]

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin spent nearly two hours in space and orbited the earth just once.

Today also marks the 40th anniversary of the first orbital flight (mission designation 'STS-1') of the Space Transportation System, crewed by US astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen. Young and Crippen spent two days in space testing the Space Shuttle Columbia.

[DELTAprime]

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin spent nearly two hours in space and orbited the earth just once.

Only 60 years ago? I thought for sure it would be more like 70.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Stumbled across this article on the ABC news site and it's something quite thought provoking:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-13/what-were-these-lights-in-the-sky-eastern-australia/100064630

While I appreciate what Elon Musk is doing and think that it's a nice idea, I didn't think of the consequences. It produces an interesting problem now doesn't it.
Let's hope he didn't install lasers on them and has plans for world domination (in a classical sense).;)

[DELTAprime]

Stumbled across this article on the ABC news site and it's something quite thought provoking:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-13/what-were-these-lights-in-the-sky-eastern-australia/100064630

While I appreciate what Elon Musk is doing and think that it's a nice idea, I didn't think of the consequences. It produces an interesting problem now doesn't it.
Let's hope he didn't install lasers on them and has plans for world domination (in a classical sense).;)

The astronomer community has been rather upset about Starlink for a while now. We are looking at a future where only space-based telescopes are useful.

[Autocon]

Interesting. Wonder if there is a situation where the world goes no, no more are allowed to orbit the earth.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Interesting. Wonder if there is a situation where the world goes no, no more are allowed to orbit the earth.

Eventually they will have to. Surely there'll become a problem abandoned, old satellites etc are a danger to other things in orbit. I remember reading a few years ago that there is already quite a bit of abandoned junk in orbit. I guess it isn't easy to have a "clean up the earth's orbit day"

Space is big yes, but that doesn't mean we can chuck any old thing into it.

[Skyfire]

"Japan is going to put a baseball-sized robot that TRANSFORMS on the moon to explore the lunar surface in 2022"

"The robot is being built in part by Tomy, famous for creating Transformer toys, such as Optimus Prime"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9630079/Japan-going-baseball-sized-robot-transforms-moon-2022.html

[Ravagecat]

"Japan is going to put a baseball-sized robot that TRANSFORMS on the moon to explore the lunar surface in 2022"

"The robot is being built in part by Tomy, famous for creating Transformer toys, such as Optimus Prime"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9630079/Japan-going-baseball-sized-robot-transforms-moon-2022.html

That's actually pretty cool