Space: The Final Frontier

[Dr. Gonzo]

I think the strangest thing about space right now is the space race between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Two dickhead billionaires trying to prove to the other they've got the biggest & best rocket 

[nudge+]

25 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I think the strangest thing about space right now is the space race between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Two dickhead billionaires trying to prove to the other they've got the biggest & best rocket 

With the difference being, one actually builds things that fly while the other can't even launch anything into orbit  

[Dr. Gonzo]

2 minutes ago, nudge said:

With the difference being, one actually builds things that fly while the other can't even launch anything into orbit  

Yeah apparently Jeff Bezos is doing an official protest with NASA over Musk's company winning a contract... but it's tough to say he has merit when he get anything up into space.

I hate Elon Musk (and the bald Amazon dickhead) but I like the idea of space exploration... so if NASA could manage to carry on without needing SpaceX doing so much for them (which at this point is like hoping for unicorns to show up, never gonna fucking happen) I'd like that more.

[Danny]

1 hour ago, nudge said:

Exciting, hopefully all goes well... 

 

Space wars here we come

[nudge+]

Just now, Dr. Gonzo said:

Yeah apparently Jeff Bezos is doing an official protest with NASA over Musk's company winning a contract... but it's tough to say he has merit when he get anything up into space.

I hate Elon Musk (and the bald Amazon dickhead) but I like the idea of space exploration... so if NASA could manage to carry on without needing SpaceX doing so much for them (which at this point is like hoping for unicorns to show up, never gonna fucking happen) I'd like that more.

I don't like any of them either, but you have to admit that SpaceX is a very well organised and run engineering company that finds and employs very talented people and gives them responsibility and freedom to do things. I believe that private sector in general is the future of spaceflight, as government agencies like NASA are sadly heavily dependent on politicians and thus face obstacles and limitations that private companies don't. In an ideal scenario, NASA should do the exploratory science and technology development, then hand the lessons learned to private industry to commercialise it and make it more affordable in a long run. With more and more countries (both government agencies and private sector) getting into space, this will hopefully be the golden age of space exploration again.

As for Bezos/Blue Origin protesting NASA's lunar lander contract decision, I don't think they have any grounds for it. SpaceX's proposal was most capable, safest, most in line with NASA's future plans, and, most importantly, cheapest. Hopefully all this legal nonsense won't delay Artemis for longer.

[nudge+]

6 minutes ago, Danny said:

Space wars here we come

Relax, it's not a Death Star

[Danny]

2 minutes ago, nudge said:

Relax, it's not a Death Star

Give it a few years 

[Dr. Gonzo]

3 minutes ago, nudge said:

I don't like any of them either, but you have to admit that SpaceX is a very well organised and run engineering company that finds and employs very talented people and gives them responsibility and freedom to do things. I believe that private sector in general is the future of spaceflight, as government agencies like NASA are sadly heavily dependent on politicians and thus face obstacles and limitations that private companies don't. In an ideal scenario, NASA should do the exploratory science and technology development, then hand the lessons learned to private industry to commercialise it and make it more affordable in a long run. With more and more countries (both government agencies and private sector) getting into space, this will hopefully be the golden age of space exploration again.

As for Bezos/Blue Origin protesting NASA's lunar lander contract decision, I don't think they have any grounds for it. SpaceX's proposal was most capable, safest, most in line with NASA's future plans, and, most importantly, cheapest. Hopefully all this legal nonsense won't delay Artemis for longer.

I don't trust billionaires, but I also don't trust governments, so I guess for me there's no real ideal scenario.

Regarding the protest, I believe he doesn't have any factual grounds why Blue Origin should have been selected over SpaceX - but have heard the protest has some merit based purely on a technicality based on the way the government went about awarding the contract... and the protest may be able to move forward purely on that technicality. Which yeah, it's just legal nonsense - but I do think it'll cause at least some delays.

It's silly though because if it's between the two companies, how do you not expect NASA to select the one that's sent things into orbit, has worked with NASA already, and is proposing a lower cost to the taxpayers? But there's rules on how the US government goes about awarding contracts and it looks like Bezos wants to be a thorn in the side of Musk and force an issue on a technicality.

The probably end result though will still be SpaceX getting selected - it'll just have taken a few months to sort out & probably end up costing more money.

[nudge+]

1 minute ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I don't trust billionaires, but I also don't trust governments, so I guess for me there's no real ideal scenario.

Regarding the protest, I believe he doesn't have any factual grounds why Blue Origin should have been selected over SpaceX - but have heard the protest has some merit based purely on a technicality based on the way the government went about awarding the contract... and the protest may be able to move forward purely on that technicality. Which yeah, it's just legal nonsense - but I do think it'll cause at least some delays.

It's silly though because if it's between the two companies, how do you not expect NASA to select the one that's sent things into orbit, has worked with NASA already, and is proposing a lower cost to the taxpayers? But there's rules on how the US government goes about awarding contracts and it looks like Bezos wants to be a thorn in the side of Musk and force an issue on a technicality.

The probably end result though will still be SpaceX getting selected - it'll just have taken a few months to sort out & probably end up costing more money.

It was between 4 companies per se, but Boeing's proposal was deemed to be so stupid that it was not even taken into consideration  Dynetics - who I was hoping would win, as I like the company and their lander design was cool - were unfortunately unable to offer a budget-friendly proposal and had several serious design drawbacks, but most importantly, their lander essentially didn't have any payload capacity (negative mass allocation ). They are also challenging NASA's decision, which probably is a more or less standard procedure that rarely changes anything. It will all be likely delayed one way or another though, as I don't think SLS is going to be ready in time.

[Stan]

RIP Michael Collins. Aged 90. On the Apollo 11 mission he was the one who stayed back while Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon. 

 

 

[nudge+]

China's Space Agency has successfully launched Tianhe, the core module of the new Tiangong space station, into orbit  Once finalised (scheduled for 2022), the station will feature 14 internal experiment racks and more than 50 external docking points for instruments designed to gather data in the space environment. 

 

 

Images of the interior have been released:

 

 

 

[CaaC (John)+]

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These meteorites landed on Earth after a 22-million-year voyage

(CNN) - For the first time, scientists have been able to precisely map the flight path of an asteroid that landed on Earth and trace it back to its point of origin. The boulder-sized fragment's journey to our planet began 22 million years ago, according to new research.

The asteroid, known as 2018 LA, appeared like a fireball in the skies over Botswana on June 2, 2018, before breaking apart and landing in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

Prior to breaking up in Earth's atmosphere, scientists determined that the asteroid was about 5 feet (1.7 meters) in diameter, weighed 12,566 pounds and had been travelling at 37,282 miles per hour.

"As the asteroid broke up 27 km (16.7 miles) above ground, it was 20,000 times brighter than the full moon," said Christian Wolf, study co-author and associate professor from the Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, in a statement.

The study published last week in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

Researchers were able to locate the fragments, called meteorites, and study them. Their findings provide new insights into the history of our solar system.

Tracing an asteroid

FULL REPORT

 

[CaaC (John)+]

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Hubble Views a Dazzling Cosmic Necklace

The interaction of two doomed stars has created this spectacular ring adorned with bright clumps of gas ­– a diamond necklace of cosmic proportions. Fittingly known as the “Necklace Nebula,” this planetary nebula is located 15,000 light-years away from Earth in the small, dim constellation of Sagitta (the Arrow).

A pair of tightly orbiting Sun-like stars produced the Necklace Nebula, which also goes by the less glamorous name of PN G054.203.4. Roughly 10,000 years ago, one of the ageing stars expanded and engulfed its smaller companion, creating something astronomers call a “common envelope.” The smaller star continued to orbit inside its larger companion, increasing the bloated giant’s rotation rate until large parts of it spun outwards into space. This escaping ring of debris formed the Necklace Nebula, with particularly dense clumps of gas-forming the bright “diamonds” around the ring.

The pair of stars which created the Necklace Nebula remain so close together – separated by only several million miles – that they appear as a single bright dot in the centre of this image. Despite their close encounter, the stars are still furiously whirling around each other, completing an orbit in just over a day.

Hubble previously released an image of the Necklace Nebula, but this new image uses advanced processing techniques to create an improved and fresh view of this intriguing object. The composite image includes several exposures from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-views-a-dazzling-cosmic-necklace

 

[CaaC (John)+]

NASA

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: That's no sunspot. It's the International Space Station (ISS) caught passing in front of the Sun. Sunspots, individually, have a dark central umbra, a lighter surrounding penumbra, and no Dragon capsules attached. By contrast, the ISS is a complex and multi-spired mechanism, one of the largest and most complicated spacecraft ever created by humanity. Also, sunspots circle the Sun, whereas the ISS orbits the Earth. Transiting the Sun is not very unusual for the ISS, which orbits the Earth about every 90 minutes, but getting one's location, timing and equipment just right for a great image is rare. The featured picture combined three images all taken from the same location and at nearly the same time. One image -- overexposed -- captured the faint prominences seen across the top of the Sun, a second image -- underexposed -- captured the complex texture of the Sun's chromosphere, while the third image -- the hardest to get -- captured the space station as it shot across the Sun in a fraction of a second. Close inspection of the space station's silhouette even reveals a docked Dragon Crew capsule.

 

Edited May 4, 2021 by CaaC (John)

[CaaC (John)+]

 

[CaaC (John)+]

 

[nudge+]

Starship SN15 nailed the landing! There was a small post-landing fire (methane leak?), but they managed to extinguish it quickly.

 

 

 

[CaaC (John)+]

11 hours ago, nudge said:

Starship SN15 nailed the landing! There was a small post-landing fire (methane leak?), but they managed to extinguish it quickly.

 

 

 

I still get worried about these fires and explosions on landing, to me, it seems a long way off of being 100% safe for human travel. 

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14 hours ago, CaaC (John) said:

I still get worried about these fires and explosions on landing, to me, it seems a long way off of being 100% safe for human travel. 

Sorry, I read your post in the morning, then fell asleep again and forgot all about it

I think they're doing just fine... They are conducting plenty of tests and test flights, constantly improving things, and more are planned for the near future. All these failures, explosions and post landing fires provide a shitload of data the engineers can learn from. The most interesting thing will be launching Starship into orbit; if they can successfully do that this year, then I can see it being ready for manned flight by 2023/2024.

[CaaC (John)+]

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Micrometeorites: a constant barrage

There’s a lot of space dust falling on Earth every year. Good thing most of it is so small.

Ann Hodges was chilling on her couch in Alabama, US, one afternoon in 1954 when a meteorite burst through the roof and slammed into her side, leaving an enormous bruise.

It’s exceedingly rare to be hit by a big space rock – the one that hit Hodges weighed about four kilograms.

But scientists have found the Earth is under constant bombardment by thousands of tonnes of micrometeorites. The “cosmic dust”, though, is so fine someone might never realise it had rained down upon them.

A new study, “The micrometeorite flux at Dome C (Antarctica), monitoring the accretion of extraterrestrial dust on Earth”, has been published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Researchers have melted snow from Antarctica (where it’s exceedingly pure) and studied the hundreds of micrometeorites found in various layers, dating back to the 1990s. They concluded about 5200 tonnes of space dust hit the Earth every year, from comets and asteroids.

Lead author Julien Rojas told Scientific American they can tell which is which because the “dust from comets is fluffier than from asteroids”.

Australian micrometeorite guru Andrew Tomkins – an associate professor at Monash University’s School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment – says they’re so tiny you probably wouldn’t feel them shower down on you.

“The most abundant ones are the smallest ones, so they get exponentially more abundant the smaller they get,” he says.

“The really small ones are about 50 microns. Human hair is around 30 microns. Some are up to about 2 millimetres but they’re quite rare at that size.

“If you imagine a grain of sand on a beach and then imagine that coming through the atmosphere of Earth really really fast, most of them melt. The surface tension makes them form a little sphere.

“Some survive without melting, they slow down faster than they heat up.”

The late, great astronomer Carl Sagan once said we are all made of “star stuff”, which astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson echoed when he said we are all “stardust”. Tomkins says that’s also true of micrometeorites – but because it’s true of everything in the universe.

“It’s better to think about them as little particles of asteroid dust,” he says.

“If you imagine the early Solar System with more asteroids than today, there were lots of collisions going on all the time so there. Comets were quite frequent as well.”

The smaller the dust, the less it heats up on atmospheric entry, so it survives to sprinkle over cities, land, water and us.

Tomkins’ own work, on micrometeorites in the Pilbara in Western Australia, found they contain iron oxide minerals, which showed the Earth’s atmosphere 2.7 billion years ago contained a distinct layer of oxygen.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astrophysics/micro-meteorites/

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

On 06/05/2021 at 03:02, CaaC (John) said:

I still get worried about these fires and explosions on landing, to me, it seems a long way off of being 100% safe for human travel. 

It's probably better if shit like this happens during testing, better to have something worked on that considers all potential possible potentially fatal flaws then thinking you've got something perfect and overlooking it and killing someone (or more than someone).

[nudge+]

11 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

It's probably better if shit like this happens during testing, better to have something worked on that considers all potential possible potentially fatal flaws then thinking you've got something perfect and overlooking it and killing someone (or more than someone).

Absolutely. Also have to keep in mind that Starship is a completely innovative and unusual design in that it is both a second stage launch vehicle and a reusable spacecraft with capability of re-entering Earth's atmosphere and landing retropropulsively. The set of challenges it faces is, thus, also completely new in many aspects - and I'd say they've been doing pretty well so far...

[CaaC (John)+]

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11 May 2021

Voyager 1 hears plasma ‘hum’

The distant space probe has found a signal from the interstellar gas.

The most far-travelled thing humans have ever made, Voyager 1 is still transmitting trinkets of information to Earth. A team of US researchers has used this data to spot a plasma hum from the thin gas that occupies the space between stars.

“Voyager is sending back detail,” says Shami Chatterjee, a researcher at Cornell University, US, and author on a paper describing the research, published in Nature Astronomy.

“The craft is saying, ‘Here’s the density I’m swimming through right now. And here it is now. And here it is now. And here it is now.’ Voyager is quite distant and will be doing this continuously.”

Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause – the outer edge of the heliosphere – in 2012, entering the interstellar medium. This plasma that exists in the space between stars is fully ionised gas, which the Sun oscillates, creating clear ‘plasma waves. Voyager 1 is fitted with a detector for these waves, so it can collect data on the waves and send it 22 billion kilometres back to Earth.

But between the solar noise that Voyager 1 sends back, this team of researchers has identified a persistent hum from plasma waves that don’t come from the Sun – it is generated by the interstellar gas around the craft, instead.

“It’s very faint and monotone, because it is in a narrow frequency bandwidth,” says Stella Koch Ocker, a doctoral student in astronomy at Cornell and lead author on the paper. “We’re detecting the faint, persistent hum of interstellar gas.”

Ocker adds that this means the interstellar gas might be more active than scientists previously thought, as the gentle plasma hum Voyager 1 hears is fairly consistent behind bigger signals.

“The interstellar medium is like a quiet or gentle rain,” says senior author James Cordes, professor of astronomy at Cornell. “In the case of a solar outburst, it’s like detecting a lightning burst in a thunderstorm and then it’s back to a gentle rain.”

Read more:

• Interstellar space probe to boldly go even further
• Voyager’s impact is 1 + 2
• Reaching for the stars: Voyager at 40

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/exploration/voyager-1-hears-plasma-hum/

 

[CaaC (John)+]

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James Webb Space Telescope's golden mirror in the final test

The technological marvel that is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is going through final testing before being shipped to the launch site.

The successor to the mighty Hubble is due to leave Earth in October to begin a new era of astronomical discovery.

One of Webb's key objectives will be to catch the glow from the first stars to shine in the Universe.

To do this, it's been given a 6.5m-wide, golden mirror that engineers are now checking one last time.

The segmented reflector has to be folded to fit inside the launch rocket - that's how big it is, and the technicians at aerospace manufacturer Northrop Grumman want to be sure that it'll have no problems being straightened out again once in space.

FULL REPORT

 

[CaaC (John)+]

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Will there be wars in space?

Experts say we can no longer consider space neutral territory.

Australia can no longer assume that space is a peaceful place, one of the country’s top space analysts says, as the Australian Defence Force ramps up its space defences in case of potential wars.

In March, there was a low-key announcement about the establishment of an Australian space force. Last week, the Royal Australian Air Force appointed Air Vice-Marshal Catherine Roberts as the inaugural space commander.

There was a “general consensus” that a coherent approach to the militarization of space was needed, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Malcolm Davis says.

“The 2020 Defence Strategic Update… officially designated space as an operational warfighting environment,” he says.

“This has emerged simply because we’re seeing countries like China, Russia, and others developing counter-space capabilities.

“In other words, capabilities designed to be able to threaten our critical satellites in orbit. And so we can no longer rest on the assumption that space is this peaceful global commons that is untouched by military activity.”

The main threat in space is anti-satellite technology that can “hard kill” another country’s satellites by destroying them, or “soft kill” satellites by hacking, jamming, spoofing or dazzling them. That disruption to communications would affect everyone, including the ADF, who would be left without navigation and communication capabilities.

Former United States President Donald Trump was ridiculed when he unveiled the US Space Force – particularly its logo, which bore a striking resemblance to the Star Trek insignia.

But the need for space defences is taken very seriously. The 2020 Defence Strategic Update warns that “assured access to space is critical to ADF warfighting effectiveness, situational awareness and the delivery of real-time communications and information”.

Davis says space has long been militarized, with satellites used to support land missions.

“But increasingly now we’re moving into a period where space is contested, it’s weaponised, and we have to respond to that.”

The ADF has not released many details of the new space division or of the space commander’s role. Air Force chief Air Marshal Mel Hupfield said at the time of the announcement that a “space domain review” would be finished by Christmas.

“We’re certainly responding to the need to secure access to space and ensure that it’s available for all.

“We’re probably about three or four years behind where I would rather be… but we’re catching up quickly.”

The new space era in Australia is mostly focused on the space industry, and Davis says the industry will play a critical part in any space war because domestic rocket launch and satellite production facilities will allow the nation to restore communications if existing satellites are taken out of commission. 

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/exploration/will-there-be-wars-in-space/