Exilian

Art, Writing, and Learning: The Clerisy Quarter => History, Science, and Interesting Information - The Great Library => Topic started by: comrade_general on November 26, 2011, 05:01:29 PM

Title: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on November 26, 2011, 05:01:29 PM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45444246/ns/technology_and_science-space/
Title: Re: Space yay
Post by: Jubal on November 29, 2011, 06:39:11 PM
Let's hope it gets there safely...
Title: Re: Space yay
Post by: comrade_general on December 02, 2011, 01:06:49 AM
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/
Title: Re: Space yay
Post by: comrade_general on December 08, 2011, 03:31:44 AM
http://www.space.com/13821-nasa-kepler-alien-planets-habitable-zone.html
http://www.space.com/13766-international-space-station-flex-fire-research.html
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on December 24, 2011, 02:40:10 AM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45776625/ns/technology_and_science-space/

;D
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on February 06, 2012, 08:34:56 PM
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16906740

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  >:(
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on February 06, 2012, 10:40:28 PM
Dammit Obama! He better let loose the funds for this project.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on February 06, 2012, 10:45:04 PM
Something tells me the GOP won't be any more favourable if they get the White House, either.  :-\
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on February 06, 2012, 10:57:09 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsbYx6hevoQ
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on May 21, 2012, 11:10:48 PM
Happened yesterday:

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/annular-solar-eclipse-may-20-2012/20gies43?q=Solar+eclipse&rel=msn&from=en-us_msnhphero&form=msnhro&overlaytype=multimediaviewer&name=hpvideo3&csid=ux-en-us&initialmoduleindex=1
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on May 24, 2012, 01:42:46 AM
This is definitely a yay! ;D

http://www.startrek.com/article/send-picard-to-space-a-success
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on May 27, 2012, 04:04:05 PM
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/26/astronauts-enter-world-1st-private-supply-ship/
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on July 15, 2012, 01:53:36 PM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48186927/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.UAK8fvWQODE

So we're left to hitchhike on 46 year old Russian rockets. :(
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on September 26, 2012, 08:45:33 PM
http://news.discovery.com/space/new-comet-discovered-will-it-be-spectacular-120925.html#mkcpgn=fbdsc17
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on November 19, 2012, 03:56:38 PM
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20389148

It's that guy again. Falcon VS Ariane!
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on September 12, 2013, 08:30:26 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/12/tech/innovation/voyager-solar-system/

"You are the Kirk Unit. You will listen to me."

- V'ger
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on September 19, 2013, 04:34:56 PM
Woop!  :)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on March 24, 2014, 03:24:03 PM
http://www.weather.com/news/science/private-space-taxis-20140324

It's companies like SpaceX that will lead the way towards our future.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on March 24, 2014, 03:30:25 PM
I think SpaceX in particular is worth watching; a company like Boeing is really in it for the haulage contracts, a guy like Elon Musk just wants to go to Mars because it'd be cool.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on March 24, 2014, 03:31:23 PM
Elon Musk... what an odd name. Kind of like Zephram Cochrane is also an odd name. ;D
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Cuddly Khan on March 24, 2014, 07:30:40 PM
Planet X theory! http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/planet-x-myth-debunked-20140317-34weh.html
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on March 27, 2014, 12:56:36 PM
Some neat picshas:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/photos-e6frfrnr-1226854669884?page=1
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on May 09, 2014, 12:33:55 AM
http://www.iflscience.com/space/eyes-earth-iss-hd-earth-viewing-experiment
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on May 25, 2014, 10:30:50 PM

Holy sheet.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on May 26, 2014, 11:09:54 AM
At that distance it would probably crash into earth pretty rapidly as well unless it was going totally super hyper fast.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Silver Wolf on May 26, 2014, 12:06:36 PM
Almsivi would save us!
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on June 12, 2014, 12:10:18 AM
Space, the final frontier...

http://www.iflscience.com/space/nasa-reveals-latest-warp-drive-ship-designs
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Tom on July 08, 2014, 08:03:39 PM
THAT LOOKS SOOOOOOOO COOOOL. Can I get one?
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Cuddly Khan on July 09, 2014, 11:59:12 AM
One day Tom, one day... I hope...
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Tom on July 09, 2014, 04:09:55 PM
I think building a fancy computer and getting star citizen is my next best bet.:(
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Cuddly Khan on July 09, 2014, 11:55:17 PM
Star Citizen, *Drool* I've been following that since it's kickstarter, even though I wouldn't be able to play it.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Tom on July 10, 2014, 12:42:57 PM
I'm saving up to build myself a tank of a PC so hopefully I will be able to :)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Cuddly Khan on July 10, 2014, 03:23:42 PM
I wouldn't even if I did have an awesome PC because of my crappy Internet. :(
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Tom on July 10, 2014, 04:01:57 PM
Has Australia got crappy internet as a whole or is Tasmania just the worst area to live in? For internet that is.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Cuddly Khan on July 11, 2014, 01:41:26 AM
I live on a farm, so I have satellite. Other than that, our Internet is just as good as it is anywhere else... if you live in the cities. Plus, with the NBN we're getting fiber optics to every house in major populated areas. 'Tis good.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Tom on July 11, 2014, 12:05:11 PM
Sounds good mate :) Is living on a farm alright?
Oh and SPACE, YAY.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Cuddly Khan on July 11, 2014, 12:14:51 PM
Lets take this to a more appropriate thread eh? (http://www.exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1678.new#new)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on August 04, 2014, 06:14:59 PM
Back to actual space yays, a mars rover mission is set to try and make oxygen:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28582903 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28582903)

Quote
Nasa's next Martian rover will attempt to make oxygen on the surface of the red planet when it lands there in 2021.

The rover will carry seven scientific projects, aimed at paving the way for future manned missions, seeking evidence of life and storing samples to be brought back in the future.

Among them is a device for turning the CO2 that dominates the thin Martian air into oxygen.

This could support human life or make rocket fuel for return missions.

Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on September 24, 2014, 12:33:15 PM
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28268186

India becomes the first country to get a satellite to Mars on its first attempt!  :)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Othko97 on September 24, 2014, 09:59:13 PM
Looks like the Indian Space Agency in that Doctor Who episode (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship?) is becoming a reality :P
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on October 08, 2014, 12:26:35 PM
I saw some of the Lunar eclipse this morning.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on October 08, 2014, 01:25:27 PM
I could go to my brothers' place in North Carolina if it would help. :)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on October 09, 2014, 07:47:32 AM
I could go to my brothers' place in North Carolina if it would help. :)
That's a very kind offer, but please don't make any plans yet: having missed most of totality of the 1999 eclipse due to an inconveniently placed cloud, I'm keen to find somewhere with skies as clear as possible. Also, there's likely to be an extensive US tour constructed around this, so I'd expect to be in Ohio at some point anyway.

Meanwhile, this side of the Atlantic, there will be a partial solar eclipse rather sooner, on Friday 20 March 2015. It's actually total on a path running from the north Atlantic up into the Arctic; the UK will see varying fractions of the sun obscured, from about 85% in south-east England up to at least 95% in northern Scotland. The maximum looks to be around 09:30 UK time. There are more details on the main NASA solar eclipse page (http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/solar.html) - scroll down the list to the right date, and follow the individual links.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on October 29, 2014, 12:32:53 AM
This is a space sad :(

Makes me thing of the Vanguard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK6a6Hkp94o), except this one made it a bit further. Rocket science must be hard if it hasn't changed much in 60 years. :P
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Tom on October 29, 2014, 09:08:16 AM
There's going to be a lot of bad press surrounding this which sucks.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on October 29, 2014, 12:58:55 PM
I think it's inevitable that rockets will go wrong occasionally, like any other machinery; when they do, the consequences are usually explosive, given that they're mostly tubes filled with fuel and oxidant. At least in this case there was no-one on board. It's just a shame that it's happened to one of the companies that's just getting going in this area.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on October 31, 2014, 10:03:02 PM
Another space sad :(

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is reported to have exploded and crashed while on a test flight in California, with at least one person (one of the pilots) dead.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on November 01, 2014, 01:11:10 AM
I just came here to post it :(

http://www.iflscience.com/space/breaking-virgin-galactic-s-spaceshiptwo-crashes-over-mohave-desert

I also saw that the previous rocket was self-destructed due to the launch being flawed somehow (looked fine to me).
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: TTG4 on November 01, 2014, 07:23:58 PM
I also saw that the previous rocket was self-destructed due to the launch being flawed somehow (looked fine to me).

As far as I know they saw that the rocket wasn't going to make it into orbit and so it made more sense to destroy it ASAP rather than risk debris falling on a populated area, which seems sensible enough.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on November 01, 2014, 08:17:13 PM
How in the hell would they know that so soon?
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on November 02, 2014, 10:46:48 AM
According to a statement (https://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/Orb-3/default.aspx) on the Orbital Sciences website:
Quote from: Orbital Sciences, 30 Oct 2014
All systems appeared to be performing nominally until approximately T+15 seconds at which point the failure occurred. Evidence suggests the failure initiated in the first stage after which the vehicle lost its propulsive capability and fell back to the ground impacting near, but not on, the launch pad. Prior to impacting the ground, the rocket’s Flight Termination System was engaged by the designated official in the Wallops Range Control Center.

The official NASA video is on the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_CRS_Orb-3); it's from near the launchpad up to a few seconds after launch, and then cuts to one from further away (possibly losing a few seconds). At around 0:45 on the video, the rocket exhaust flame gets brighter and bigger. Over the next few seconds, there looks to be a small explosion in the exhaust, the rocket stops accelerating, slows down and starts falling, and then there's another explosion or burst of flame. I would guess that the change in the flame at 0:45 is the "failure" reported by Orbital, and that the burst of flame after the rocket starts falling is the flight termination system.

How in the hell would they know that so soon?
I would guess that there's a prescribed safe path, dictating where the rocket should be at what time after the launch. If it deviates from that path, either in location or not accelerating correctly, then it's considered unsafe and is destroyed.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on November 02, 2014, 12:28:31 PM
That makes more sense if it lost propulsion before they aborted. At first it sounded like they had caused the entire incident.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on November 07, 2014, 07:26:04 PM
Meanwhile, something happier that I found: a video recorded on the ISS, of and from a camera inside a big blob of water. Particularly interesting for me is some all-too-brief footage (around 1:25 - 1:40) of what you can do when surface tension is the strongest force acting on the water.

Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Cuddly Khan on November 08, 2014, 03:56:22 AM
That looks so fun! :D
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Tom on November 08, 2014, 03:37:11 PM
Anyone catch the orion ama on reddit?
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2li4jx/were_the_team_that_designed_and_built_orion_nasas/ (http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2li4jx/were_the_team_that_designed_and_built_orion_nasas/)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Othko97 on November 11, 2014, 01:58:19 PM
For a second I thought that was a fake AMA from the constellation :P
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Cuddly Khan on November 14, 2014, 05:49:39 AM
Not sure if this is the place to put it but: http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/what-if-our-planet-had-rings-like-saturn
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on November 14, 2014, 09:17:33 AM
Interesting (and rather pretty) - thanks for posting this.

I think if the Earth had rings, we (the human race) might have worked out a lot more about astronomy quite early on. The fact that the world is round can readily be deduced from how the position of the rings in the sky varies with latitude, and there's a series of interesting observations that give us lots of data on celestial geometry:
- the shadow of the rings on the Earth at various times of the day/year
- the shadow of the rings on the Moon at lunar eclipses
- the shadow of the Moon on the rings at solar eclipses (albeit very occasionally)
- the Sun crossing the plane of the rings at equinoxes
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on December 05, 2014, 02:58:16 PM
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#.VIHHcsmSled

Looks like Orion made it up okay. We're going to eventually use it to send people to asteroids and then Mars.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Fish Priest on December 06, 2014, 05:36:05 PM
Not sure if this is the place to put it but: http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/what-if-our-planet-had-rings-like-saturn

Somewhat relatedly, has anyone seen the "donut earth" post?
http://io9.com/what-would-the-earth-be-like-if-it-was-the-shape-of-a-d-1515700296 (http://io9.com/what-would-the-earth-be-like-if-it-was-the-shape-of-a-d-1515700296)


The idea of seeing your own planet in the sky is quite cool, as is that of satellites that go through the hole...
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Cuddly Khan on December 08, 2014, 06:55:34 AM
Found on that same site as yours Fishy. Thought it was pretty interesting. http://io9.com/5906300/5-scientific-explanations-for-game-of-thrones-messed-up-seasons
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on December 09, 2014, 10:53:20 PM
News from the Curiosity rover on Mars: there are substantial deposits of sedimentary rocks, implying the existence of lakes and rivers in Mars' early history. More in a BBC News article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30390143), with some nice pictures and a link to the relevant NASA website.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Cuddly Khan on December 10, 2014, 10:54:32 AM
Oooo, Portugal! Were there astronauts on that? :(
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on December 10, 2014, 10:55:46 AM
 :picard_facepalm:
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on December 10, 2014, 11:11:48 PM
http://gizmodo.com/every-ship-that-has-carried-humans-into-space-in-one-c-1665286013
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: TTG4 on January 16, 2015, 11:16:31 PM
Beagle 2 actually made it! They thought it was lost, turned out it just broke!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30784886
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Son of the King on January 16, 2015, 11:22:39 PM
Reading this story made me feel happy, and also made me sad that Colin Pillinger never found out that it didn't crash after all.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on January 17, 2015, 01:14:08 AM
The fact that it landed at all is impressive given how cheap the mission was; it's a great pity we haven't been funding more missions like that really.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on January 29, 2015, 01:10:40 AM
http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/kepler-discovers-solar-systems-ancient-twin-150127.htm?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=DiscoveryChannel
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on February 10, 2015, 05:47:31 PM
http://www.iflscience.com/space/solar-system-speed-light
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Fish Priest on February 12, 2015, 11:27:51 PM
Apparently there has now been a successful soft-landing (http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/02/12/space-weather-observatory-blasts-off-after-17-year-wait/) of a Falcon 9 first stage. Unfortunately it was in the ocean, as rough seas meant that they didn't think they could keep their landing barge in place.

But still, it came down slowly, on rockets, the right way up, as God and E.E. 'Doc' Smith intended :)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: amusingthebrood on February 13, 2015, 04:12:25 PM
With the Falcon 9 soft landing there seem to be two main challenges:


To my (very uneducated in this field) mind, the first bit seems much harder to achieve (not that I am claiming the upright bit is easy of course). Yet with both attempts so far, it has been spot on target. It is very impressive technically, and if the stages can genuinely be reused safely, it is very cool indeed.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on February 13, 2015, 04:55:51 PM
It's certainly impressive.

Elon Musk I think definitely wins the current global award for "I'm going to use my billionaire status to do ridiculous but cool stuff". Probably high up on the impact stakes as well, though below the Gates foundation on that.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on March 13, 2015, 01:55:03 AM
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/12/8199689/jupiter-moon-ganymede-hidden-ocean-water

Jupiter pretty much has its own private planetary system.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on March 27, 2015, 07:52:48 PM
http://www.nasa.gov/content/a-year-in-space/index.html?linkId=13158669
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on April 13, 2015, 11:55:37 PM
In news of great concern to Doctor Who fans everywhere, it turns out there are waters on Mars...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32287609
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Silver Wolf on May 27, 2015, 08:32:55 AM
So with some proper planning and genetic engineering the first steps of terraforming might not be so far away after all.  :D
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on May 30, 2015, 05:09:53 AM
http://www.iflscience.com/space/spacex-wins-permission-launch-government-satellites
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on June 08, 2015, 11:59:39 PM
One step closer to Mars, or world domination, or whatever they're after...
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on July 23, 2015, 09:44:43 PM
So this is pretty awesome:

'Earth 2.0' found in Nasa Kepler telescope haul

(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/1824E/production/_84449889_84449888.jpg)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33641648 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33641648)
Quote
A haul of planets from Nasa's Kepler telescope includes a world sharing many characteristics with Earth.
Kepler-452b orbits at a very similar distance from its star, though its radius is 60% larger.
Mission scientists said they believed it was the most Earth-like planet yet.
Such worlds are of interest to astronomers because they might be small and cool enough to host liquid water on their surface - and might therefore be hospitable to life.
Nasa's science chief John Grunsfeld called the new world the "closest so far" to Earth.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on November 04, 2015, 06:40:35 PM
(http://orig00.deviantart.net/505e/f/2015/294/8/e/exoplanets_by_jaysimons-d9dv6th.jpg)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Clockwork on November 04, 2015, 09:18:31 PM
There's one of those but with all the different sci-fi spacecraft, they're awesome :D
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on November 05, 2015, 12:27:35 AM
Know exactly what you're talking about.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

'Course that can't include V'Ger at 97,500 meters or the Death Stars at 120,000 and 160,000 meters. portugal that whale probe thing.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on November 07, 2015, 07:01:35 PM
It's hilarious how tiny all the DW ships are :) (Also, did they get some of those from the comics? I'm not sure all those appear in the TV series...)

In other news, apparently solar storms might have blasted Mars' atmosphere out the way:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34736574
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on December 22, 2015, 06:18:51 PM
SpaceX rocket in historic upright landing

(http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/EAEF/production/_87334106_7f995026-0291-4459-a914-03b9a81c7460.jpg)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35157782

OK, this is a fairly big one. SpaceX have managed a vertical landing after launching satellites, which means - if this can be done regularly - potentially a vastly, vastly decreased financial and environmental cost of space launches.  :)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on December 22, 2015, 06:30:42 PM
portugal yeah.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on January 12, 2016, 01:45:45 PM
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on January 12, 2016, 05:28:18 PM
You must've missed the signpost to the space sads thread :(
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on January 14, 2016, 09:35:55 PM
Some nice pictures of Earth and other planets in this BBC News article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35292518). They are all in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London, open from 22 January to 15 May, if you're able to get there and willing to pay the £9.90 exhibition charge.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on February 22, 2016, 03:01:30 PM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3454486/Could-travel-Mars-just-THREE-days-Nasa-s-photonic-propulsion-uses-light-lasers-produce-thrust.html
This is awesome, makes me think of that episode of Next Gen where they propel the ship to warp using a soliton wave (http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Soliton_wave) generator. We'd just need to send the robots first to install a second laser either on Mars or in orbit so there could be a return journey. The Moon took 4 days in the past so this is an amazing step in space travel. :)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on March 31, 2016, 08:54:07 AM
It seems that something, probably a small asteroid or comet, collided with Jupiter on March 17. Here's an IFLScience post (http://www.iflscience.com/space/incredibly-rare-impact-jupiter-may-have-been-spotted-amateur-astronomers) about it, including several short videos.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on June 02, 2016, 10:38:16 PM
Cool image I came across. I really hope the SLS still becomes a thing.

(http://img0.joyreactor.com/pics/post/full/space-rocket-1698744.jpeg)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on June 03, 2016, 01:04:54 PM
Huh, I hadn't actually realised how huge the Saturn payloads were compared to modern commercial rockets like the Falcon.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on June 03, 2016, 01:12:13 PM
Saturn V was by far the most powerful launch system ever (successfully) constructed. A testament to what our capabilites were and could have continued to be if space remained higher on the priorities list. SLS is essentially a throwback, carrying a bit larger version of the Apollo craft, and a hybrid by using similar solid boosters like the shuttle did.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on June 03, 2016, 02:11:16 PM
Aye, it's short-sighted the extent to which NASA has been cut back. :(
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on September 29, 2016, 12:37:52 PM
http://www.space.com/34210-elon-musk-unveils-spacex-mars-colony-ship.html

Yay!
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Silver Wolf on April 23, 2017, 11:02:20 AM
I remember reading about NASA's EM drive. The most fun part for me was that they were astounded that it actually works, despite the fact that it's not supported by the current fundamental laws of physics. :P
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on April 23, 2017, 01:02:41 PM
I remember reading about NASA's EM drive. The most fun part for me was that they were astounded that it actually works, despite the fact that it's not supported by the current fundamental laws of physics. :P
More about it on this thread (http://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4492.0).

"Not supported by the current laws of physics" generally means that we're about to find out something fun and interesting about the way the universe works. A hundred years ago it was things like radioactivity, the photoelectric effect, the Michelson-Morley experiment and the precession of the perihelion of Mercury - that got us relativity and quantum mechanics, and thence a vast array of modern technology.

At the moment we have dark matter, dark energy, the EM drive and probably other stuff that I haven't heard about yet. Somewhere, I hope, there is another Einstein working to make sense of it all.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on April 23, 2017, 06:04:45 PM
It would of course help & speed things up if we actually put the money in and funded the research on this stuff... (grumblegrumble).
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on July 07, 2017, 04:02:03 PM
Interesting upcoming Mercury mission:

(https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/CB40/production/_96823025_1.jpg)

Quote
The two satellites that make up the BepiColombo mission to Mercury were presented to the media on Thursday.

This joint European-Japanese venture has been in development for nearly two decades, but should finally get to the launch pad in 15 months' time.

The two spacecraft will travel together to the baking world but separate on arrival to conduct their own studies.

Thursday's event in the Netherlands was the last chance for journalists to view the so-called "flight stack".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40513818
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on September 16, 2017, 11:59:26 PM
Not quite a yay - but the Cassini probe has finally had its watch ended, which felt like a thing to mention here.

Quote
(https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/0A33/production/_97811620_3.jpg)

The American-led Cassini space mission to Saturn has just come to a spectacular end.

Controllers had commanded the probe to destroy itself by plunging into the planet's atmosphere. It survived for just over a minute before being broken apart. Cassini had run out of fuel and Nasa had determined that the probe should not be allowed simply to wander uncontrolled among Saturn and its moons.

The loss of signal from the spacecraft occurred pretty close to the prediction. Here at mission control, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, the drop-off was timed at 04:55 PDT (11:55 GMT; 12:55 BST).

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41207827
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on March 20, 2018, 12:13:40 PM
To note, SpaceX has been launching and landing Falcon 9's for a while now, and they recently successfully tested their Falcon heavy, which is currently the most powerful rocket in the world, by sending one of their Tesla cars towards the general Mars area. I expect some more pretty portugaling fantastic things from them soon.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on April 04, 2018, 05:31:08 PM
Here's the launch of the falcon heavy. The most epic part is the simultaneous landing of the boosters around the 9:15 minute mark.

Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on June 08, 2018, 04:01:49 AM
https://deadspin.com/indians-pitchers-ponder-the-existence-of-multiple-earth-1825904317

Baseball and space. What more could you want?

Don't answer that.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on July 23, 2018, 08:10:24 PM
Meanwhile, coming up overnight Friday / Saturday: the longest (at least by a few seconds) lunar eclipse this century. It will be visible from Australia, most of Asia and Europe, Africa, and parts of South America. The eastern and western edges of that range only get to see part of the eclipse; as seen from Australia, the moon will set before it's finished, while it will already have started when the moon rises for Europe. More details for this eclipse here (https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2018Jul27T.pdf), and for lunar eclipses generally here (https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/lunar.html).
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on July 23, 2018, 08:18:45 PM
I'll just wait here then.

- North America :'(
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on July 24, 2018, 06:01:56 PM
I'll just wait here then.

- North America :'(
You shouldn't have to wait too long - just under six months. There's a lunar eclipse on 21 January 2019 for which North America is perfectly positioned - details here (https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2019Jan21T.pdf).
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on July 24, 2018, 07:26:21 PM
Yay :)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Tusky on August 11, 2018, 08:21:12 AM
Parker sun probe launching today

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45058911
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Tusky on August 11, 2018, 11:14:24 AM
Parker sun probe launching today

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45058911

... make that tomorrow
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45058911
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on September 19, 2018, 09:50:39 PM
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on October 20, 2018, 11:33:16 PM
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45838991

New joint Europe-Japan mission to Mercury :)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on April 11, 2019, 09:20:03 AM
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/astronomers-unveil-first-ever-image-of-a-black-hole/70007951
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on April 12, 2019, 11:45:38 PM
The black hole stuff is super cool :) It's nice that they seem to have done more actively talking to the scientists on it than I remember with previous big science stories - actually letting scientists geek out about stuff on the news rather than presenting these things as "this is science, it's done by nameless scientists who are presumably some alien species" is positive I think.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: comrade_general on July 20, 2019, 01:58:43 PM
This could also be a history yay. :)

Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on October 26, 2020, 04:57:11 PM
Nasa have discovered water on a sunlit part of the moon for the first time, which is pretty cool:

Quote
NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.

SOFIA has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth, located in the Moon’s southern hemisphere. Previous observations of the Moon’s surface detected some form of hydrogen, but were unable to distinguish between water and its close chemical relative, hydroxyl (OH). Data from this location reveal water in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million – roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water – trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface. The results are published in the latest issue of Nature Astronomy.

“We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.”

As a comparison, the Sahara desert has 100 times the amount of water than what SOFIA detected in the lunar soil. Despite the small amounts, the discovery raises new questions about how water is created and how it persists on the harsh, airless lunar surface.

Full press release is at:
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-sofia-discovers-water-on-sunlit-surface-of-moon
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Othko97 on October 26, 2020, 05:32:15 PM
That is pretty cool, one particular part of the article that stuck out to me was:

Quote
Under NASA’s Artemis (https://www.nasa.gov/Artemis#_blank) program, the agency is eager to learn all it can about the presence of water on the Moon in advance of sending the first woman and next man to the lunar surface in 2024 and establishing a sustainable human presence there by the end of the decade.
This might be old news, but I'd never heard of this ambitious plan. Perhaps we have an exciting space decade to come!  ;D
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on October 31, 2020, 05:47:43 PM
One of the many things which has been driven out of the news by interpersonal trivia is the successful collection of samples from the surface of asteroid Bennu by OSIRIS REX (https://www.asteroidmission.org/).  All it needs is a proper Akkadian name, or at least a Greek one!  Everyone knows you don't do any serious astronomy in a language for thugs and hucksters like Latin.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on December 10, 2020, 05:18:23 AM
The Japanese mission to an asteroid has returned its sample to Earth! 

Areciebo may have fallen and people on birdsite are angry at the CEO of SpaceX but things are still happening in space science because of experts working together.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Tusky on April 22, 2021, 03:27:40 PM
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56844601 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56844601)

Quote
An instrument on Nasa's Perseverance rover on Mars has made oxygen from the planet's carbon dioxide atmosphere.

This is very cool, I had no idea that this tech was being trialled. Sounds like this allows for visitors to Mars to use some version of this Moxie unit, and be able to breathe indefinitely without relying on Earth for Oxygen deliveries!

Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on April 23, 2021, 10:34:59 PM
Israel and Jordan are planning a massive geoengineering project: the Red Sea - Dead Sea Project.  The plan is to dump waste brine from a planned desalination plant at Aqaba into the north basin of the Dead Sea which is drying up because of water diverted from the Sea of Galilee to Israel (and the turning of the southern part of the Dead Sea into shallow evaporation ponds to be mined for minerals).  The problem is that Red Sea water is chemically distinct, and adding all this slightly less salty water with sulphites will have unpredictable effects.

The population of Jordan increased 11-fold before 1960 and 2010, and then the wars in Syria came.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on December 31, 2022, 11:59:17 PM
(https://imgur.com/gfh5sVw.jpg)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on January 01, 2023, 02:39:23 AM
Blank post by Jubal
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on January 01, 2023, 05:19:23 PM
Oops! It wasn't empty, but I messed up the image code on a recent bit of photography I did. Now fixed :)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on January 10, 2023, 03:41:45 PM
Possibly the opposite of a yay but today I learned of the existence of MOOSE, a 1980s plan to have people drop out of space with a metal sheet and some foam to protect them in case of emergencies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOOSE

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/Operation_MOOSE_%28figure_110%29.PNG)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on January 10, 2023, 11:53:15 PM
Maciej Ceglowski has broken his silence with a series trying to argue against manned space travel without being an asshole https://idlewords.com/2023/1/why_not_mars.htm (https://idlewords.com/2023/1/why_not_mars.htm)

Its kind of journalistic and rhetorical more than scientific but it has fun footnotes
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on January 16, 2023, 06:08:15 PM
I published a blog post last summer about two pieces of rocket engineering which have not reached pop culture and especially science fiction: Whipple shields and radiators (https://www.bookandsword.com/2022/07/23/whipple-shields-and-radiators/).
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on January 16, 2023, 06:12:28 PM
I wonder how much of the Whipple shield not capturing the science fiction imagination is just the name. It unfortunately sounds like a specially designed cup lid for messy drinkers of cream topped coffee, more than a piece of brilliantly conceived space engineering.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on January 16, 2023, 10:16:02 PM
I wonder how much of the Whipple shield not capturing the science fiction imagination is just the name. It unfortunately sounds like a specially designed cup lid for messy drinkers of cream topped coffee, more than a piece of brilliantly conceived space engineering.
It could be worse, an early sexologist was named Dr. Beverly Whipple.  I don't know if the story that the "Whipple tickle" almost became a piece of official scientific nomenclature is true, but it should be.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on January 16, 2023, 11:34:31 PM
...good heavens.

(An old BBC Article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8443465.stm) quotes Whipple herself as giving the "Whipple Tickle" story, noting that she rejected the idea - but how seriously anyone suggested it may be another matter, so it perhaps depends on your definition of almost).
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on August 24, 2023, 08:49:14 PM
India got a lander to the moon's south pole! :)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66601996
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on August 27, 2023, 06:52:12 AM
Definitely a nice contrast to the failed Russian mission and the indecision on what to do after the ISS is deorbited.  We can do so many amazing things in space with robots when its not limited by military Keynesianism!  Indian space agency, Chinese, NASA, all do cool things with modest budgets when they are not obliged to spend a lot of money in the right districts or keep Russian engineers from moonlighting with North Korea.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on August 27, 2023, 10:18:56 AM
Yes, indeed. Though I don't know much about the politics of the space programme internally in India - I do wonder how achievements like this play in the world of heavily religious-nationalist rule the country is now in. It's an exciting scientific achievement though, regardless.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on August 27, 2023, 05:21:54 PM
On one hand its odd that a country has a Moon program while allowing schools to skip evolution in biology class, on the other hand both of Werner von Braun's employers had some issues with the scientific worldview.

One of the problems with Ceglowski's arguments is that its not obvious that cuts to manned spaceflight would produce greater federal spending on natural science or engineering.  And NASA seems better at manned spaceflight than at other important things like 'getting the cost of putting a kilo into orbit close to the cost of the energy.'  (The prices claimed or promised by SpaceX have been getting a closer look over the past few years).

But building another big space station does seem a questionable goal, and a manned mission to Mars around 2040 seems very optimistic.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on August 27, 2023, 05:35:38 PM
Ceglowski? I don't think I'm familiar/
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on August 27, 2023, 05:44:20 PM
I literally linked to his essay above.  Its journalistic but nobody seems to have taken up his challenge and unpicked the hyperbole from the serious arguments.

Edit: His major achievement is a series of talks explaining the long-term doom of venture-capitalist funded websites and the surveillance-advertising complex and the dubiousness of the AI cult in the California vernacular https://idlewords.com/talks/  He seems to have become depressed after several short-term ventures into American politics and labour organizing and has been neglecting the business that pays his rent (but that stuff takes decades!  giving up after a year or two is premature)

Edit: examples of responses to "Why Not Mars?": a classic bad forum thread https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=58511.0 and blog post with an actual argument https://www.jwkash.com/questioning-my-religion-why-not-mars Note the manned spaceflight advocate's term"existential risk" and see TESCREAL (https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6566.0) ("what if some disaster ends life on earth?" has been a favourite gambit by American advocates of manned spaceflight for my whole lifetime).  Most of what I can find is short responses by randos saying "I agree completely!" or "I disagree completely"

Edit: the Oceangate submarine disaster let us empirically test the space-advocate argument "NASA is too cautious, we need to take a few risks to get things moving again."  Everyone who has close contact with NASA seems to agree that they are very bureaucratic but these are hard problems and when you try and fail people die (see also Theranos, Inc. (https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2018/08/09/bad-blood-secrets-lies-silicon-valley-startup/)).
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on August 27, 2023, 09:02:08 PM
Oh right! Yes, that post was back in January in my defence so it's a few months since I'd read it.

And yes, I think the "should we send humans to space" question is definitely in that box for me of "I am excited when exciting space things happen, but I do not think I have within a million miles of the expertise needed to weigh in on what exciting space things should be attempted". I don't think Knych's argument feels a good one to me for the same reasons you give re existential risk, but I'm also not enormously concerned about contaminating Mars. But overall I'd quite like this problem to be someone else's to solve (although I also think the world in which I did have to think about it seriously because that was the sort of discussion that might e.g. factor into my voting considerations would be an incredibly good one because that would in turn imply that a lot of other much scarier and bigger problems that I think about more were somehow no longer on my worry list).
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on August 27, 2023, 09:35:39 PM
Yeah, that is why I would like a more detailed analysis by someone not pushing a predetermined agenda.  I noticed that Ceglowski's essay did not address the geopolitical context of the ISS which the recent Guardian piece (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/26/its-like-doing-an-arctic-expedition-with-german-scientists-in-1943-life-on-the-international-space-station-at-a-time-of-war) emphasized (keeping Russian rocket scientists gainfully employed and supervised in the 1990s).  And in general critics of manned spaceflight feel like losers ("how dare someone else devote their lives to this dangerous, amazing thing"), but relatively small investments on projects like the JWST or the Indian moon mission can have very cool results.

Meanwhile SpaceX had a successful test firing
https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/starships-next-test-flight-might-be-closer-than-you-think/

Edit: since a lot of space news is tediously nationalistic lets not forget that China has a space station too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiangong_space_station
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on August 27, 2023, 09:54:14 PM
TIL from that Wiki piece that the Chinese space station's name is "The Heavenly Palace", which honestly makes the nomenclature of the ISS feel excessively mundane. Couldn't we have called it the "Bastion of the Star Explorers" or something?
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on September 10, 2023, 04:48:24 AM
Another Guardian piece (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/09/first-cat-space-felicette-orbit-humans-earth-atmosphere) reminded me that while it turns out that keeping primates alive and healthy in space is hard, in the 1940s and 1950s there were spoil-sports who thought it might be impossible.  They just were not writing for Astounding.  And closed-circuit life support may become more feasible if we can get the cost of a kilo in orbit down from $20k to $2k (ie. closer to the cost of the energy).
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on September 14, 2023, 05:34:30 PM
Mm. I think it's common to discuss things people assumed we'd have in the past that never worked out (the "where's my hovercar" line of argument) but much less common to discuss the things people actively assumed were impossible that we've achieved.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on September 19, 2023, 04:15:47 AM
Mm. I think it's common to discuss things people assumed we'd have in the past that never worked out (the "where's my hovercar" line of argument) but much less common to discuss the things people actively assumed were impossible that we've achieved.
I think that people often do discuss the things people actively assumed were impossible that we've achieved, but they are telling urban legends ("a physicist said that a bumblebee can't fly!" "first they ignore you then they mock you then you win!") not history.

The only one that comes to mind is the discovery that there was not an impassable hot belt near the equator which confined the known world to the northern hemisphere.  I don't know how long there was a question whether it was possible to run a mile in four minutes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-minute_mile), and whether it was a scientific consensus or just an old runners' tale.
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on October 08, 2023, 03:32:19 AM
A private spacelaunch company in Spain had a successful launch https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/07/spanish-company-launches-reusable-rocket-in-breakthrough-for-european-space-ambitions
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on January 20, 2024, 07:17:50 PM
Japan landed its first spacecraft on the moon but it may have flipped over or fallen on its side https://www.theguardian.com/science/live/2024/jan/19/japan-moon-landing-mission-space-latest-live-news-updates
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on March 12, 2024, 08:51:02 PM
One of the hard problems in human spacetravel is shielding crew from radiation outside the Earth's magnetic field whenever there is a solar storm (although a lot depends on the level of safety you expect).  One proposal is electromagnetic shielding but implementation is the problem.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/03/shields-up-new-ideas-might-make-active-shielding-viable/

NASA's safety culture after Apollo 11 is a weird mix of safety-conscious (carefully calculating incremental increases in cancer risk to International Space Station crew) and reckless (all those deaths in the Shuttle program)
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Jubal on March 13, 2024, 01:40:34 PM
NASA's safety culture after Apollo 11 is a weird mix of safety-conscious (carefully calculating incremental increases in cancer risk to International Space Station crew) and reckless (all those deaths in the Shuttle program)
Is this something that's actually traceable as a single block change, or is it more that it's gone through several phases since? We're quite a few careers down the line from Apollo 11 now!

I had some interesting online discussion recently about building on the moon using sintering to make stuff from lunar dust, like in Markus Kayser's work: https://kayserworks.com/
And I remembered and dug up some interesting notes from 2022 on how one might actually be able to use microwaves for the purpose, superheating lunar dust that's been magnetically sifted to increase the metal content:
https://www.ucf.edu/news/methods-for-building-lunar-landing-pads-may-involve-microwaving-moon-soil/
https://www.universetoday.com/159427/want-to-build-structures-on-the-moon-just-blast-the-regolith-with-microwaves/
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: Glaurung on March 13, 2024, 02:39:08 PM
I think the balance has swung back and forth several times, dependent on competing pressures (not least from the US Congress) to:
- complete programmes as quickly and cheaply as possible
- avoid killing people and consequent bad publicity
Title: Re: Space yays
Post by: dubsartur on March 13, 2024, 04:41:35 PM
NASA's safety culture after Apollo 11 is a weird mix of safety-conscious (carefully calculating incremental increases in cancer risk to International Space Station crew) and reckless (all those deaths in the Shuttle program)
Is this something that's actually traceable as a single block change, or is it more that it's gone through several phases since? We're quite a few careers down the line from Apollo 11 now!
Simultaneous in different parts of the organization!  They lost the Columbia  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster)while teams were carefully trying to calculate obscure long-term health risks to highly-paid idealistic volunteers.

Maybe because of its origins, NASA is always centred around a prestige project (Apollo, Space Shuttle, ISS, Artemis) and when that project gets into trouble management makes choices which are bad for science and space capabilities but good for covering their butts.  Currently they are cancelling a $20m science project (Chandra X-ray telescope) to have MAWR BUDGET for the Moon/Mars plan.

More budget would probably help, but giant prestige projects are prone to delays, budget shortfalls, and deadly engineering failures.

Edit: fediverse thread on moon dust and its effects on breathing and equipment https://mastodon.green/@AnarchoCatgirlism@transfem.social/112057068231111010