nudge

You might really enjoy this article then: https://interestingengineering.com/why-didnt-jupiter-become-a-hot-jupiter It goes much deeper into detail of why Jupiter is where it is now and how our whole solar system is the way it is as a result. Very interesting and really makes you think!

That might be a bit too ambitious; it's 4 years ahead of their original schedule and for me that also sounds suspiciously like a stunt before the elections... Not sure they are going to pull it off even if they manage to get large additional funding needed. SLS is not going to be ready, the only way I could see this happening is if they went full-commercial but that is probably not feasible. This will be interesting to follow for sure... It's funny though how the US politicians suddenly became so restless once they finally found out that their "adversaries" are way ahead of them

India joins the elite space power club by successfully testing the completely indigenous Anti-Satellite (A-SAT) missile today. Becomes only the fourth country in the world to have demonstrated such capability after the US, Russia and China. @Mel81x @IgnisExcubitor @AMG

Immediately thought of you when I saw the trailer I got interested because Michael Emerson is in it too so I will give it a go as well!

@Eco you might want to check it out.

In this case? Sure. Max is overly self-confident and a bit arrogant, just like most of the best F1 drivers before him. The question is, why is Rosberg all over the media again with pointless comments? Complaining about how Mercedes treated Schumi "better" than him (geez I wonder why), claiming that Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda were clueless when they first joined Mercedes. For someone who couldn't handle the heat he surely seems to crave attention now.

Mimimimimi. I see Nico Rosberg is turning into a Jacques Villeneuve. For someone who retired to keep away from F1 media circus he surely tries to attract attention way too much lately with his "controversial" remarks on Schumi, Lauda, Wolff, and now Verstappen.

Lada was class affordable, reliable, easy to maintain and modify. First car I ever driven as a child. They were pretty much a carbon copy of old Fiats at that time, just with an updated inline four engine with an overhead camshaft. Not that slow for what it was either; you could go up to 150 km/h with ours and with a 1.3 l engine it's not even that bad... The modified rally Ladas are the best though

I'd absolutely love to see Porsche in F1 as an engine supplier but I really don't see it happening now that they are fully committed to GT racing and will be making their debut as a factory team in Formula E. Cosworth making their F1 return would be fantastic as well!

New study: The giant planet Jupiter was formed four times further from the sun than its current orbit, and migrated inwards in the solar system over a period of 700 000 years. Researchers found proof of this incredible journey thanks to a group of asteroids close to Jupiter. https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/jupiters-unknown-journey-revealed An interesting read.

Longest uninterrupted flight was 10-11 hours from Helsinki to Bangkok. Longest with one stop in between was over 24 hours from Phnom Penh to Berlin via Doha (including long time in transit). Add to that time additional bus and taxi rides to get where I had to and the total trip time was about 50 hours and I went to work afterwards... Never again haha.

For me it's mainly two factors; namely the budget available and the fact that I prefer staying in one place for longer time, especially when going overseas... Travelling Europe as a European is easy due to good and affordable transport links. I did a lot of it with my dad and went on countless road trips with friends; we also hitchhiked a few times when we were teens. Going to other continents requires way more time and money, and since Southeast Asia has always been my priority, I never really considered South America although I'd love to visit it one day. I want to properly explore China and Central Asia first though. Hate long-haul flights as well I'm due one in a few months time and the thought of spending almost 20 hours on a plane again is unnerving.

I love the beach but hate sunbathing. So when I'm there, it's either swimming or drinking beer/cocktails in the shade for me. A beach BBQ with fresh seafood at night is also great.

The Soviets landed numerous probes in Venus that not only survived the landing but also transmitted data and even took photos for over 2 hours in the 60s and 70s. It's challenging, but it's definitely feasible. With the advancement of technology (we already have the technology needed for heat and pressure resistant electronics and materials), there have been quite a few concepts for a Venus lander (including both "simple" probes as well as rovers) that have been proposed; at least two of them were even proposed as potential targets for the next upcoming New Frontiers mission, but were unfortunately not chosen... That's why I'm a bit frustrated with another orbiter (for the mission in over 10 years, nonetheless!) while we do have the means but are seemingly not willing to push ourselves further. What do you mean by saying that we can't go to Challenger Deep? We've been there before twice and are about to go there again with the Five Deeps Expedition! It's baffling considering how little media coverage that mission gets. The team already managed to go down to two of the five deepest points (in Atlantic and Southern oceans), are currently preparing to do the next one in the Indian ocean, the descent to the Challenger Deep is planned for May 19th and they will then finish the mission by going down to the deepest spot in the Arctic ocean in September. Can't wait until all that is made into a documentary. So in both cases (Venus landing and deepest ocean trenches), I'd say it’s not the technology which hampers the scientists, it’s the funding.

It's a bit underwhelming that all proposals only consider yet another orbiter... It would be really exciting to finally get a lander again; preferably one that could survive Venus' deadly surface for longer than just hours. I understand that the incredibly harsh environment brings a lot of challenges and I also realise that budget limitation play a big role here but it's still somewhat disappointing...

Enjoy your existential crisis.

That's one thing on my bucket list... Would love to see that.

Absolutely! I'm enjoying this latest "moon race" as it has a great potential to speed up the progress of further space exploration. India is set to launch Chandrayaan-2 (a lander and a rover) in April; they missed the launch window in January. Germany-based private group of rocket scientists and engineers are aiming to land two Audi-branded robotic rovers on the moon by the end of the year )beginning of 2020 looks more likely) and it will be the first mission ever to revisit the original Apollo landing site. Japan is going to launch a tiny impactor in December followed by a smart lander early next year. At least a few other countries are launching orbiters this year as well (Brazil; South Korea). And then of course we have Chang'e 5, the next step in China's moon mission that will bring the lunar samples back to Earth!

Latest update: The spacecraft has entered the lunar orbit!

Was it also tasty or just beautiful?...

Fucking hell. Fortunately they were able to rescue all the kids on time.

One of my favourite movies ever...

Is anyone else watching BBC's new travel series Race Across the World? Pairs of travellers have to travel from London to Singapore without flying, smartphones and with limited funds. One episode in and I find it very interesting.

Today I read about a very interesting new fuel-free propulsion concept called "The Halo Drive", which could make it possible to accelerate a spacecraft up to a substantial percentage of lightspeed using gravity assist of binary black holes.