# Earth, Moon, orbit, ISS, Space travel, etc.



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

I poked around for an appropriate place to post this video, and finding none, decided a new thread could be useful to contain all Earth-Moon and nearby space related stuff.

Yesterday SpaceX successfully launched their Dragon capsule on another resupply mission to the ISS (the livestreaming of the launch was very well done - lots of live cameras from the booster and 2nd stage, to the point where you could see the Dragon capsule separate and deploy her solar array).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_s_ZxVsCvQ

While that was happening, SpaceX also made it's second attempt to do a controlled landing of the Falcon stage 1 onto an unmanned floating platform offshore. 

*Oh. So. Close!*





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YouTube Video









ERROR: If you can see this, then YouTube is down or you don't have Flash installed.


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## macintosh doctor (Mar 23, 2009)

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this but Lavazza is planning to be the official coffee and espresso supplier of the ISS, by sending up a machine that can brew.. that should be interesting 
Astronauts to brew coffee on space station with ISSpresso machine | collectSPACE

A Giant Step for Coffee Lovers: Italian Espresso Headed To Space - ABC News


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

I think we're getting into that Wild, Wild West of Outer Space shortly with tones of private interests heading out. Waiting for the Google Mars Mission...


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

Thanks to your earlier post and NSA link yesterday CM, and it's bookmarked!!, I was able to watch the launch live. But missed the recovery footage that has to be like finding a marble or postage stamp in the middle of the Canadian hayfields to land on. Quite amazing and still an accomplishment deserving a lot of praise.


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Agreed, pm-r, I really appreciate your space updates, CubaMark.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

macfury said:


> agreed, pm-r, i really appreciate your space updates, cubamark.


+1.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Company Gets Patent for 12-Mile-High Space Elevator*

​
*A Canadian company* best known for building tiny objects suitable for outer space has just earned a US patent on something distinctly grander: a 12-mile-high inflatable space elevator held up not by cables but by pressurized segments, reports fastcoexist.com. That's more than 20 times taller than the world’s current tallest building, the nearly 3,000-foot-tall Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai. So why a space elevator? Because rockets (and, presumably, the space tourists inside them) require less force to launch when starting that much closer to the destination. "Landing at 12 miles above sea level will make space flight more like taking a passenger jet," says Thoth Technology CEO Caroline Roberts in a press release.

The inventor says astronauts would reach the top via electrical elevator, from where rockets can launch in a single stage to orbit as well as return to refuel. If this seems far-fetched, it's actually less ambitious than Obayashi Corporation's hope to build a space elevator a quarter of the way to the moon by 2050, reports CNET. Even so, Thoth's ambition still requires building just beyond what is known as the "Armstrong Limit," or "the point at which atmospheric pressure is so low that your bodily fluids would boil off without a protective suit," reports Global Construction Review. The idea is gaining so much traction that Seattle is actually hosting a Space Elevator Conference later this month. (Obayashi plans to construct its space elevator not from Earth but from, well, space.)​
(CNet via Newser)


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Those of you with an interest in spaceflight may find this interesting.










On November 13, 2015, something is going to smack into the Ocean *really close* to Sri Lanka.

Most likely, it's a spent third-stage booster that someone on earth sent up there....

No, it's not Snoopy!

Here's a good read: WT1190F FAQs

And more from Universe Today


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_I'm surprised this isn't bigger news. NASA has eliminated Boeing and Lockheed-Martin —two industry heavyweights— from the competition for a contract to supply ISS cargo run services, leaving three relative newcomers in the running: _








*NASA Cuts Boeing From Competition To Deliver International Space Station Cargo*

Boeing Company is one of the five companies initially competing for the CRS-2. Boeing's submission included the use of its modified CST-100 Starliner unmanned spacecraft to transport NASA astronauts back and forth the ISS. The news came as another blow to Boeing who also lost in the Pentagon's Long Range Strike Bomber competition, which is believed to be an $80 billion contract.

"We received a letter from NASA and are out of CRS-2. I don't think we'll know the 'why' until our debrief with NASA," wrote Boeing spokeswoman Kelly Kaplan in an email statement.

Industry rumors have been circulating that the submission from Lockheed Martin Space Systems was quietly eliminated. This leaves three companies – Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX and Orbital ATK – in the running for the two remaining contracts that will complete the U.S. spacecraft which will resupply the ISS from 2018 to 2024. Orbital and SpaceX won the original CRS contracts in 2008.​
(TechTimes)


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

The amount of junk up there . . .

Lockheed opens space debris tracking facility in Australia - Aerospace Technology


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

SINC said:


> The amount of junk up there . . .
> 
> Lockheed opens space debris tracking facility in Australia - Aerospace Technology


It really is astounding.


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

SINC said:


> The amount of junk up there . . .
> 
> Lockheed opens space debris tracking facility in Australia - Aerospace Technology



And that's not even one half of it all, the rest is over on the other side… 

Sure lots of stuff to dodge. 

We saw the movie of all the space junk at the iMax theater a while ago — just mind blogging how much stuff is up there and how much damage just a tiny piece can do…


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Tracking down a mystery:

https://dailynewsgallery.com/scienc...ing-mysterious-radio-pulses-from-outer-space/


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*China wants to share its new space station with the world*










China is launching a rival to the International Space Station (ISS) – and it wants to share its new toy.

The China Manned Space Agency and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) have announced a partnership that will let UN member states conduct experiments on and even send astronauts to the Chinese space station, due to start operating in the 2020s.

The UN and China say they are keen to get more nations involved in space activities. “This is an exciting opportunity to further build the space capacity of developing countries and increase understanding of the benefits space can bring to humankind,” said UNOOSA director Simonetta Di Pippo.

China is excluded from the ISS because of a US government ban on its participation. It’s not clear if the other ISS partners – Russia, Japan, Canada and the member countries of the European Space Agency – will have access to China’s station.

Later this year China will launch space lab Tiangong-2 to practise the skills needed to build the station.​
(New Scientist)


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

It's fairly easy to make a generous offer for a station that hasn't been built or launched yet!


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Macfury said:


> It's fairly easy to make a generous offer for a station that hasn't been built or launched yet!


Well.... _actually_....

The Tiangong project has been underway for some time now, with Tiangong 1, the first test module still in orbit despite having been scheduled for de-orbit in 2013.

The recent announcement that China is looking for partners (since they're banned from ISS partnerships) is a step toward cooperation and shared costs that will enable them to move fairly quickly.

At least the Chinese can get themselves into orbit, unlike some other folks we could mention.... :lmao:


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## chasMac (Jul 29, 2008)

Space travel will shortly become the purview of nations not responsible to an electorate. Kinda like hosting the Olympics has become.


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

chasMac said:


> Space travel will shortly become the purview of nations not responsible to an electorate. Kinda like hosting the Olympics has become.


Or companies. I'm counting on the Google manned mission to Mars.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*New NASA network poised to bring internet to entire solar system*










NASA has made significant progress toward establishing a more reliable, and potentially solar-system-spanning communication system with the installation of a new breed of data network aboard the International Space Station (ISS). As its name suggests, the Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) service allows for the storage of partial pieces of information in the nodes along a communication path, which will allow for faster and more stable transmissions.

The system has been integrated with the ISS's Telescience Resource Kit and represents over 10 years of work from NASA and its partners as part of the agency's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) program. AES seeks to develop technologies that could be instrumental in the future exploration of our solar system.

The more traditional internet protocol system previously used by astronauts aboard the station required each node of a network to be available at the same time in order for data to be transferred. For astronauts communicating from the ISS, these nodes are often satellites, which can be unavailable for any number of reasons, leading to significant disruptions in communications.

The DTN's ability to store and send partial bundles of information as and when a node becomes available has the potential to significantly reduce communication latency, allowing for a greater level of data availability and superior bandwidth utilization​
(Gizmag)


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*The Dutch Are Going To The Moon With The Chinese*

One of the defining characteristics of the New Space era is partnerships. Whether it is between the private and public sector, different space agencies, or different institutions across the world, collaboration has become the cornerstone to success. Consider the recent agreement between the Netherlands Space Office (NSO) and the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA) that was announced earlier this week.

In an agreement made possible by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2015 between the Netherlands and China, a Dutch-built radio antenna will travel to the Moon aboard the Chinese Chang’e 4 satellite, which is scheduled to launch in 2018. Once the lunar exploration mission reaches the Moon, it will deposit the radio antenna on the far side, where it will begin to provide scientists with fascinating new views of the Universe.

The radio antenna itself is also the result of collaboration, between scientists from Radboud University, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) and the small satellite company Innovative Solutions in Space (ISIS). After years of research and development, these three organizations have produced an instrument which they hope will usher in a new era of radio astronomy.

* * *​
very little is known about this part of the electromagnetic spectrum. As a result, the Dutch radio antenna could be the first to provide information on the development of the earliest structures in the Universe. It is also the first instrument to be sent into space as part of a Chinese space mission.​
(Universe Today)


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Slave labour brings the price of space exploration way down!


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*China Launches Tiangong-2 Space Lab to Prep for 2020s Space Station*










China has launched its second-ever space lab, a key part of the nation's plan to have a permanently staffed space station up and running by the early 2020s.

The uncrewed Tiangong-2 spacecraft lifted off today (Sept. 15) from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 10:04 a.m. EDT (1404 GMT; 10:04 p.m. local Beijing time), riding a Long March-2F T2 rocket to orbit.

If all goes according to plan, the 9.5-ton (8.6 metric tons) Tiangong-2 — whose name translates as "Heavenly Palace" in Mandarin — will soon settle into an orbit about 236 miles (380 kilometers) above Earth and perform a series of initial tests and checkouts, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency. [China's Tiangong-2 Space Lab Mission in Pictures]

The space lab will then climb to an altitude of 244 miles (393 km) — the same height at which China's future space station will operate — and await a mid- to late-October visit from two Chinese astronauts aboard a vessel called Shenzhou-11.

(Space.com)


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Moon is nothing but Earth’s mantle relocated, new study claims*

A new study based on improved chemistry techniques has claimed that the leading hypotheses for the origin of the Moon isn’t correct and that Moon is actually Earth’s mantle relocated in space.

The study, which was published in Nature, was carried out by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Harvard University by developing a new technique that allowed for analysis of isotopes of potassium that can hit precision 10 times better than the best previous method. Using the new technique, which relies on finding the tiny differences in segregation of the isotopes of potassium between Earth and Moon, researchers report that isotopic differences between lunar and terrestrial rocks that provide the first experimental evidence that can discriminate between the two leading models for the Moon’s origin.​









If we look at the two models about Moon’s origin – the first one is a low-energy model that is based on the hypotheses of a low-energy impact leaves the proto-Earth and Moon shrouded in a silicate atmosphere. The second model is a high-energy one wherein it has been hypothesised that a much more violent impact took place and this vaporized the impactor and most of the proto-Earth, expanding to form an enormous superfluid disk out of which the Moon eventually crystallizes. The latest study supports the high-energy model and scientists behind the study claim that it was indeed the high-energy model that caused the formation of moon.​
(DailyCommerceNews)


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Did United Launch Alliance (ULA) sabotage the SpaceX Falcon 9?*

*SpaceX's Falcon 9 Rocket May Have Been Sabotaged*










Sabotage is now a possibility for SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket explosion at its Cape Canaveral, Florida launchpad on September 1, CNBC's Morgan Brennan reported on Monday morning's "Squawk on the Street." 

SpaceX has found some "suspicious" images from the roof of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) building that's located near the Falcon 9 launch pad, according to the Washington Post, Brennan continued. SpaceX wanted to investigate further, but ULA had Air Force officials check out its roof, and they said it was all clear.

SpaceX has "to consider all possible causes of the anomaly" the company said in a statement read by Brennan. ULA had not responded to CNBC's request for a comment at the time of the report. 

"All of this highlights the fierce competition between SpaceX and ULA," Brennan pointed out. 

ULA basically had a monopoly on government space contracts until SpaceX "sued for the rights to compete" and won, she explained. "They won the certification from regulators last year and have been snagging some massive business."​
(TheStreet)


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

While SpaceX gets the lion's share of the press, Jeff Bezo's "Blue Origin" spacecraft company keeps on sticking landings and tests. A great one today of the Crew Capsule escape test, and the surprising return of the booster to its pad in one piece (if a wee bit "flamey). The video is worth a watch:





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YouTube Video









ERROR: If you can see this, then YouTube is down or you don't have Flash installed.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Two Undiscovered Dark Moons Appear to Be Hiding Near Uranus


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

SINC said:


> Two Undiscovered Dark Moons Appear to Be Hiding Near Uranus


Cool! So many discoveries hiding in old data, just waiting or new methods of analysis.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Should be quite a show!

We're about to see a record-breaking supermoon - the biggest in nearly 70 years - ScienceAlert


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## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

SINC said:


> Should be quite a show!
> 
> We're about to see a record-breaking supermoon - the biggest in nearly 70 years - ScienceAlert


Have not seen our forecast yet, but precedent would indicate heavy clouds.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

While this morning's skies are partially overcast, tomorrow's forecast is for clear skies. Even so, I managed to grab a few of shots of tonight's moon.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*China's Shenzhou 11 Crew Lands on Earth After Month-Long Space Lab Mission*










Two Chinese astronauts returned to Earth early Friday morning (Nov. 18) after a month-long space lab mission that set a new record for their country's human spaceflight program and advanced preparations for China's first space station.

Jing Haipeng, 50, and Chen Dong, 37, who launched on board China's Shenzhou 11 spacecraft on Oct. 16, landed at 12:59 a.m. EST (0559 GMT or 1:59 p.m. Beijing time) in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. Their 32 days in space more than doubled China's previous longest crewed mission.

Jing, who is now China's first veteran of three spaceflights, and Chen, who was on his first mission, spent 30 days on board the Tiangong-2 space lab, working on maintenance techniques, conducting science experiments and speaking with students and government leaders on the ground. [China's Tiangong-2 Space Lab Explained (Infographic)]

On Wednesday (Nov. 16), the two taikonauts boarded their Shenzhou 11 spacecraft and undocked from the Tiangong-2, beginning a two-day journey back to Earth. Descending under a parachute on Friday, the Shenzhou capsule fired retro-thrusters just before safely touching down and tipping onto its side.​
(More at Space.com)


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Trump wants to get NASA back into manned space travel--perhaps back to the Moon. I'm hopeful.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

LAKE OF frozen WATER THE SIZE OF NEW MEXICO FOUND ON MARS - NASA - The Register


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Ice Sheet Discovered on Mars – MyKotori


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Very cool. Anyone else watching the National Geographic series "Mars"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfteeECf5U4


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Such a shame seeing the lack of progress on space travel during the last eight years, punctuated by the death of space pioneer John Glenn:

The Abandoned Frontier :: SteynOnline



> Soon they will all be gone: the last participants in the human race's most astonishing, most audacious, most wonderfully inspirational adventure to date.
> 
> Gone with them will be the memory of a U.S.A. that could accomplish such marvels, in those last years of heroic national vigor, before we turned our energies to guilt and rancor and divisive social crusades, and to persuading ourselves and each other that in the human sphere, everything is equal to everything else.
> 
> ...


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*China Has Apparently Been Testing The EmDrive In Space*

China has claimed it is in the process of testing an EmDrive in space, a key experiment that could prove whether the controversial thruster works or not.

As reported by IBTimes UK, China reportedly has an EmDrive on its Tiangong-2 satellite, which was visited by two Chinese astronauts (taikonauts) in October this year. It’s not entirely clear what the experiment is doing exactly, but it’s sure to cause a stir in EmDrive circles.

China has apparently been testing out EmDrive technology for the last five years. That’s according to an article titled “Electromagnetic drive: Arabian Nights or a major breakthrough” in the official newspaper of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, called Science and Technology Daily.

* * *​
Now, we don’t know the veracity of all this. It’s also not certain what China is testing, nor whether they are saying it works or not. They may simply be checking out the various claims that have been made so far.

And, what’s more, the EmDrive remains controversial. It’s a purported reactionless engine dreamed up by British engineer Roger Shawyer in 2006 that works by bouncing electromagnetic waves inside a cone-shaped cavity. This is said to produce a tiny force, but over time this force could be used to power spacecraft on deep space missions, for example.

It came back into the fore recently with a peer-reviewed paper published in the AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power in November by NASA’s Eagleworks laboratory. However, that paper only sought to rule out several possible experimental errors, and there is still no proof that the technology actually does anything.​
(IFLS / Related: It's official: NASA's peer-reviewed EM Drive paper has finally been published - ScienceAlert)


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Astronomers have found the source of a deep space radio wave burst for the first time



> After a decade of bewilderment, astronomers have pinpointed the source of a mysterious blast of radio waves coming from deep outside the Milky Way: a dwarf galaxy located 3 billion light years from Earth. It’s a remarkable first in the study of what has been a tremendous astronomical puzzle. Scientists still don’t know what causes these deep space pulses, but locating the galaxy that spawned one brings us closer to figuring out where they come from.
> 
> First discovered in 2007, only 18 of these phenomena have ever been detected. They’re called fast radio bursts, or FRBs, because they occur for just milliseconds; their fleeting nature makes it tough to catch one in action, and even tougher to figure out the exact spot in the sky they’re coming from.
> 
> ...


http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/4/14158048/deep-space-fast-radio-wave-burst-frb-121101


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Coolest pic you've ever seen.










_During a recent calibration exercise, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a remarkable view of Earth and its moon from a distance of 127 million miles (205 million kilometers). It’s so clear, you can even make out our planet’s continents.

To calibrate the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Orbiter, NASA scientists needed to scan an object other than the Red Planet. Seeing as Earth is right next door, that was an obvious choice.

The image is a combination of two separate exposures taken on November 20, 2016, and have been moderately adjusted to make both objects appear equally as bright (otherwise the Earth would have appeared too dark). The combined view shows the correct positions and sizes of the two celestial bodies relative to each other.

That said, the Earth and Moon appear closer than they actually are in this image because the observations were made when the Moon was almost directly behind the Earth (from the perspective of Mars). The distance between the Earth and Moon is in reality about 30 times the diameter of Earth, or about 230,000 miles (370,000 km)._​
(_Read the rest at_ Gizmodo _for another image that shows the true distance between earth and the moon_)


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Just over 15 minutes to Space X's return to launch with Falcon 9!

Webcast: IRIDIUM-1 MISSION | SpaceX

*UPDATE:* 

*Wow. * Glad I caught that... a successful launch of Falcon 9, the 2nd stage now en route to satellite deployment (Iridium new internet satellite system), and the first stage made it back to a safe -bullseye!- landing on the drone ship in the Atlantic. And for the first time, the video on the first stage remained active all the way from re-entry to landing. Thrilling!

No doubt it'll be up on YouTube (here!) or SpaceX's own site by the time you read this... check it out, worth it!


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

I love the fact that this sucker lands vertically. Older cheap science fiction movies were derided for running rocket launches backward to depict a landing--that will look normal now. 

This is the one thing I believe Obama got right--the US should no longer be in the low orbit business when private companies are making far greater strides. On the other hand I believe the US should have turned focus on a manned Mars landing program. 





CubaMark said:


> Just over 15 minutes to Space X's return to launch with Falcon 9!
> 
> Webcast: IRIDIUM-1 MISSION | SpaceX
> 
> ...


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

> Just over 15 minutes to Space X's return to launch with Falcon 9!


Thanks for that Mark.

That is just incredible and hard to imagine such precision and accuracy.



- Patrick
==========


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Wow, just wow!


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## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

Macfury said:


> On the other hand I believe the US should have turned focus on a manned Mars landing program.


Wasn't any cash left after he handed out all those free cell phones...


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

An Enormous Atmospheric Anomaly Has Been Spotted On Venus


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

SINC said:


> An Enormous Atmospheric Anomaly Has Been Spotted On Venus


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

I remember watching with fascination as the Huygens lander was deployed.... but I had no idea how close to a disaster the entire mission came.

An interesting read: The Incredible Story of How the Huygens Mission to Titan Succeeded When It Could Have Failed - Universe Today


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Fun Friday ahead. 

Triple treat: Eclipse, comet, full moon all coming Friday night


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*Giant Radio Galaxy Discovered By Astronomers*



> (Phys.org)—An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new giant radio galaxy (GRG) associated with the galaxy triplet known as UGC 9555. The newly discovered galaxy turns out to be one of the largest GRGs so far detected. The findings were presented Feb. 6 in a paper published online on arXiv.org.
> 
> Located some 820 million light years away from the Earth, UGC 9555 is a part of a larger group of galaxies designated MSPM 02158. Recently, a team of researchers led by Alex Clarke of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics in Manchester, U.K., has combed through the data provided by the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) and uncovered new, important information about this distant disturbed galaxy group.


https://phys.org/news/2017-02-giant-radio-galaxy-astronomers.html#jCp


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## TiltAgain (Jun 27, 2016)

India just set a word record by successfully launching 104 satellites in one go. This happened a couple of hours ago. The previous record was held by Russia - 39 satellites.

Out of the total 104 satellites placed in orbit, 101 satellites belonged to six foreign countries. They included 96 from the US and one each from Israel, the UAE, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Kazakhstan. One of those satellites is Google's.

Among the foreign satellites, 88 cube satellites belonged to San Francisco-based earth imaging startup Planet. With the launch, the company has increased its fleet to 143 satellites which will soon begin capturing images of the earth's entire landmass, including India, every day.

Eight other satellites belonging to Spire Global, US, will provide services for vessel tracking and weather measurement.

The nanosatellites from Israel, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UAE are mostly technology demonstrators.

Here is an interesting article on the history of India's rocket launches. Specially interesting is the first launch centre being a church, and the rocket being transported there on the back of a bicycle. Isro PSLV-C37 record breaking mission run up: A history of rockets and launch vehicles in India – Tech2

Cheers


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Great post, TiltAgain (Used to be Tilt). The new space race is finally gaining some traction. Also this year, all the competitors for Google's Lunar XPrize have to launch before Dec. 31st, get a craft on the planet, have it move about and send back imagery. Lots to look forward to!


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

> India just set a word record by successfully launching 104 satellites in one go.



Interesting.

But that does make one wonder about adding to the existing huge collection of Space Debris and Human Spacecraft…

Latest News About Space Junk and Orbital Debris
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html

And the IMAX movie of not long ago on the topic was quite a entertaining eye opener. But I guess there's room for some more yet…


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*UAE launches project to put human settlement on Mars*










This is not a sci-fi movie.

The United Arab Emirates wants to establish the first “inhabitable human settlement” on planet Mars by 2117. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid said his country will spearhead the “dream” of landing people on other planets.

* * *​
A team of Emirati engineers have a plan to construct a city on Mars — built by robots. The UAE’s Mars 20117 Project will work to accelerate research in space science that could make such a settlement possible. The Emiratis said they will work with an international scientific consortium to collaborate on efforts to put humans on Mars, the fourth planet from the sun.

* * *​
he project will also seek to “develop faster means of transportation” between earth and Mars, and will examine how inhabitants of Mars will obtain food and energy.

The UAE previously announced a project aimed at sending the Arab world’s first spacecraft to Mars, to land on the planet in 2021. The planet measures just 15 percent of the Earth’s volume and experiences the solar system’s largest dust storms.

The Emiratis said the Mars project was designed to “serve humanity” and did not specify a budget fot it.​(Miami Herald)​


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Following up on TiltAgain's post above, here's a video of ISRO's satellite deployment. 

[ame]https://youtu.be/aYf_uyHQN5o?t=70[/ame]

_
India ain't no slouch in the space department, among its successes are the Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe and the Mangalyaan (Mars Orbiter Misson), a technology demonstration mission that was designed for a six-month trial, but has gone well over three years now with a significant amount of onboard propellant still available. It was also, compared to similar missions to Mars, ridiculously cheap (at $73-million USD).
:clap:


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Apparently a big announcement is coming tomorrow from NASA.

Nasa to host major press conference on 'discovery beyond our solar system' | The Independent


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Thanks for the heads-up, SINC!

Also, for those who missed it on the weekend, SpaceX launched CRS-10, a resupply mission for the International Space Station, from Pad 39-A, the site of the historic Apollo launches.

Full webcast (launch and 1st stage return): [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giNhaEzv_PI[/ame]

A nearby drone view of the Falcon-9 landing (very cool): [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glEvogjdEVY[/ame]


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

> Also, for those who missed it on the weekend, SpaceX launched CRS-10, a resupply mission for the International Space Station, from Pad 39-A, the site of the historic Apollo launches.


And landed right back on the exact same almost postage size pad!!!

That is absolutely incredible and I find it hard to believe how they did it, or on their landing barge previously!! Just amazing and almost unbelievable if and when one even thinks about that part!!


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Just a couple more hours to go:

Nasa to host major press conference on 'discovery beyond our solar system' | The Independent

Link to press conference:

https://www.nasa.gov


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

NASA Telescope Reveals Largest Batch of Earth-Size, Habitable-Zone Planets Around Single Star

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...h-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Wowzers!


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

I can't wait until they have more time to study and analyze it all. Very exciting stuff, perhaps even mankind's future.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year*










We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year. They have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon mission. Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration. We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year. Other flight teams have also expressed strong interest and we expect more to follow. Additional information will be released about the flight teams, contingent upon their approval and confirmation of the health and fitness test results.

** * **​
Once operational Crew Dragon missions are underway for NASA, SpaceX will launch the private mission on a journey to circumnavigate the moon and return to Earth. Lift-off will be from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Pad 39A near Cape Canaveral – the same launch pad used by the Apollo program for its lunar missions. This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years and they will travel faster and further into the Solar System than any before them.
(Full release at: SpaceX)​
** * *​*
*SpaceX Plans to Launch First Mission With Private Crew to the Moon*










During a teleconference, Musk said the passengers, whom he did not identify, paid what he would call only a "significant deposit" for the roughly week-long, 300,000- to 400,000-mile trip aboard the automated Dragon spacecraft.

The announcement comes five months after one of the company's rockets exploded at Cape Canaveral, Florida, destroying a launch pad and a $200 million Facebook satellite.

"They are entering this with their eyes open, knowing there is some risk," Musk said, adding that the company's success rate was still "quite high."

In a news release, SpaceX compared the passengers — who will not be accompanied by NASA personnel — to the famed Apollo astronauts.

(NBC)​


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

No time to investigate this yet, but maybe some interesting stuff?

*NASA released a ton of software for free and here’s some you should try*

https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/02/n...tware-for-free-and-heres-some-you-should-try/


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Interesting find and it's in Canada.

Earth's original crust: Piece from 4.3b years ago discovered


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

SINC said:


> Interesting find and it's in Canada.
> 
> Earth's original crust: Piece from 4.3b years ago discovered


Wow!! Such a find could really provide insights into the Earth’s early geodynamics


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Some scary predictions about the sinking of parts of California.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ancient-q...medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Some good work by a Brit teen.

UK schoolboy corrects Nasa data error - BBC News


----------



## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

SINC said:


> Some good work by a Brit teen.


There's anomalies in NASA data? Say it ain't so... beejacon


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Hmmm, an interesting event indeed.

Photos reveal more than 200 bright blue Arctic lakes have started bubbling with methane gas - ScienceAlert


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*SpaceX did it again... and for the first time.*










Today they launched SES-10, using a Falcon 9 1st-stage booster that had previously delivered a payload to orbit and returned to land on the SpaceX drone ship out in the Atlantic Ocean. This is the first time in the history of spaceflight that a 1st-stage booster - the most expensive part of the spacecraft - was re-used and successfully landed for the 2nd time. The main mission, delivering a satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit, was also successful.

Re-watch the webcast of today's launch here: SES-10 MISSION | SpaceX​
The "exciting" bit:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXWq4Ot2X30[/ame]


Details: Used SpaceX Rocket Launches Satellite,*Then Lands in Historic 1st Reflight


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Bravo! The US should be concentrating on a Mars or Asteroid program while the private sector successfully deals with near-space.


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Four Candidates For Planet 9 Located*









A concentrated three-day search for a mysterious, unseen planet in the far reaches of our own solar system has yielded four possible candidates. The search for the so-called Planet 9 was part of a real-time search with a Zooniverse citizen science project, in coordination with the BBC’s Stargazing Live broadcast from the Australian National University’s Siding Spring Observatory.

Researcher Brad Tucker from ANU, who led the effort, said about 60,000 people from around the world classified over four million objects during the three days, using data from the SkyMapper telescope at Siding Spring. He and his team said that even if none of the four candidates turn out to be the hypothetical Planet 9, the effort was scientifically valuable, helping to verify their search methods as exceptionally viable.

“We’ve detected minor planets Chiron and Comacina, which demonstrates the approach we’re taking could find Planet 9 if it’s there,” Tucker said. “We’ve managed to rule out a planet about the size of Neptune being in about 90 per cent of the southern sky out to a depth of about 350 times the distance the Earth is from the Sun.

** * **​
Tucker said he and his team at ANU will work to confirm whether or not the unknown space objects are Planet 9 by using telescopes at Siding Spring and around the world, and he encouraged people to continue to hunt for Planet 9 through Zooniverse project, Backyard Worlds: Planet 9.
(Universe Today)​


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*China's cargo spacecraft docks with space lab*










The Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft successfully completed automated docking with the orbiting Tiangong-2 space lab at 12:23 p.m. Saturday, according to Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

It is the first docking between the spacecraft and space lab.

Tianzhou-1, China's first cargo spacecraft, which was launched Thursday evening from Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province, began to approach Tiangong-2 automatically at 10:02 a.m. Saturday and made contact with the space lab at 12:16 p.m.

The Tianzhou-1 cargo ship and Tiangong-2 space lab will have another two dockings.

The second docking will be conducted from a different direction, which aims to test the ability of the cargo ship to dock with a future space station from different directions.

In the third docking, Tianzhou-1 will use fast-docking technology. It normally takes about two days to dock, while fast docking will take only six hours.

Refueling will also be conducted, a process with 29 steps that takes several days.

Tiangong-2, which went into space on Sept. 15, 2016, is China's first space lab "in the strict sense" and a key step in building a permanent space station.

Cargo ships play a crucial role maintaining a space station and carrying supplies and fuel into orbit.
(China.org.cn)​
* * *

*China's first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 docks as planned with orbiting space lab*
_Unmanned cargo spacecraft completes first stage of historic mission with successful satellite-guided coupling to orbiting laboratory_










China’s first cargo spacecraft docked successfully with the Tiangong-2 space lab on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency reported, marking a major step towards Beijing’s goal of establishing a permanently manned space station by 2022.

President Xi Jinping has prioritised advancing China’s space programme to strengthen national security.

The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft made the automated docking process with the orbiting space lab after it had taken off on Thursday evening from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan.

Professor He Qisong, a space security expert from Shanghai Normal University, said that successful docking is an important step in the future plan to send astronauts into space station by 2022.

“The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft is to deliver goods, but that is only the first step,” He said, “in the future we are going to send astronauts, and that is our final goal.”

(South China Morning Post)​


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*China Wants to Set Up a Base on the Moon*








China's lunar ambitions keep growing: *Beijing and the European Space Agency are discussing potential collaboration on a human outpost on the moon*, reports the AP. The secretary general for China's space agency, Tian Yulong, first disclosed the talks about the envisioned lunar base in Chinese state media, and they were confirmed Wednesday by an ESA spokesman. The director general of the 22-member ESA, Johann-Dietrich Woerner, has previously described its proposed "Moon Village" as a potential international launching pad for future missions to Mars and a chance to develop space tourism or even lunar mining.

China arrived relatively late to space travel but has ramped up its program since its first manned spaceflight in 2003, more than 42 years after a Soviet cosmonaut became the first to reach orbit. Last week, the China National Space Administration launched an unmanned spacecraft on a mission to dock with its currently unoccupied space station. I

t plans to launch a mission to collect samples from the moon by the end of this year, and next year it plans to conduct the first mission to the moon's far side to bring back mineral samples. China was excluded from the International Space Station mainly due to US legislation barring such cooperation and concerns over the Chinese space program's strong military connections.
(Newser)​


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Wow!

*Hubble just delivered one of the most gorgeous space photos ever*

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/hubble-just-delivered-one-most-gorgeous-space-photos-190005040.html


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Nice one, Don!*

And this morning *SpaceX* launched a US Military spy satellite - with new camera views on the rocket that were simply amazing. Once first stage separation occurred, we were not permitted to see the 2nd stage and further orbital mission deployment, but the 1st stage return and landing is really something to see with a new ground-based camera. Check it out:

[ame]https://youtu.be/EzQpkQ1etdA?t=696[/ame]


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Buzz Aldrin says: _Scrap the ISS. We gotta get to Mars!_

I was skeptical when I saw the title, but he has his reasons...

Buzz Aldrin to NASA: Retire the International Space Station ASAP to Reach Mars


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Meanwhile, SpaceX is getting their very big rocket ready to rumble....*

*SpaceX is building the world’s most powerful rocket, and it is nearly ready to fly*










The Falcon Heavy has been on Elon Musk’s mind for years: A rocket bigger than anything else currently in operation, only outstripped by the moon rockets of the Apollo program.

Too many years, in the minds of his critics. He’s been plotting the rocket since 2005, when he first mused about strapping three nine-engine booster rockets together to put huge amounts of cargo into space. When SpaceX’s first rocket, the Falcon 9, flew in 2008, strapping a trio together as a Falcon Heavy by 2013 seemed feasible to the company.

But the schedule kept slipping, and major accidents in 2015 and 2016 that destroyed Falcon 9 rockets forced the company to focus on returning that vehicle to flight. The goal is now to fly in fall 2017, but skeptics remained.

In April, keen observers of the rocket company’s operations spotted a large rocket stage in Arizona, en route from the company’s Los Angeles headquarters to its engine-testing facility in Texas. On Tuesday (May 9), the company shared a video of the first test of the rocket....

(More at: QZ)​


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

For those of you who have access to Facebook, here is a live link to this morning's space walk.

https://www.facebook.com/KING5News/...&notif_t=live_video&notif_id=1494510249405432


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

I agree. The ISS is pedestrian stuff. Time to go full Robert Heinlein and have private enterprise take over the low-orbit sphere with a profit motive. 



CubaMark said:


> Buzz Aldrin says: _Scrap the ISS. We gotta get to Mars!_
> 
> I was skeptical when I saw the title, but he has his reasons...
> 
> Buzz Aldrin to NASA: Retire the International Space Station ASAP to Reach Mars


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_If I had a wee bit more discretionary income, I'd be interested in this..._

*Pioneer Plaque: A Message from Earth*










On March 3rd, 1972, NASA launched Pioneer 10 into space to study our solar system and beyond.

Aboard the spacecraft was the Pioneer Plaque, one of the most ambitious pieces of communication ever conceived, serving as a “galactic greeting card”—should any extraterrestrial life come across it.

Today, there are only three plaques in the universe, two of which are billions of kilometers away from our planet, while the third is in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Now, I’m bringing the plaque back to Earth.
(Kickstarter)​


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Here we go again.

The weirdest star in space is acting weird again. Is it aliens?

This week a bizarrely behaving star began acting very odd again, sending scientists scrambling to train telescopes on it in hopes of solving its mystery.

https://www.cnet.com/news/tabbys-boyajians-star-alien-megastructures-dimming/


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

SINC said:


> Here we go again.
> 
> The weirdest star in space is acting weird again. Is it aliens?
> 
> ...


Tabby's Star — great to have a mystery to solve. These things are the spark that moves technology and techniques forward. I hope they figure it out in my lifetime


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*Feeding a Baby Star with a Dusty Hamburger*



> An international research team, led by Chin-Fei Lee in Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA, Taiwan), has made a new high-fidelity image with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), catching a protostar (baby star) being fed with a dusty “hamburger”, which is a dusty accretion disk. This new image not only confirms the formation of an accretion disk around a very young protostar, but also reveals the vertical structure of the disk for the first time in the earliest phase of star formation. It not only poses a big challenge on some current theories of disk formation, but also potentially brings us key insights on the processes of grain growth and settling that are important to planet formation.


Feeding a Baby Star with a Dusty Hamburger


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*This Astronomer Says We'll Find Alien Life Within The Next Decade*



> From highly trained scientists toiling away at research institutes to amateur enthusiasts gazing upward from their backyards, humanity boasts no shortage of people looking for life beyond Earth.
> 
> Add to that the massive size of the Universe - estimates range in the trillions of galaxies - and probability dictates that we should have already encountered another species by now. And yet, we still have no evidence that we aren't alone in the Universe.
> 
> However, according to astronomy researcher Chris Impey, this hunt for life beyond Earth may soon yield results.


https://www.sciencealert.com/this-astronomer-thinks-we-ll-find-alien-life-in-the-next-decade


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

SINC said:


> *This Astronomer Says We'll Find Alien Life Within The Next Decade*
> 
> https://www.sciencealert.com/this-astronomer-thinks-we-ll-find-alien-life-in-the-next-decade




And then, if they do, he'll add his name to the list of all those saying a similar thing, and all saying — I told you so.

And if nothing is found, they just won't say anything.

Not much has changed… except that Barnam and the Circus are now dead …


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Wow! Who knew?

*A Massive Lake Of Molten Carbon The Size Of Mexico Was Just Discovered Under The US*

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevor...as-just-discovered-under-the-us/#560a3998420b


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

> Wow! Who knew?



Well, the news was released quite a few months ago, but no-one has come foreword blaming the Americans for burying their excess carbon to appear carbon neutral.

But I'll bet there's also a heck of a lot of other nasty stuff buried down at those depths that hopefully stays there.

A Massive Lake of Molten Carbon The Size of Mexico is Discovered Under The US | Geology IN


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)




----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Hilarious Photo Of Mike Pence Ignoring NASA's Warning Sign Gets Brilliant Internet Response*










_(*EDIT*: Let's give Mike a break here. I mean, there are Trumpian quotes around the warning, how is he supposed to take it seriously?)_

(IFLScience)


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

If that were a real clean room, nobody would be entering wearing street clothes.


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)




----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

For those who like things that go "boom!" 

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ[/ame]


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Man--CGI explosions have nothing on that!

Very important work in the private sector.




CubaMark said:


> For those who like things that go "boom!"
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*Scientists have a new theory about how life on Earth began and it's pretty incredible*



> Scientists have suggested that interstellar dust capable of transporting micro-organisms across the universe is the source of life on Earth.​
> 
> A study led by the University of Edinburgh's Professor Arjun Berera has posited that bacteria and micro-animals, capable of surviving hazardous journeys through space, could be the source of life on our little blue planet.
> 
> ...


https://www.indy100.com/article/lif...ts-mars-creation-theory-big-bang-nasa-8068966


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

But where and how did those "micro-organisms" come from and how did they originate???


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

So... we are all tardigrades?


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

CubaMark said:


> So... we are all tardigrades?



Interesting critters and can often be found, using a microscope or good magnifying headgear, in the house gutters in northern latitudes. And the have extreme tolerances to extreme temperatures and conditions.


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*Bali’s fiery volcano could end up temporarily cooling the entire planet*

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-envi...-volcano-eruption-agung-climate?ICID=ref_fark


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Amazing pictures!

*NASA's $1 Billion Juno Probe Has Been Sending Back Some Jaw-Dropping Photos of Jupiter*

https://www.photographytalk.com/pho...ding-back-some-jaw-dropping-photos-of-jupiter


----------



## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

<snort>

Pardon me while I wait for confirmation from someone besides The Clinton News Network...

In the mean time, have at 'er. 

Former Pentagon UFO official: 'We may not be alone'



> A former Pentagon official who led a recently revealed government program to research potential UFOs said Monday evening that he believes there is evidence of alien life reaching Earth.
> "My personal belief is that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone," Luis Elizondo said in an interview on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Uh oh!

19,000-Pound Space Station Falling ‘Uncontrolled’ Back To Earth


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

SINC said:


> Uh oh!
> 
> 19,000-Pound Space Station Falling ‘Uncontrolled’ Back To Earth


XX)XX)


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_A rather pessimistic take on our potential to be a multiplanet species...._

*We’ll Never Colonize Space*

Look at this ****ing country right now. You can’t even teach kids about global warming in school without some official in a MAGA hat bursting through the wall to pass out free coal and scream DURRR FAKE NOOS. Silicon Valley’s brainpower is a ****ing joke. Rich assholes are far more obsessed with making money than making things that make money. We don’t have our **** together. We haven’t even managed to colonize THIS planet properly, and we already live here. We’ll never be a multiplanetary species.
(More at Deadspin)​


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

I don't know where to begin taking apart that idiot's rant.


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

SINC said:


> Uh oh!
> 
> 19,000-Pound Space Station Falling ‘Uncontrolled’ Back To Earth




A certain palace in North Korea could be a nice good place for it to crash in the middle of the night!!!


----------



## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

SINC said:


> Uh oh!
> 
> 19,000-Pound Space Station Falling ‘Uncontrolled’ Back To Earth


Washington DC lies within the potential target area. So some good may come out of this.


----------



## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

I agree. The Progs are holding us back... 



CubaMark said:


> We’ll never be a multiplanetary species.]


----------



## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

eMacMan said:


> Washington DC lies within the potential target area. So some good may come out of this.


Was thinking 564.5 miles NNE of DC, myself. Then give the land back to the First Immigrants...


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*A new pic, and an old pic, of Earth and Luna. The Messenger shot I hadn't seen - cool!
*
(Earth and the moon taken by OSIRIS-REx, taken October 2, 2017)









(Earth and the moon from Mercury's orbit, taken by the Messenger spacecraft in 2011)







(IFLScience)​


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_Well... no surprise at this news..._

*A Month After The Announcement, There's A Few Teeny Tiny Problems With Trump's Plans For The Moon*









(image via *Salon*. See also: Trump’s sinister plan for NASA)​
In December, Trump signed a directive that shifts NASA's focus from the 2030s mission to Mars to instead the establishment of a "foundation" on the Moon. A month later, the space agency still doesn’t know any details about this plan. There were no discussions of timescales or costs, so the plan is currently as vague as it can be.

The directive calls upon the NASA administrator to “lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities.”

There has been no announcement of either commercial or international partners. Also, there is currently no NASA administrator. NASA has never gone without a formal administrator for this long before. 

NASA's acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot, told The Washington Post that details will emerge in NASA’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget request coming out later this year. This leaves a huge gap of time where the agency is actually uncertain about its human exploration goals.

When asked about details of the moon program, he said: “We have no idea, yet.” The Bush administration told NASA to focus on Moon missions. President Obama set the agency on its Journey to Mars path. Now, the attention is back on our natural satellite.

“We’re always asked to change directions every time we get a new president, and that just causes you to do negative work, work that doesn’t matter,” former astronaut Scott Kelly, told The Washington Post. “I just hope someday we’ll have a president that will say, ‘You know what, we’ll just leave NASA on the course they are on, and see what NASA can achieve if we untie their hands.’”

Not everyone agrees with this. Lori Garver, the NASA deputy administrator during President Barack Obama’s first term, points out that changes to the space agency direction are just democracy and that implementing the new plans wouldn’t be a waste of time. She points out how the technology tested for the Journey to Mars, like the Orion Capsule and the Space Launch System, could be equally employed to a lunar mission.

The European and Russian Space agencies are collaborating on the construction of a lunar base. While no formal date has been announced, the drafted plans so far suggest that it might be a reality before the year 2030.

(Washington Post via IFLScience)​


----------



## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

I may be wrong but continuing to work on the moon seems to make more sense. You can develop for off planet survival much closer to home. Not exactly the same as Mars but probably easier to start on the moon.


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

wonderings, I also think the Moon is the best place to develop the technologies required for further space exploration / Mars settlement.

The issue is Trump's whimsical approach to space policy - as if he saw a shiny thing and said "let's go there!", but without any concept of planning, funding, clear direction for NASA, etc. This is the optimistic perspective. The pessimist would not see Trump's mercurial policymaking as just the outcome of a highly distracted mind, but of someone who has every intention of de-funding the space agency to the point of uselessness, particularly given NASA's climate science work that certain folks criticize as some kind of lefty conspiracy. The belief in the private sector's role in leading space exploration is very much in play here. The Salon article linked under the photo is worth reading.

With other countries rapidly scaling up their manned spaceflight programmes and looking to establish permanent moonbases, the USA strategically must put a few eggs in that basket.


----------



## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

CubaMark said:


> wonderings, I also think the Moon is the best place to develop the technologies required for further space exploration / Mars settlement.
> 
> The issue is Trump's whimsical approach to space policy - as if he saw a shiny thing and said "let's go there!", but without any concept of planning, funding, clear direction for NASA, etc. This is the optimistic perspective. The pessimist would not see Trump's mercurial policymaking as just the outcome of a highly distracted mind, but of someone who has every intention of de-funding the space agency to the point of uselessness, particularly given NASA's climate science work that certain folks criticize as some kind of lefty conspiracy. The belief in the private sector's role in leading space exploration is very much in play here. The Salon article linked under the photo is worth reading.
> 
> With other countries rapidly scaling up their manned spaceflight programmes and looking to establish permanent moonbases, the USA strategically must put a few eggs in that basket.


I get that, but seems like a pretty normal thing as they mentioned in the article you linked. Bush said one thing, Obama another and surprise surprise Trump says another thing. I would think they should leave that stuff up to NASA on what they think is the best place to start as we begin to reach out to the stars.


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*What's sending mysterious repeating fast radio bursts in space?*



> (CNN) - The only known repeating fast radio burst in the universe just got more extreme.
> 
> These radio flashes usually last a millisecond and have an unknown physical origin. People love to believe that they're from an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, and this hypothesis hasn't been ruled out entirely by researchers at Breakthrough Listen, a scientific research program dedicated to finding evidence of intelligent life in the universe.
> 
> Fast radio bursts in space themselves are not rare, but FRB 121102 -- first detected in 2012 -- is the only one that has been known to repeat. And the repetition is sporadic.


What's sending mysterious repeating fast radio bursts in space? - CNN


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Obama killed the Bush-era Constellation moon landing program in 2010 outright. CubaMark was silent at the time. See, Trump is just not decisive enough for him.



wonderings said:


> I get that, but seems like a pretty normal thing as they mentioned in the article you linked. Bush said one thing, Obama another and surprise surprise Trump says another thing. I would think they should leave that stuff up to NASA on what they think is the best place to start as we begin to reach out to the stars.


----------



## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

Sounds like back to back Obama terms! And, with Sock-Boy thrown in to boot. 

Wait...aren't they both Progs?



CubaMark said:


> ...without any concept of planning, funding, clear direction...


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*SCIENTISTS DISCOVER CLEAN WATER ICE JUST BELOW MARS' SURFACE*



> Locked away beneath the surface of Mars are vast quantities of water ice. But the properties of that ice—how pure it is, how deep it goes, what shape it takes—remain a mystery to planetary geologists. Those things matter to mission planners, too: Future visitors to Mars, be they short-term sojourners or long-term settlers, will need to understand the planet's subsurface ice reserves if they want to mine it for drinking, growing crops, or converting into hydrogen for fuel.
> 
> Trouble is, dirt, rocks, and other surface-level contaminants make it hard to study the stuff. Mars landers can dig or drill into the first few centimeters of the planet's surface, and radar can give researchers a sense of what lies tens-of-meters below the surface. But the ice content of the geology in between—the first 20 meters or so—is largely uncharacterized.


More on Wired.

https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-discover-clean-water-ice-just-below-mars-surface/


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

A 'potentially hazardous' asteroid is flying past Earth | Daily Mail Online


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*US Air Force says SpaceX not to blame for loss of Zuma satellite*

The US Air Force command that certified Elon Musk’s company SpaceX for military missions says it remains confident in the company’s capabilities, despite the disappearance this month of a classified satellite it launched.

"Based on the data available, our team did not identify any information that would change SpaceX’s Falcon 9 certification status" after "a preliminary review of telemetry that was available to us from" the January 7 launch, Lieutenant General John Thompson, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Centre, said in a statement to Bloomberg News.

While Thompson’s comments were carefully qualified — he emphasised that "the Air Force will continue to evaluate data from all launches" — they bolstered SpaceX’s position that its Falcon 9 rocket apparently "did everything correctly" in the mission code-named Zuma.

That may increase scrutiny of Northrop Grumman, which oversaw the mission and built the satellite as well as the coupling to release it from the second-stage rocket. Northrop has repeatedly declined to discuss its role in the mission. Spokesman Tim Paynter has said "we cannot comment on classified missions".

(BusinessLive)​
*Related: *

SpaceX sends mysterious Zuma payload into orbit
SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch date: Why is it delayed? When will the rocket be launched?


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Ought to be quite a site if the skies are clear.

Super blue blood moon, lunar eclipse and king tides: The West Coast and Hawaii are in for quite a night | National Post


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*SpaceX Aims to Finally Launch Falcon Heavy Next Week*










SpaceX has set a date for the first launch attempt for Falcon Heavy: *Tuesday, February 6*. The demonstration flight will lift off from the historic Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, the same launchpad that hosted the Apollo missions as well as multiple space shuttle missions. Falcon Heavy is the the most powerful American rocket since Saturn V and the shuttle, and the most powerful operational rocket in the world.

Falcon Heavy was first announced in 2011 with a planned demonstration flight in 2012. Although Elon Musk and his aerospace company SpaceX were overly optimistic about the time it would take to design and build Falcon Heavy, the California-based space startup has been making steady progress on the super-heavy-lift launch vehicle over the past five years. Now the three-core, 27-engine, 5-million-pound-plus thrust rocket is ready for its debut flight.

In December, the rocket went vertical at the launch pad for the first time, and over the course of the following weeks SpaceX conducted multiple fueling tests known as wet dress rehearsals, where the rocket was filled with propellant and all systems were checked short of engine ignition. On January 24, the company ignited all 27 engines for the first time in a static fire test, burning the rocket engines for about 12 seconds while the rocket was held in place on the pad.

Falcon Heavy is expected to cost about $90 million per launch, compared to about $62 million for a Falcon 9 launch. The new rocket should be capable of carrying 63,800 kg (almost 141,000 lbs.) to low earth orbit (LEO). These numbers would make Falcon Heavy capable of carrying twice as much mass into orbit as its closest competitor, the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy, which can cost as much as $400 million per launch.

But the most thrilling part of the next week's launch is probably not going to be the most powerful rocket in the world since the space shuttle erupting from Kennedy Space Center. Instead, people are flocking to Florida's Space Coast for the launch (so much so that NASA sold out $195 dollar tickets to a viewing party for the launch with a champagne toast and commemorative glasses) in large part to see what will occur after liftoff: SpaceX will attempt to land all three cores of the enormous rocket's first stage, with two touching down almost simultaneously on ground-based landing pads, and the center core descending shortly after to land on an autonomous drone ship at sea.

The demonstration flight of Falcon Heavy will carry a dummy payload, although a simple weight is too boring for Musk. His own personal red Tesla Roadster will be the payload, playing David Bowie's Space Oddity on repeat as Falcon Heavy attempts to launch the car to a heliocentric orbit near Mars.

(Popular Mechanics)​


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

This is the most important work Musk is doing, never mind the car sideshow. Launching the roadster shows a certain showmanship many entrepreneurs lack.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Macfury said:


> This is the most important work Musk is doing, never mind the car sideshow. Launching the roadster shows a certain showmanship many entrepreneurs lack.


Part of me hopes (but certainly doesn't expect) that Musk's Tesla Roadster is a cover story, and that the payload is actually a Red Dragon lander, apparently (supposedly?) cancelled last July.

*Why waste a Mars shot* when you could potentially pull off one helluva surprise and generate ginormous media coverage? If the plan fails, the fallback is the "Roadster in Mars (or solar) orbit for millions of years to come". 

​


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

A new SpaceX animation ahead of tomorrow's 130pm EST launch of Falcon Heavy. Expect to have a smile on your face by the end of this video 

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk338VXcb24[/ame]


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*The coolest damn thing I've ever seen.*

First, SpaceX successfully launches the Falcon Heavy.










[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c[/ame]


*Then, it lands the two side boosters in sync.*

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvTxQq8Wbe0[/ame]


And *Starman* is up there right now, riding through the Van Allen belts, and in a few hours they'll start the burn for Mars orbit.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M[/ame]


*I'm living in the freakin' future, man!*


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

How very Heinlein!


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)




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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*And a little more "wow" to top off the evening:*


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Another great view of the two side boosters returning to land at Cape Canaveral:*

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_kfM-BmVzQ[/ame]


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Incredibly, all of those 1950s science fiction films showing rockets improbably landing upright on the launch pad will seem normal to kids born hereafter!


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

CubaMark said:


> *Another great view of the two side boosters returning to land at Cape Canaveral:*
> …



How on Earth are they able to control them and to land with such pin-point accuracy???

Just amazing engineering and execution.

Congratulations to them all for such an accomplishment. :clap: :clap:


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

Macfury said:


> Incredibly, all of those 1950s science fiction films showing rockets improbably landing upright on the launch pad will seem normal to kids born hereafter!



Actually I never even thought they would try and land them any other way. Besides they would need to be upright to takeoff again.

Never gave it a thought otherwise so no change here. Just amazed that they could do it so well with the booster rockets.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*MF:* How true... we've been looking at that age of filmmaking as terribly naïve... guess we've been schooled! 

*pm-r:* AFAIK, the boosters have internal guidance, not remote control. They're giving precise GPS coordinates and other navigation instrumentation (onboard radar, for example), and go where they've been told to go. Truly amazing. That paired landing blew my mind....

Those particular boosters are "Block 4" revision Falcon 9 rockets... they won't be flown again. In the Falcon Heavy scenario, these Falcon 9s serve as boosters, but they are the same rocket used for regular satellite launching missions.

The centre-core, which was lost while attempting to land on the drone ship, also would not be reflown if it had been recovered.

The "Block 5" Falcon 9 rockets will be used in the next Falcon Heavy launch in a few months, with a paying customer (Saudi Arabia, I think?) launching a satellite into orbit.

In this Falcon Heavy test launch, the Falcon 9 side-boosters were rockets that had previously flown, were refurbished, and put back into use... the secret of SpaceX's ability to keep costs down to a point that their competitors have a looooong way to catch up.

On the next Falcon Heavy launch, the side boosters will be recovered, returned to their facility for refurbishment (top up the tank, fix the paint job!), and re-used for future missions. Pretty sure they'll be laid down for that part of the process


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

A close call?

*Asteroid flying by Earth will be closer than the moon*

https://nypost.com/2018/02/08/aster...medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

SINC said:


> A close call?
> 
> *Asteroid flying by Earth will be closer than the moon*
> 
> …



That's getting a bit too close, but sure thankful it missed. 

As the old guy said — why miss by miles when an inch will do???


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Here's a little backgrounder on how SpaceX and NASA are able to capture such amazing video coverage of launches & landings:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GZrrLW7lQE[/ame]


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

CubaMark said:


> Here's a little backgrounder on how SpaceX and NASA are able to capture such amazing video coverage of launches & landings:



+1!!!

Thanks.

Some nice talent, engineering and equipment used there.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Astronauts heading to space in about 5 minutes on a Soyuz launch.

_Andrew "Drew" Feustel, who has dual Canada-U.S. citizenship, is scheduled to blast off at 1:44 p.m. ET with fellow NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev._

Livestream here: *NASA TV*​
Background: *Canadian NASA astronaut blasts off for space station today* - CBC News


*Update*:


> Just watched the Expedition 55 Crew Launch to the @Space_Station on Soyuz. I know it's a night launch and all, but I couldn't help thinking how spoiled we've become with the excellent camerawork on the @SpaceX missions. @NASA


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Yerkes Observatory is closing its doors | Astronomy.com


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

SINC said:


> Yerkes Observatory is closing its doors | Astronomy.com


A beautiful building, hopefully they find a fitting new use.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Tiangong is coming down this weekend.

Here's a great blog to follow the projected impact location and time, with maps, etc.

*Tiangong-1 reentry updates | Rocket Science* (ESA)


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

CubaMark said:


> Tiangong is coming down this weekend.
> 
> Here's a great blog to follow the projected impact location and time, with maps, etc.




Not exactly a prolific site "with maps. etc." 

And hmmm…???? the statements from the ERA doesn't exactly give one much confidence about the dangers of being hit by the expired Chinese satellite TIANGONG-1 REENTRY…
"The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe's gateway to space."

1st: ” At no time will a precise time/location prediction from ESA be possible”.
2nd: “The risk of harm from this station re-entering are bordering on the infinitesimal.”

Now how did they get that conclusion I wonder if they don't know #1???
Just saying… 🙁


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_She's down. South Pacific ocean:_

*Chinese Space Lab Crashes To Earth *| NPR


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Some news bits of interest to this thread.

The *NASA / TESS* launch via SpaceX, scheduled for today, has been put off until the 18th while they triple-check systems. This satellite has to go into a very specific and unusual orbit, so they're crossing all the Ts.

* * *

SpaceX has announced the lease of a large patch of land where it's going to build it's BFR (Big F...... Rocket):












> Michael Baylor
> @nextspaceflight
> 
> SpaceX will pay $1,381,411 a year for land on Terminal Island in San Pedro to construct BFR. The deal was announced today and will be formally approved during a Board of Harbor Commissioners meeting on Thursday.
> ...


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_Tuesday SpaceX launch will be particularly interesting:_

*SpaceX rocket will make a pit stop 305 miles up to deploy NASA satellites before moving on*










Tuesday is the planned launch for a SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying two payloads to orbit — and this launch will be an especially interesting one. A set of five communications satellites for Iridium need to get to almost 500 miles up, but a NASA mission has to pop out at the 300 mile mark. What to do? Just make a pit stop, it turns out.

* * *​
The rocket’s first stage will take it up out of the atmosphere, then separate and hopefully land safely. The second stage will then ignite to take its payload up to orbit. Usually at this point it’ll burn until it reaches the altitude and attitude required, then deploy the payload. But in this case it has a bit more work to do.

When the rocket has reached 305 miles up, it will dip its nose 30 degrees down and roll a bit to put NASA’s twin GRACE-FO satellites in position. One has to point toward Earth, the other toward space. Once in position, the separation system will send the two birds out, one in each direction, at a speed of about a foot per second.

(TechCrunch)​
Catch the launch live on the SpaceX webcast

*12:47pm Pacific = 14:47hrs CDT = 15:47hrs EST = 16:47hrs AST*​


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*Meteor from Mars Shows Planetary Genesis, 4 Billion Years Ago*



> A Martian meteor found in northwestern Africa that is more than 4 billion years ago came from Mars, and bears the traces of the tumultuous creation of the red planet.
> 
> The chemical dating and analysis was performed by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and is published in the journal Science Advances.
> 
> ...


https://www.laboratoryequipment.com...s-shows-planetary-genesis-4-billion-years-ago


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

> Meteor from Mars Shows Planetary Genesis



So why isn't it a redish color if it came from Mars…???


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_The Chinese have flung open the doors of their space station (figure of speech):_

*China just invited the world to its space station*

At a time when NASA and its partners are trying to decide how long to maintain the International Space Station, China has taken the significant step of inviting the world to its planned orbital station. The China Space Station, or CSS, could become operational as soon as 2022.

"CSS belongs not only to China, but also to the world," said Shi Zhongjun, China's ambassador to the UN and other international organizations in Vienna. "All countries, regardless of their size and level of development, can participate in the cooperation on an equal footing."

Such an announcement represents potentially the greatest soft power threat of the last six decades to US and Russian dominance of spaceflight. In the public announcement of this policy on China's state news service Xinhua, Chinese officials said the country stands ready to help other developing countries interested in space technology—and in having their own space programs.

This inclusive approach (though just how inclusive an authoritarian government can be remains to be seen) offers a rebuke of sorts to the US government and the International Space Station. By law, the US forbids direct involvement between China's space program and NASA. Some at NASA want to change this, but Congress has established such rules to prevent technology transfer.

Now that the ISS may go away as soon as 2025, when the White House wants to end most of NASA's $3 to $4 billion a year support for station activities, China sees an opportunity to position itself as an alternative to nations with programs that cannot get their own people and experiments into space. This includes both developing nations as well as NASA's longtime European partners.

(More at ArsTechnica)​
*RELATED:* China May Have Sole Space Station After 2024


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Former astronaut criticizes lunar gateway plans*

A former NASA astronaut used an appearance at a National Space Council meeting June 18 to argue that a key element of NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon should be reconsidered.

Appearing on a panel during the meeting at the White House, Terry Virts said that the proposed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, a human-tended facility in orbit around the moon, wasn’t an effective next step in human spaceflight beyond Earth orbit after the International Space Station.

“It essentially calls for building another orbital space station, a skill my colleagues and I have already demonstrated on the ISS,” he said. “Gateway will only slow us down, taking time and precious dollars away from the goal of returning to the lunar surface and eventually flying to Mars.”

Virts wasn’t specific on what should replace the Gateway as that next step but called for an Apollo-like model of stepping-stone missions to return to the moon, with ISS, he said, serving well as the Mercury role.

“Now is the time to establish a program that will fill the role of Gemini, developing and testing the technologies that we will need to return to the lunar surface,” he said. “Unfortunately, the recently proposed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway does not fill that role of Gemini.”

Virts’ comments came after NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the Gateway played an essential role in developing a long-term, sustainable human presence at the moon.

“This is our opportunity to have more access to more parts of the moon than ever before,” he said of the Gateway, a reference to its ability to shift orbits using its electric propulsion system. He also played up the role of the Gateway in bringing in international and commercial partners while taking a leadership role in space exploration.

(Read more at: SpaceNews)​


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## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

CubaMark said:


> *Former astronaut criticizes lunar gateway plans*
> 
> A former NASA astronaut used an appearance at a National Space Council meeting June 18 to argue that a key element of NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon should be reconsidered.
> 
> ...


I am hardly an expert in anything space related but it seems to make more sense to me to try things on the moon first, establish a base of operations before jumping the millions of miles away to Mars and figuring some of it out there.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

wonderings said:


> I am hardly an expert in anything space related but it seems to make more sense to me to try things on the moon first, establish a base of operations before jumping the millions of miles away to Mars and figuring some of it out there.


There are significant challenges with establishing a settlement on the moon that need to be overcome: recent studies have shown the moon dust to be highly toxic to humans, and the regolith (dirt) is made up of particles that are incredible sharp and corrosive, potentially damaging equipment, space suits, and likely present problems for something as basic as entry / exit.

The article talks about the "Lunar Orbit" Gateway... my understanding is that the plan for the Gateway station was to position it in the Earth-Moon L1 Lagrangian point, not orbiting the moon per se. The advantages of a platform in space include the long experience with the ISS of rendezvous / docking / operations. Personally, it would make sense to me that the E-M L1 station be constructed first as a waypoint for lunar operations.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*July 20, 1969: Armstrong walks on moon*









At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its origins in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.” At the time, the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era America welcomed Kennedy’s bold proposal.

In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of scientists and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission, testing the structural integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft combination. Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned launch-pad test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three astronauts were killed in the fire.

Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged ahead, and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited Earth and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed to conduct a moon journey and landing. In December of the same year, Apollo 8 took three astronauts to the dark side of the moon and back, and in March 1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time while in Earth orbit. Then in May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10 took the first complete Apollo spacecraft around the moon in a dry run for the scheduled July landing mission.

At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. Armstrong, a 38-year-old civilian research pilot, was the commander of the mission. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas, a famous message: “The Eagle has landed.”
(History.com)​


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Yikes!

100 Foot Wide Fissure / Crack Opens South of Yellowstone, Near Grand Teton. Emergency Tourist Closures


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

CubaMark said:


> *July 20, 1969: Armstrong walks on moon*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*Supermassive Black Hole Caught Sucking Energy From Nearby Starlight*



> Astronomers have long had their eye on a group of stars that precariously circles just outside the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. And, in a discovery announced by the European Southern Observatory on Thursday, scientists say they’ve finally spotted one of these stars as it travels through the black hole’s gravitational field. It’s the first test of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity near a supermassive black hole.
> 
> The event, recorded in incredible detail, reveals how the extreme gravitational pull of a black hole affects light.
> 
> Einstein suspected that a black hole might be powerful enough to lower the frequency of light under extreme circumstances, and once again his theory has withstood the test.


Supermassive Black Hole Caught Sucking Energy From Nearby Starlight | Astronomy.com


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_I was just a young 'un at the time, but I'm surprised that I'd never heard of these cislunar space walks...._

*'Kind of Unique': Remembering Apollo's Deep-Space EVAs*










On this day in 1971, a fully-suited astronaut poked his helmeted head out of the side hatch of the Command and Service Module (CSM), named “Endeavour”, and into an environment unlike any other. 

Al Worden—one of three astronauts aboard Apollo 15, our fourth successful manned lunar landing mission—was tasked with retrieving film from cameras in the Scientific Instrument Bay (SIMBay) in the service module. To do that, the 39-year-old Worden had to clamber, hand-over-hand, across a distance of 30 feet (9 meters), and back again. 

And although the intricate feat of “spacewalking” had been performed several times by Worden’s day, up until 5 August 1971 all had been performed in low-Earth orbit or on the surface of the Moon. 

Worden remains one of only three humans to have made a “deep space walk” in the cislunar void between Earth and our nearest celestial neighbor.
(AmericaSpace)​


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Hmmmmmmm...... *

*Russia says space station leak could be deliberate sabotage*










Russia launched checks Tuesday after its space chief said an air leak on the International Space Station last week could have been caused by deliberate sabotage.

Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin said the hole detected Thursday in a Russian space craft docked at the orbiting station was caused by a drill and could have been done deliberately, either back on Earth or in space.

Astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a small loss of pressure that was not life-threatening.

"There were several attempts at drilling," Rogozin said late Monday in televised comments.

He added that the drill appeared to have been held by a "wavering hand."

"What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?" he asked.

"We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space."

* * * 

Previously Rogozin had said the hole in the side of the Soyuz ship used to ferry astronauts was most likely caused from outside by a tiny meteorite.

"We have already ruled out the meteorite version," Rogozin said late Monday.

The hole is in a section of the Soyuz ship that will not be used to carry astronauts back to Earth.

Energiya will check all its Soyuz and Progress cargo craft for possible defects, both at its production site outside Moscow and those awaiting launch at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, RIA Novosti state news agency reported Tuesday, citing a source in the space industry.

The ISS is one of the few areas of Russia-US cooperation that remains unaffected by the slump in relations between the countries and Washington's sanctions.

Currently on the ISS are two cosmonauts from Russia and three NASA astronauts as well as one German astronaut from the European Space Agency.

(Digital Journal)​
See also: MYSTERY SURROUNDS SPACE STATION LEAK AFTER REPORTS HOLE IN OUTSIDE COULD HAVE BEEN MADE BY A PERSON | Independent UK


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_*Now, this is pretty darn cool*_ 

*Syrian refugee chocolatier's treats are literally going out of this world*

Few companies ever pass the milestone of breaking into the outer space market.

But now, the Hadhad family, who fled their home in Syria six years ago, can count themselves among that group. 

Back in 2016, they opened up a chocolate shop in Antigonish, N.S., called Peace By Chocolate and quickly became a Canadian success story.

* * *​
On Wednesday, Tareq Hadhad tweeted a picture of some of the crew of the ISS enjoying their chocolates—as the space station floated 408 km above the Earth.

The picture was taken to commemorate the United Nations’ International Day of Peace which is being held on Friday.

The chocolates were taken aboard the ISS after Hadhad said he bumped into NASA astronaut and current commander of the ISS Andrew Feustel, who holds dual American and Canadian citizenship.

But most recently, their treats have reached a new orbit of success with astronauts floating in the International Space Station (ISS) posing with their treats in zero gravity.

** * **​
The success story is remarkable considering the family’s past. Hadhad, an aspiring physician, said he was forced to abandon his studies after a bombing destroyed his father’s chocolate shop in Syria in 2012. He and several members of his family then fled to Lebanon and spent the next three years in a refugee camp.'

They settled in Antigonish in early 2016 as Canada accepted a wave of more than 25,000 Syrians. The family opened the shop less than a year later.

“We say ‘peace’ is beautiful in every language. Peace is for everyone. Now we say that ‘peace from space’ is also doable,” Hadhad said.
(CTV)​
** * **​
*Peace by Chocolate*
How do we put this into words? Can't describe receiving these photos and seeing something we all created together floating in OUTER SPACE! From 🇨🇦 to the International Space Station - may we all renew our efforts to seek a more peaceful world and reach for the stars! #PeaceDay​


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

HEY! That's a Mr. Christie Maple Leaf cookie!


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

Macfury said:


> HEY! That's a Mr. Christie Maple Leaf cookie!


:clap::clap::clap:


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*2 astronauts safe after Soyuz rocket forced to make emergency landing*

An astronaut from the U.S. and another from Russia are safe after making an emergency landing in Kazakhstan following the failure of a Russian booster rocket that was supposed to propel them toward the International Space Station.

NASA's Nick Hague and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos lifted off as scheduled at 4:40 a.m. ET from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan atop a Soyuz booster rocket.

Roscosmos and NASA said the three-stage Soyuz booster suffered an emergency shutdown of its second stage. The capsule jettisoned from the booster and went into a ballistic descent, landing at a sharper-than-normal angle and subjecting the crew to heavy G-loads.

NASA said rescue teams have reached Hague and Ovchinin, and the astronauts been taken out of the capsule and were in good condition. The capsule landed about 20 kilometres east of the city of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.

(CBC)​


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Returns to Science Operations*

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/update-on-the-hubble-space-telescope-safe-mode


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

SINC said:


> *NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Returns to Science Operations*
> … …




It's just mind boggling to me, how they manage to plan, build and get everything all working properly, and even have the capacity to do such repairs. 

Just quite amazing.



- Patrick
======


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

pm-r said:


> It's just mind boggling to me, how they manage to plan, build and get everything all working properly, and even have the capacity to do such repairs.
> 
> Just quite amazing.


Literally what NASA did:

*NASA fixes Hubble gyroscope by turning it off and on again*

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Ph8zwpNyI[/ame]


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## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

*Kepler Croaks*

https://www.seattlepi.com/news/scie...e-planet-hunting-spacecraft-dead-13348776.php


> Officials announced the Kepler Space Telescope's demise Tuesday.
> 
> Already well past its expected lifetime, the 9 1/2-year-old Kepler had been running low on fuel for months. Its ability to point at distant stars and identify possible alien worlds worsened dramatically at the beginning of October, but flight controllers still managed to retrieve its latest observations. The telescope has now gone silent, its fuel tank empty.
> ...


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## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

Thought this was interesting.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/06/health/oumuamua-alien-probe-harvard-intl/index.html

Never before seen asteroid... or I guess it has a different classification now as there has been nothing like it. It reminds me of "the potato" from the sci fi story Eon by Greg Bear. 

I find myself always caught, I get stunned by the picture they show and then a few seconds later I come to my senses and realize it is just a computer generated image by a designer. I wonder how accurate those pictures are and I would love to actually see what NASA is seeing without the hype and sensation these pictures create... at least for me.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Standards of science journalism really bottomed out with this story. It's friggin' everywhere, and the astronomers at Harvard are likely now the laughing stock of their peers. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt, and attribute the more fantastic elements of this to the CNN science reporter who made this a "thing". 

The best imagery I could find of Oumuamua is this animated GIF:










Pretty hard to drawn any conclusions (or even decent hypotheses) from that...

There are some characteristics that have been inferred (e.g., that it is venting gases, like a comet, due to an unexpected acceleration after passing the sun) by its behaviour, but - a solar sail sent by aliens? I'd just as well believe that it's the remains of the Battlestar Galactica.... 

[ame]https://youtu.be/QsucUirycGg?t=166[/ame]


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## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

I think it's fabulous.

It merely throws into sharp relief what a bunch of clowns the entire Clinton News Network really is, when they can't even display professionalism on a non-partisan topic, let alone a partisan one.

Perfect... :clap::clap::clap:



CubaMark said:


> Standards of science journalism really bottomed out with this story. It's friggin' everywhere, and the astronomers at Harvard are likely now the laughing stock of their peers. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt, and attribute the more fantastic elements of this to the CNN science reporter who made this a "thing".


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## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

CubaMark said:


> Standards of science journalism really bottomed out with this story. It's friggin' everywhere, and the astronomers at Harvard are likely now the laughing stock of their peers. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt, and attribute the more fantastic elements of this to the CNN science reporter who made this a "thing".
> 
> The best imagery I could find of Oumuamua is this animated GIF:
> 
> ...


That GIF is what I was expecting to see. We are nowhere near the world of star trek where a simple enhance, or on screen will give us such clear views of things so many miles away. I wonder how they reach the conclusions they do? Without anything to compare from previous experience seems like it would all be a great big guessing game.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Earth has two extra, hidden 'moons'*










Earth’s moon may not be alone. After more than half a century of speculation and controversy, Hungarian astronomers and physicists say they have finally confirmed the existence of two Earth-orbiting “moons” entirely made of dust.

As they describe in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the team managed to capture snapshots of the mysterious clouds lurking just 250,000 miles away, roughly the same distance as the moon.

Researchers previously inferred the presence of multiple natural companions to Earth, but the dust clouds weren’t actually seen until 1961, when their namesake, Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski, got a glimpse. Even then, their presence was questioned.

* * *​
According to the new findings, each Kordylewski cloud is about 15 by 10 degrees wide, or equal to 30 by 20 lunar disks in the night sky. This translates to an area in space about 65,000 by 45,000 miles in actual size—nearly nine times wider than Earth.

The clouds themselves are enormous, but the individual particles that comprise them are estimated to measure just a micrometer across. Sunlight reflecting off these particles makes them glow ever so slightly—just like the pyramid-shaped glow of the zodiacal light that results from dust scattered between the orbits of the planets.










(National Geographic)​


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_*Better than most CGI out there.....*_

*ISS Footage of Soyuz Rocket Launch Puts Hollywood Directors to Shame*

In a video that looks like something a special effects shop would produce, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst has captured one of the most remarkable views of a rocket launch we’ve ever seen.

This extraordinary timelapse shows the launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket that took flight on November 16, 2018 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A Progress MS-10 spacecraft filled with 5,652 pounds (2,564 kg) worth of cargo sat atop the rocket, which is seen en route to the International Space Station.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouBfzCgXHgk[/ame]​


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Live coverage of the Mars Insight lander happening now!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGD_YF64Nwk[/ame]


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

CubaMark said:


> Live coverage of the Mars Insight lander happening now!
> ...




CONGRATULATIONS!!!! 

THEY DID IT, 
and quite a feat.


- Patrick
======


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## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

Woohoo! Is there a photo of the Tesla with them? :love2:



CubaMark said:


> Live coverage of the Mars Insight lander happening now!


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

For folks who want to see the latest from Insight, the Raw Images Gallery is here.

As of 7:00pm EST Monday, only one image available so far (the first received a few hours ago). The speckles on the image is dust and debris churned up when Insight landed (it came down on a bunch of belly rockets!). That image is taken through a protective lens cap, and future images will be much cleaner 








_NASA's InSight Mars lander acquired this image of the area in front of the lander using its lander-mounted, Instrument Context Camera (ICC).

This image was acquired on November 26, 2018, Sol 0 of the InSight mission where the local mean solar time for the image exposures was 13:34:21. Each ICC image has a field of view of 124 x 124 degrees.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech_​


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Another photo from the Mars Insight Lander this morning:


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

For anyone else who - like me - is anxious to start seeing data come in from Insight, it's helpful to check out the Mission Ops page, which gives timelines for the deployment of various instruments, etc.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Thanks, Mark, appreciate the link.


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Here are the first photos of actual life on Mars!


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

SpaceX has finished main assembly of it's new "Starship" hopper prototype - something straight out of 1950s sci-fi movies.










Some drive-by video in South Texas:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMceVIYsUZQ[/ame]

The final version of Starship (I very much preferred "BFR" - Big Falcon (*ahem*) Rocket) will be longer and "pointier" according to Musk. And once it's sitting on top of Falcon Super Heavy, man, that sucker is going to be one big candlestick....

Details at CNET


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

That is quite the ship. Looks like the one Flash Gordon used way back when.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Dr.G. said:


> That is quite the ship. Looks like the one Flash Gordon used way back when.


When I was a kid, I had a crystal radio in this shape and the top of the cone slid up and down to tune in the station. Things have come full circle in toy rocket shapes, I guess.


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

Dr.G. said:


> That is quite the ship. Looks like the one Flash Gordon used way back when.



LOL!!! Sure does!!

And, at least Flash Gordon's rocket had decent sized rocket thrusters, at least for its time, compared to the small ones on this newly designed thing. 

And check out the bulbous leading edge on each of those fins. 

Maybe the designers and engineers should go back to aerodynamic school.

Or use what has already been tried and tested:
https://kulturehub.com/elon-musk-starship-hopper/






- Patrick
======


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

SINC said:


> When I was a kid, I had a crystal radio in this shape and the top of the cone slid up and down to tune in the station. Things have come full circle in toy rocket shapes, I guess.


:clap::clap::clap:


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Just found a pic online of that very toy radio.


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

SINC said:


> Just found a pic online of that very toy radio.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Whoopsie.

High winds in Texas toppled the StarHopper (shiny thing at centre-left).










Musk tweeted that the mooring lines broke, and it will take a few weeks to repair the ship.

(Universe Today)


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

For those who missed it, here's SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo flight, which lifted off at 2:49am EST Saturday:

[ame]https://youtu.be/2ZL0tbOZYhE?t=2880[/ame]

The Dragon capsule (and it's "trunk") is slowly moving up in orbit to approach the ISS, where it will attempt an autonomous docking procedure (Soyuz does this, while previous SpaceX (non-crew) Dragons were captured by the Canadarm and moved into docking position.

Crew Dragon docking is scheduled for 6:00am EST Sunday morning - livestream at http://www.spacex.com/webcast

Details on the current mission from SpaceX.


*Meanwhile, back on Earth.....*

The SpaceX "Hopper" is vertical again after losing its nosecone... with a pretty significant change:










Follow SpaceX megafan Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo, who lives near the Texas testing range where the Hopper is under development.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Dragon has docked; ISS crew opening the hatch - happening live now at 8:05am EST.

*Livestream*










*Interior of the Dragon 2 capsule, with the hatch open:*


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Air quality tests complete; air in Dragon 2 is fine for crew breathing; they're powering up the ventilation fans and are now mixing the Dragon air with ISS internal air (no wind in microgravity; gotta give it a little nudge); Expecting crew to move freely into Dragon 2 sometime around 09:03am EST to offload the remaining cargo stored under the seats.

Canadian astronaut David St. Jacques is one of the three crewmembers participating today.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

For those who missed the action this weekend, Dragon 2 had a fabulous completion of mission - from its launch a week ago, to autonomously docking with the ISS, autonomously undocking from the ISS, performing the de-orbit burn, surviving re-entry, successful parachute deployment and splashdown in the Atlantic. From everything we've seen to date, a flawless test of the hardware and software.


















Coming up is a Dragon-2 in-flight abort test (April), and a crewed mission probably in June/July, delivering astronauts to the ISS directly from US soil for the first time since the Space Shuttle stopped flying eight years ago (last launch: 8 July 2011), with the aim of reducing (eventually eliminating?) dependence on Russia's Soyuz launch system for low-orbit access. The only other NASA partner working on crew certification is Boeing, whose Starliner capsule is planned for an April launch debut (unmanned) with a crew launch intended for August. Starliner is a capsule-development only - it's designed to be launched by rockets from various other companies, including SpaceX's Falcon 9.


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Has NASA stopped further rocket research intentionally now that Space X has been so incredibly successful with their technology?

It seems to me they have been far ahead of NASA for some time now and making miracle launches much cheaper than NASA ever did.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

SINC, NASA is going the commercial partner route on new crew launch development. SpaceX, Boeing are the top players in that respect. Blue Origin is also developing a reusable launch system and has had some successes, but apart from some limited funding from NASA, they're essentially doing their own thing. SpaceX has certainly upset the apple cart, pushing innovation in what was a very moribund industry. 

The US space industry faces a myriad of challenges from within and without: a lack of vision at the top; sporadic / whimsical presidential interest going back decades; corruption in the form of congressional ties to corporations that contaminate the process of choosing the right path forward (remember the US military and the problem of the tanks nobody wanted, but that were built to keep the war machine producing and factories running?). 

It doesn't appear that anyone out there can touch SpaceX in terms of reliability and innovation. Roscosmos' ongoing use of the Korolev Soyuz spacecraft is becoming increasingly problematic, since the 1960s-era designed craft hasn't been updated in any meaningful way since it became a private corporation after the fall of the USSR. China, which bases its spacecraft on the Soyuz original design, has made major updates to the size of the craft, its various systems, etc., to the point where they're leapfrogging Russia's own capabilities.

Interesting times ahead for space fanatics


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*
The second-ever launch of Falcon Heavy is happening now! Thursday April 11 6:35pm EDT

SpaceX Webcast*

*Update 6:45pm EDT:* Successful launch; successful landing of *three* boosters (2 + centre core); successful orbit insertion. Coming up at 7:00pm EDT: relighting of the 2nd stage and deployment of the ArabSat satellite.


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Some Apollo 13 history relating to Canada - who knew?*

*Today is the 49th anniversary of the call from NASA / Grumman to the University of Toronto to come up with a method to save Apollo 13*









UTIAS team of Professors who adided in the Rescue of Apollo 13:
(From left to right) Professors P.A. Sullivan, R.C. Tennyson, I.I. Glass, R.C. Tennyson, and B. Etkin (not shown: Prof. Peter Hughes).​
Apollo 13 was to be the third manned landing on the Moon and was launched April 11, 1970. 56 hours later there was an explosion in the Command Service Module, crippling the spacecraft that was to sustain the 3 astronauts on the journey to the Moon and back to the Earth. The astronauts were forced to abort the lunar landing and use the Lunar Module as a 'lifeboat' for the round trip around the Moon and back to the Earth.

One of the last in a string of problems requiring innovative solutions to save the astronauts was the need to safely jettison the Lunar Module after powering the Command Module back up. Only the capsule, with its heat shield, could safely get the astronauts back to Earth. The lifeboat Lunar Module had to be detached in such a way that it would not interfere with the landing nor damage the capsule in the process. The Reaction Control System thrusters that would normally handle this job were inoperable as they relied on power from the Service Module, power that had been lost when the oxygen tank exploded - the fuel cells on the Service Module needed that oxygen to provide power and the batteries on the capsule couldn't handle the job.

In order to devise a solution Lunar Module manufacturer Grumman Aerospace turned to the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies. The call came in April 16, 1970.

Headed by professors Phil Sullivan, Rod Tennyson, Irvine Glass and Ben Etkin the team was tasked with saving the crew. The solution proposed was to pressurize the seal between the capsule and the Lunar Module and use that pressure to blow the spacecraft apart. The UT team was given 4 hours to calculate the minimum pressure needed to separate the craft to a safe distance without damaging the capsule. Too little pressure risked having the separate craft collide during re-entry. The information provided was 'inadequate' and required a lot of estimation but the UT team relayed their calculations to Grumman, who relayed them to NASA.

Just before re-entry the capsule Odyssey jettisoned the Lunar Module Aquarius using UT's calculations. The separation went off perfectly, safely distancing Odyssey and allowing it to successfully splash down in the Pacific with all 3 crew rescued.

In 2010, the 40th anniversary of the event, the professors were honoured with the Pioneer Award at the Canadian Air and Space Museum - and showed up with the original slide rule they had used to perform the life-saving calculations. A letter praising the work of the team from Lunar Module pilot Fred Haise Jr. was read at the event.

(Posted to Reddit)​
*Related:* _1970: UTIAS Professors aid NASA with Apollo 13’s Rescue_


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

> Some Apollo 13 history relating to Canada - who knew?



WOW!!! And used a sliderule to do their calculations yet. Double amazing!!!

Anyone remember what they were or used for...??? ;-)



- Patrick
======


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Nice post--really enjoyed it CM!


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## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

pm-r said:


> WOW!!! And used a sliderule to do their calculations yet. Double amazing!!!
> 
> Anyone remember what they were or used for...??? ;-)
> 
> ...



Absolutely, for all I know I still have a good K&E in storage. BTW log tables were often an important accessory.


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## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

Bezos just unveiled his ideas of space travel and colonization and I have to say I find this more interesting then any mars mission. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/science/jeff-bezos-moon.html

I think it is a bit premature to be talking about getting people to Mars on a one way trip when there is still so much that should be explored and developed close to home. Let us explore the moon and figure out habitation on this much closer destination before jumping farther then we should at the moment. 

I would also like to see space craft development like what we see in sci-fi shows and movies creating gravity that would make space travel safer and healthier for us for long term exploration.

interplanetary_spaceliner_odyssey__back_view_by_dcmstarships-d6tmdqo by B P, on Flickr


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

It's been 1 year, 3 months, 23 days and counting since SpaceX launched Starman into space, cruising along in his Tesla Roadster. His trajectory is now on a return to Earth orbit (though Earth won't be in the same space when he comes back):










If at some point we were able to train a telescope on the Roadster, or rendezvous with another spacecraft to observe it, the sportscar likely will have lost a bit of its cherry red sheen.. Radiation Will Tear Elon Musk's Rocket Car to Bits in a Year _(Published 8 Feb 2018)_.


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

An interesting read. 

Answers to Earth's evolution may be found in helium trapped in diamonds

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...on-may-be-found-in-helium-trapped-in-diamonds


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*What the heck?*

*China’s lunar rover finds unknown ‘gel-like’ substance on the far side of the moon*









[This past January, Queqiao sent back to Earth photos of the Yutu-2 rover leaving humankind’s first “footprints” on the far side of the moon.]​
Scientists are scratching their heads after China’s lunar rover Yutu-2 discovered an unknown, gel-like substance on the surface of the moon.

The discovery was made on July 28 during “lunar day 8” of an exploration mission to a region on the far side of the moon, NBC News reports. Day 8 began on July 25 and ended on July 28, according to a Yutu-2 “drive diary” published on Aug. 17 by the Chinese-language publication Our Space.

Scientists working on the Chang’e-4 mission were about to power down the rover for a “nap” when they noticed a crater with a strange substance depicted on Yutu-2’s main camera. Excited by the discovery, Space.com reports that the rover’s drive team called in their mission scientists and together decided to postpone Yutu-2’s plans to travel west and instead proceeded to more closely examine the material.

According to Our Space, the gel was “significantly different from the surrounding lunar soil” in shape and colour. Since the original announcement, there have been no updates on the substance, but the Chinese publication People’s Daily reports that scientists are currently analyzing it.

While the substance has piqued the interest of the scientific community, few have any idea what the substance could be. Mahesh Anand, vice president of the U.K.’s Royal Astronomical Society, told Newsweek in an email that the gel substance could be a fine-grained volcanic glass.

“The fact that it has been observed associated with a small impact crater, this finding could be extremely exciting as it would indicate that a very different material could just be hiding underneath the very top surface,” he wrote in the email.

“This would assume even a greater significance if these materials turn out to have experienced interaction with water-ice (as the possibility of existence of water-ice in the top few metres of the lunar South polar region is predicted on the basis of recent remote sensing data set).”

(GlobalNews)​


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## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

Was reading on CNN that NASA is sending a little helicopter type vehicle with the next rover. Should allow for some very interesting exploring where a wheeled machine cannot go. I know I have always wondered why they can't get to these places they say water exists, this should make hitting those targets much easier

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/29/us/n...age&utm_medium=abtest&utm_campaign=sciencebin


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

wonderings said:


> Was reading on CNN that NASA is sending a little helicopter type vehicle with the next rover. Should allow for some very interesting exploring where a wheeled machine cannot go. I know I have always wondered why they can't get to these places they say water exists, this should make hitting those targets much easier
> 
> https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/29/us/n...age&utm_medium=abtest&utm_campaign=sciencebin


They should test it on the moon first...


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

wonderings said:


> Was reading on CNN that NASA is sending a little helicopter type vehicle with the next rover.


_The CNN article linked within the one you posted has details on the challenges of employing a helicopter (or any heavier-than-air craft) on Mars:_


*NASA sending helicopter to Mars, aiming for an aviation first*

The small copter -- its main body will be about the size of a softball -- will be attached to the rover's belly pan. After the rover lands, it will place the helicopter on the ground and move away.

After the helicopter's solar cells charge its lithium-ion batteries, NASA controllers on Earth will prepare the craft for its tricky test flights.

To rise into the Mars' thin atmosphere, the helicopter's two counter-rotating blades will turn at nearly 3,000 revolutions per minute, or more than 10 times as fast as a helicopter's blades on Earth, NASA says.

"The altitude record for a helicopter flying here on Earth is about 40,000 feet. The atmosphere of Mars is only 1% that of Earth, so when our helicopter is on the Martian surface, it's already at the Earth equivalent of 100,000 feet up," Mimi Aung, the Mars Helicopter project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a news release.

"To make it fly at that low atmospheric density, we had to scrutinize everything, make it as light as possible while being as strong and as powerful as it can possibly be," she said.

*(CNN)*​
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOMQOqKRWjU[/ame]


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Macfury said:


> They should test it on the moon first...


That would be a pretty major waste of resources, with nothing to show for it! :lmao:


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Didn't get the joke, huh?



CubaMark said:


> That would be a pretty major waste of resources, with nothing to show for it! :lmao:


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*On Saturday, Musk is presenting an update on the Starship project...*










*New SpaceX Starship rocket stands ready for Elon Musk's big Saturday show*

A new kind of rocket has been coming together quickly on the Texas Gulf Coast over the past few months. SpaceX calls it Starship Mk1, and it's just been stacked for the first time ahead of Saturday's update from CEO and founder Elon Musk. 

The top half of the prototype spacecraft was lifted onto the bottom section Friday for final mating. Musk is set to give a presentation updating the design of Starship and his plans for it on Saturday evening from the company's development site in Boca Chica, Texas, with Mk1 as the backdrop. 

...

...a livestream of Musk's presentation from Boca Chica to be available between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. PT Saturday.

(CNET)​


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Musks's live briefing has been delayed until *10pm EST* this evening....


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## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

Hello, Bigot.

The iron...

Just like every other Tesla promise he's made...



CubaMark said:


> Musks's live briefing has been delayed until *10pm EST* this evening....


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

FeXL said:


> Hello, Bigot.
> 
> The iron...
> 
> Just like every other Tesla promise he's made...


I like some of what Space X has been doing — but not when big announcements seem to punctuate bad news from the failing Tesla car company.


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_Looks like Tardigrades are the secret to space travel for humans..._ 

*Cracking how 'water bears' survive the extremes*

UC San Diego's Division of Biological Sciences employed a variety of biochemical techniques to investigate the mechanisms underlying the survivability of tardigrades in the extremes.

Previous studies identified a protein named Dsup (for Damage suppression protein), which is found only in tardigrades. Intriguingly, when Dsup is tested in human cells, it can protect them from X-rays; however, it was not known how Dsup performs this impressive feat. Through biochemical analysis, the UC San Diego team discovered that Dsup binds to chromatin, which is the form of DNA inside cells. Once bound to chromatin, Dsup protects cells by forming a protective cloud that shields DNA from hydroxyl radicals, which are produced by X-rays.

"We now have a molecular explanation for how Dsup protects cells from X-ray irradiation," said Kadonaga, a distinguished professor and the Amylin Endowed Chair in Lifesciences Education and Research. "We see that it has two parts, one piece that binds to chromatin and the rest of it forming a kind of cloud that protects the DNA from hydroxyl radicals."​


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Alexei Leonov, 1st person to walk in space, dies at 85*











Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, says Alexei Leonov, the first human to walk in space 54 years ago, has died in Moscow. He was 85.

Roscosmos says in a statement on its website that Leonov died on Friday. It did not provide details.

Leonov performed his spacewalk on March 18, 1965, when he exited his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether.










On his second trip to space ten years later, Leonov commanded the Soviet half of the Apollo-Soyuz 19 mission. It was the first joint space mission between the Soviet Union and the United States, carried out at the height of the Cold War.

The cosmonaut turned 85 in May. Several days before that, two Russian crewmembers on the International Space Station ventured into open space on a planned spacewalk with stickers attached on their spacesuits paying tribute to him, and congratulated him from space.

(CBC)​


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Whooopsie!*

*
SpaceX’s Starship Mk1 fails during testing, next step will be to move to a newer design*










(TechCrunch)​


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## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

Hello, Bigot.

Guess it's not just Musk's Tesla batteries that blow up...



CubaMark said:


> Whooopsie!


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Will star explode?

Is a gravitational wave detection near Betelgeuse a sign the star is ready to explode?

https://apple.news/AMRsDRmwsRTyWeOZZ6TLd9A


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*SpaceX has a successful test of the Crew Dragon abort system:*

*SpaceX's Crew Dragon abort test was 'picture-perfect,'*










CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX's high-altitude test of its Crew Dragon launch escape system on Sunday morning (Jan. 19) appears to have been a "picture-perfect mission," company founder and CEO Elon Musk said. 

[...]
On Sunday, a Falcon 9 with a thrice-flown first stage sat perched on its launch pad at KSC's historic Pad 39A — the same launch pad that hosted the agency's Apollo and space shuttle programs. At 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT), the Falcon roared to life, toting Crew Dragon high in the sky. 

Eighty-four-seconds after liftoff, the capsule's abort system was triggered, and the craft pushed itself away from its launcher. The Falcon 9 rocket exploded in a brilliant fireball soon after, breaking apart due to increasing aerodynamic forces. 

The IFA was designed to show NASA that the capsule has what it takes to keep crewmembers safe in the unlikely event of a launch emergency, a requirement before NASA will allow astronauts to fly on it. With this apparent success, SpaceX cleared its last major hurdle before completing its ultimate goal with Crew Dragon: launching humans to the space station. 

(Space.com)


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Greenhouse gas... :-(


CubaMark said:


> *SpaceX has a successful test of the Crew Dragon abort system:*
> 
> *SpaceX's Crew Dragon abort test was 'picture-perfect,'*
> 
> ...


----------



## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

Macfury said:


> Greenhouse gas... :-(


Yep...


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Macfury said:


> Greenhouse gas... :-(


Or, put into context:

*Charlie Garcia, former Launch Operations Intern at SpaceX (2017)*

SpaceX emissions:

The Falcon 9 uses two propellants, liquid oxygen (O2, no carbon here) and Kerosene a petrol chemical containing between 6 and 16 carbon atoms per molecule.

The Falcon 9 burns through 29,600 gallons of highly refined kerosene during its trip to orbit. The vehicle takes about 12 trips to orbit a year so that's about 360,000 gallons of kerosene a year burned in spaceflight. That converts to 2,460,600 pounds of kerosene burnt in a year of Falcon 9 launches. Since I enjoy the metric system, that is 1,116,000 kg of kerosene. 

Kerosene produces approximately 2.6kg of CO2 per kg of Kerosene burned. Basic arithmetic says that the rocket produces 2,902,000 kg of carbon dioxide during a year of SpaceX activities. Global Carbon Emissions 2014 3.23 x 10^13 total from SpaceX 2.902 x 10^6. This means that SpaceX is responsible for 9 one billionths of annual carbon emissions. This is not a significant amount.


_Offsetting Activities:_

SpaceX has installed several hundred solar panels atop their factory in Hawthorne, California. This shows a commitment to environmentalism that is a hallmark of Musk's. Additionally, if we are speaking in terms of global warming, water vapor is actually the more potent greenhouse gas, so rockets that use LH2/LOX are actually worse by that metric, although I am by no means advocating that we do away with those propellants. Finally, the mass of a year's worth of SpaceX launches has about the same mass as the first stage of the Saturn V. Not significant in terms of other launch vehicles.​
I trust the two of you will be as critical of NASA's SLS when (if?) it finally launches? Call for an immediate ban on the launching of satellites, scientific probes, etc.? :lmao:


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

I couldn't care less about any of it. Just fun to see you put on your Musk fanboy hat and twist yourself into pretzels to defend it.



CubaMark said:


> I trust the two of you will be as critical of NASA's SLS when (if?) it finally launches? Call for an immediate ban on the launching of satellites, scientific probes, etc.? :lmao:


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Starlink-4

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Starlink-4 mission on Tuesday, January 28, 2020 at 2:28 PM (UTC).

Link to live video at the link.

https://www.rocketlaunch.live/launc...medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Hit or miss?

'This is uncomfortably close': 2 defunct satellites orbiting Earth at risk of colliding

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/satellites-collision-1.5443434


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## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

Hello, Bigot.

I trust you've abandoned all carbon based fuels, not limited to but including, jet fuel, gasoline, natural gas, diesel, coal and kerosene in favour of more Gaia-friendly modes of transportation such as dog cart, horse & buggy and, of course, good ol' shank's pony. This also includes all forms of energy, save sun, twigs & branches not chopped down utilizing iron or steel & moving water.

In addition, all petrochemical products, not limited to but including, nylon, plastics, synthetic rubber, food products and drugs will already have been eliminated from your household.

Plus, _plus_, any and all items currently utilized in your life whereby carbon-based fuels were used at any stage in their manufacture or transport, not limited to but including, building materials, clothing, vehicles, food, entertainment or anything else currently used in your miserable life.

In other words, unless you are currently living off the land in a wood lean-to with no windows, glass or metal fasteners, clad only in animal skins and eating last summer's mouldy tubers drawn from your hand dug root cellar, along with that sickly rabbit you chased down yesterday, this will be the last we hear from you on your Green Bull$h!t, m'kay?

One more thing: Get rid of your carbon-based, -manufactured and -electrified computer, too, hypocrite...



CubaMark said:


> I trust the two of you will be as critical of NASA's SLS when (if?) it finally launches?


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

The moon passed between Nasa's Deep Space Climate Observatory and the Earth, allowing the satellite to capture this rare image of the moon's far side in full sunlight. We normally don't see this side of the moon. As the moon is tidally locked to the earth and doesn't rotate, we only ever see the one face from the earth. Awesome shot!


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/you...ZJOe6OGjnzPAZDWOGZX_YUi0GJpHFAMbZzkkzQVmkUU4Q


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*'That's super exciting': New study finds this 'mini-Neptune' exoplanet could be potentially habitable*



> New research suggests K2-18b, a "mini-Neptune" that lies roughly 125 light-years from Earth, could be potentially habitable.
> 
> Mini-Neptunes are planets less massive than Neptune, with barely any core or solid surface but with a thick hydrogen-helium atmosphere. However, there has been debate over whether these types of planets could host an environment that could be potentially habitable.
> 
> ...


More at the link.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/k218b-exoplanet-potentially-habitable-1.5484435


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Inside Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week—and settle Mars*










Musk called an all-hands meeting at the South Texas site where SpaceX is building his Starship spacecraft.

_It was 1am._

At an hour when most Americans were throwing down their last shots before closing time, at home in bed, or binge-watching The Office before it leaves Netflix, Musk brought his team together. He wanted to know why the Starship factory wasn’t humming at all hours. Why steel sheets weren’t getting welded into domes and fuel tanks, why tanks were not being stacked into rockets, why things weren’t going as fast as he wanted.
(....)
To really accelerate, his bleary-eyed engineers and technicians responded, they needed enough employees to assign workers to particular stations within the burgeoning factory, allowing each person to specialize. This would require a lot more hands that could build things.

“I said, ‘OK no problem,’” Musk recalls. “I said, ‘You can hire people—just know your reputation is on the line. Don’t bring your brother-in-law who can’t ever get a job. Not that person, OK? You’re going to be responsible for them. Everyone’s got their relatives that they know at the family gathering who, man, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to work with that person. Don’t bring that person. Bring the person who you’d put your reputation on the line for.’”
(....)
Musk told his team members they would have a recruitment gathering just 12 hours later, at 1pm that Sunday. They would have another one on Monday at 1pm and then again at 8pm. Long lines of people showed up, family members and friends, mostly local. Cars and trucks jammed the roadside up and down Boca Chica Highway. At 11pm on Monday night, SpaceX was still hiring.

All told, the company added 252 people to its South Texas Launch Site on that Sunday and Monday. It doubled the workforce, just like that, to more than 500 workers. Most of the new hires, even those who had inked contracts at midnight, were told to report for work the next morning.
(....)
Let’s just step back for a moment to acknowledge how nuts this is. Starship is only the upper stage for SpaceX’s Super Heavy rocket, but it is arguably the most novel spacecraft ever built. No one has ever built a fully reusable rocket, and the second stage that goes into space is the hardest part. SpaceX remains a long way from making the interior of Starship habitable for humans on a journey to Mars. But even building a fully reusable vehicle that can lift 150 tons into low Earth orbit would be a marvel. That’s more throw capacity than the Apollo Program’s Saturn V rocket had.

And Musk wants to build one of these each week.

Compare that to NASA and its Space Launch System, the big rocket that the space agency has been developing for a decade and for which Boeing only recently completed a single core stage. This core stage is about 15 meters taller than Starship but lacks its complexity. NASA will, in fact, toss each SLS core stage into the ocean after a single use. And Boeing doesn’t have to make the engines, as the rocket uses 40-year-old space shuttle main engines. Despite this, and with nearly $2 billion in annual funding from NASA, Boeing’s stretch goal for building core stages is one to two per year... some time in the mid-2020s.

SpaceX’s stretch goal is to build one to two Starships a week, this year, and to pare back construction costs to as low as $5 million each.
(....)
“The problem with the MK1 stuff was that I didn’t have my eye fully on the ball, because I was still taking care of a lot of Tesla stuff,” Musk said. “Now Tesla, I think, is in a good situation here, so that’s why I’m pretty much camped out in Boca. The MK1 was a failure not because the rocket failed at low pressure, but because we failed to build a production line.”
(....)
The company is building toward a critical test flight later this spring, a hop to about 20km that will prove the Starship vehicle can fly in a controlled manner and safely return to Earth. After this, Musk has set an aspirational goal of flying an orbital mission—maybe with SN5 or SN6, he really doesn’t know—before the end of 2020.
(....)
He knows he won’t get Starship right at first. He employs some of the smartest engineers on this planet, and they’re still, in many ways, fumbling toward solutions for the extremely hard problem of getting a super-large vehicle out of Earth’s gravity well into orbit—then to land it and fly it again. Musk has come to believe the only way to realistically achieve this is through trial and error, by iterating closer and closer to the right design.
(....)
....maybe you think Elon Musk is going to fail in his Mars ambitions. Any reasonable person might. This kind of thing makes the Apollo Program look like child’s play, and the Moon Landing is regarded as perhaps the most significant technical achievement of the 20th century. But should we really be working on a repeat of Apollo half a century after we already did it? Maybe we should reach higher and further.

Walking through those tents in South Texas, amid the bustle of those workstations, surrounded by rolls of stainless steel, it becomes easier to believe that we should and that we can. The place feels the way a US Navy shipyard must have felt in the weeks after Pearl Harbor—insanely busy but also purposeful.

These kids and swarms of recently hired technicians are fighting against impossible odds every day, and they’re determined to win. 


(ArsTechnica)​


----------



## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

Hello, Bigot.

Because Elon Musk is _not_ a leader. QED, Tesla...



CubaMark said:


> ... why things weren’t going as fast as he wanted.


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

> SpaceX’s stretch goal is to build one to two Starships a week, this year, and to pare back construction costs to as low as $5 million each.



Where is all the money coming from to support this massive space/Mars project???

And it sounds like they just hired a bunch of hillbilly welders. Crazy!!!


- Patrick
======


----------



## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

pm-r said:


> Where is all the money coming from to support this massive space/Mars project???
> 
> And it sounds like they just hired a bunch of hillbilly welders. Crazy!!!
> 
> ...


Betting this will be a case of Musk doing what Musk does best. Farming subsidies. You could say the endeavour has a musky odour surrounding it.


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

pm-r said:


> Where is all the money coming from to support this massive space/Mars project???
> 
> And it sounds like they just hired a bunch of hillbilly welders. Crazy!!!
> 
> ...


SpaceX fulfills contracts with NASA and other entities.

He's also playing a shell game with his various corporations and his stock is grossly overvalued, so there's money there. Government subsidies form another large revenue stream. He brings in fresh money by announcing some product like the Tesla Pickup and collecting deposits.


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

Those sort of actions and using other peoples money sounds very similar to the now current US president and his actions in the past or maybe they’re still going on. Who knows???



Patrick
————


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Highest resolution shot of Mars ever.

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nati...mXJ_8JXvn9tf8RCm-8vVVQC55yXnHfuQahFrCoRiBFjYY


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Monday’s Full Moon Will Be Spectacular — the Biggest And Brightest Of 2020

https://www.ibelieveinmothernature....Obi_3uU-yeC33zMCmkAeaiIbra0QmOANumpWrmND1v7S4


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

SINC said:


> Monday’s Full Moon Will Be Spectacular — the Biggest And Brightest Of 2020
> 
> https://www.ibelieveinmothernature....Obi_3uU-yeC33zMCmkAeaiIbra0QmOANumpWrmND1v7S4


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

More on that supermoon including pics.

*A super worm moon is coming to illuminate the skies*

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articl..._medium=paid+social&utm_campaign=social+march


----------



## Beej (Sep 10, 2005)

SINC said:


> Monday’s Full Moon Will Be Spectacular — the Biggest And Brightest Of 2020
> 
> https://www.ibelieveinmothernature....Obi_3uU-yeC33zMCmkAeaiIbra0QmOANumpWrmND1v7S4


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*Newfound Comet ATLAS is getting really bright, really fast*

https://www.space.com/comet-atlas-m...k6zwuIBEKHCYjM0JlrWDsGo2W7GWYpd85DRESoWLslb-0


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

THIS WEEK'S SKY AT A GLANCE, MARCH 20 – 28

https://skyandtelescope.org/observi...54BIBQzVb7tYtSrbkjPCpvlcuvZjlyaQTdMr1MLTzBvXw


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/...awx6_D79czAfprIv-BsTpc5cEWmEbjiX1WCJUBRaTcyls

9 years later ……………….


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Meteor Shower With Up To 100 Shooting Stars An Hour Has Begun

https://moon-child.net/meteor-showe...YbF4zKqHIfkwdJgyp-cfu7c8S4s7zy_ZkNjvQZVKN0VxE


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

SINC said:


> Meteor Shower With Up To 100 Shooting Stars An Hour Has Begun
> 
> https://moon-child.net/meteor-showe...YbF4zKqHIfkwdJgyp-cfu7c8S4s7zy_ZkNjvQZVKN0VxE



Thanks for the heads-up.

It would be nice if the sky clears up and the current overcast clouds disappear.





- Patrick
======


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

SINC said:


> Meteor Shower With Up To 100 Shooting Stars An Hour Has Begun
> 
> https://moon-child.net/meteor-showe...YbF4zKqHIfkwdJgyp-cfu7c8S4s7zy_ZkNjvQZVKN0VxE


Clear skies right now at 4PM, so I hope to see these tonight.


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

One of the cooler animations of rocket flight you'll see.... 

Saturn V / Space Shuttle / Falcon Heavy / the mythical Space Launch System (SLS)

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su9EVeHqizY[/ame]


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

SpaceX's first attempt at returning the USA to manned spaceflight (after nine years of depending on the Russkies to give 'em a lift to LEO) was postponed due to weather on Wednesday.

Next window is Saturday - but the forecast so far isn't looking good, due to the aftereffects of Tropical Storm Bertha.


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

> to give 'em a lift to LEO) was postponed due to weather on Wednesday.
> 
> Next window is Saturday - but the forecast so far isn't looking good, due to the aftereffects of Tropical Storm Bertha.



Actually, I am really quite surprised that they have even been attempting or considering any sort of launch with the current unsettled weather conditions in the area.




- Patrick
======


----------



## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

Hello, Bigot.

Finally! Something you Progs can actually accurately blame on the Russkies...



CubaMark said:


> (after nine years of depending on the Russkies to give 'em a lift to LEO)


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

FeXL said:


> Hello, Bigot.
> 
> Finally! Something you Progs can actually accurately blame on the Russkies...



Gheese FeXL, I for one would really appreciate it if you could calm down and use some civil language when posting, it certainly doesn't exhibit or earn any amount of maturity or respect in its present state.

Thank you, if you actually respect my comment.



- Patrick
======


----------



## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

pm-r said:


> Gheese FeXL, I for one would really appreciate it if you could calm down and use some civil language when posting, it certainly doesn't exhibit or earn any amount of maturity or respect in its present state.
> 
> Thank you, if you actually respect my comment.
> 
> ...


Hi, pm-r.

First off, yes, I do respect your comment. Thank you for taking the time.

Secondly, I assure you, I'm quite calm.

Third, I don't tailor my posts to exhibit a particular level of maturity or to garner respect. I write what's on my mind at the time. I do not sugar coat. Nor will I urinate on someone's back & tell them it's raining. My posts are what they are & I make zero apologies. Many are not used to that level of candor and that's fine.

And finally, I usually post in a tone similar to that accorded to me. As The Bigot has exhibited little to no respect for me, well...

Have a day!


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

CubaMark said:


> SpaceX's first attempt at returning the USA to manned spaceflight (after nine years of depending on the Russkies to give 'em a lift to LEO) was postponed due to weather on Wednesday.
> 
> Next window is Saturday - but the forecast so far isn't looking good, due to the aftereffects of Tropical Storm Bertha.


Might be a go this afternoon, weather permitting. We shall see.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/...w-2SMUEAv72HBCdjohziEhmTfCclT5GwuJzxqg_KrCbG8


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

If they're able to launch today (50/50 right now due to weather), here's the livestream:

spacex.com/webcast

Liftoff scheduled for 3:22pm EDT - they have an "instantaneous" launch window. If it doesn't go off exactly on time, they'll have to push to a different day in order to line up properly with the ISS orbit for rendezvous.


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

CubaMark said:


> If they're able to launch today (50/50 right now due to weather), here's the livestream:
> 
> spacex.com/webcast
> 
> Liftoff scheduled for 3:22pm EDT - they have an "instantaneous" launch window. If it doesn't go off exactly on time, they'll have to push to a different day in order to line up properly with the ISS orbit for rendezvous.


Liftoff was a success ……….. :clap::clap:


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Astronauts Bob & Doug (not McKenzie, sadly) give a tour of the Crew Dragon capsule "Endeavour" from orbit, complete with Apatosaurus!

[ame]https://youtu.be/Hf_EM_szf-E?t=77[/ame]


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

That's a nice video! Such a roomy capsule, compared to the early models.


----------



## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

*A Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Is Happening During The Full Moon This June*



> On June 5th and 6th, the Strawberry Full Moon will pass through the faint outer shadow of the Earth, known as a penumbral lunar eclipse, the second of four penumbral lunar eclipses this year. Weather permitting, those of you in Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and the South Eastern areas of South America might notice the Moon turn slightly darker, or seem less bright, during the maximum phase of the eclipse. A penumbral lunar eclipse can be subtle and sometimes difficult to distinguish from a normal full moon.


More at the link.

https://themindunleashed.com/2020/0...ydg1njFw2kQ8nW-oYx5TGlKLf-1eyVubCzwVQJMGGDOlY


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

What do the Russians, specifically Roscosmos, think of SpaceX & NASA finally returning U.S. astronauts to space from U.S. soil? Read on.... ‘This war is theirs – not ours’: Dmitry Rogozin on Elon Musk’s Crew Dragon launch


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Man, that was a turgid read.


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

—The Far Side​


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

Amazing noctilucent clouds and comet NEOWISE photographed by Barry Burgess, last night in Northport, Nova Scotia.


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

Dr.G. said:


> Amazing noctilucent clouds and comet NEOWISE photographed by Barry Burgess, last night in Northport, Nova Scotia.



Excellent shot!!!



- Patrick
======


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

pm-r said:


> Excellent shot!!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


:clap::clap:


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

China prepares to launch for Mars...

*Long March 5 rolled out for July 23 launch of China’s Tianwen-1 Mars mission*










China is preparing to launch its Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter and rover next week with the rollout of the mission’s Long March 5 launch vehicle.

The roughly 878-metric-ton heavy-lift Long March 5 was vertically transferred to its launch area at the coastal Wenchang Satellite Launch Center late Thursday Eastern. 

The rollout indicates that China will launch Tianwen-1, the country’s first independent interplanetary mission, next week.

* * *

If successful the spacecraft will arrive at Mars in February 2021. The rover, inside an entry vehicle atop the orbiter, will remain attached to the orbiter in Mars orbit for 2-3 months before the landing attempt,

* * *

The Tianwen-1 orbiter carries seven science payloads. It is equipped with a high-resolution camera comparable to HiRise on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It also carries a medium-resolution camera, subsurface radar, mineralogy spectrometer, neutral and energetic particle analyzers and a magnetometer. The orbiter, designed to operate for one Mars year, or 687 Earth days, will also play a relay role for the mission rover.

The roughly 240-kilogram solar-powered rover is nearly twice the mass of China’s ‘Yutu’ lunar rovers. It will carry a ground-penetrating radar, multispectral camera and a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy instrument. Other payloads will analyze the climate and magnetic environment. The rover will attempt to land in a southern section of Utopia Planitia where it is designed to operate for 90 Mars days.

(SpaceNews)​


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*It's on its way!*

*China's Tianwen-1 Mars rover rockets away from Earth*

China has launched its first rover mission to Mars.

The six-wheeled robot, encapsulated in a protective probe, was lifted off Earth by a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang spaceport on Hainan Island at 12:40 local time (04:40 GMT).

It should arrive in orbit around the Red Planet in February.

Called Tianwen-1, or "Questions to Heaven", the rover won't actually try to land on the surface for a further two to three months.

This wait-and-see strategy was used successfully by the American Viking landers in the 1970s. It will allow engineers to assess the atmospheric conditions on Mars before attempting what will be a hazardous descent.

Tianwen-1 is one of three missions setting off to Mars in the space of 11 days.

On Monday, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched its Hope satellite towards the Red Planet. And in a week from now, the US space agency (Nasa) aims to despatch its next-generation rover, Perseverance.

(BBC)​


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/...8mzbx8YArNBBEWAle-MOalFLmXwi99vxtUYWthVqB1UCw

Also on its way to Mars


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

An interesting article on the Soviet Mars mission - I hadn't realized they made the first soft landing on Mars... and the first image transmitted from the surface (if you can call a screenful of static an "image"). Also interesting the attempts by NASA and others to find the probe in later Mars observation missions....

The Soviet Mars Shot That Almost Everyone Forgot


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Bob & Doug are back from their first-ever crewed SpaceX Mission to the ISS, 2 months after their launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral:*


















*NASA's recap of the mission:*

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3NZyKF2jcs[/ame]


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*SpaceX's 1st upgraded Dragon cargo ship docks itself at space station with science, goodies and new airlock*










A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station today (Dec. 7) to deliver vital supplies for NASA and try something brand-new: park itself without the help of astronauts.

The private spaceflight company used a Falcon 9 rocket to launch CRS-21, the first flight to use the upgraded version of its Dragon cargo spacecraft, to the space station Sunday (Dec. 6) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The vehicle autonomously docked with the orbiting laboratory today at 1:40 p.m. EST (1840 GMT), parking at the zenith, or space-facing, side of the station's Harmony module. 

* * *

The arrival of the upgraded Dragon CRS-21 cargo spacecraft also marks the first time that two SpaceX Dragons have been docked with the International Space Station. A Crew Dragon spacecraft, which brought four astronauts to the space station in November on the Crew-1 mission, is also currently docked at the Harmony module. 

* * *

SpaceX has redesigned its workhorse Dragon cargo spacecraft not only to dock autonomously with the International Space Station, but also to have about 20% more cargo capacity and the ability to support more science experiments with additional powered lockers inside. 

* * *

.... the cargo Dragon will remain docked with the space station for about 35 days, which means it is scheduled to return to Earth sometime around Jan. 10. 

The Crew Dragon currently docked with the station is expected to return to Earth in May. The next upgraded cargo Dragon, CRS-22, is expected to launch to the station in May as well. 

(Space.com)​​


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Man, what a week for space news....

First China landed its craft on the moon, drilled down and packaged material for return to earth. The lander launched again, docked with the orbiter, transferred the sample container, the orbiter jettisoned the docking port and the ascent module[/URL] (all automatically) and remained in orbit until it was time to fire thrusters and head back to earth. China's sample-return mission is scheduled to be completed in the coming week, when the capsule lands on earth with - hopefully - moon material intact! (Follow Andrew Jones coverage on Twitter - amazing video of all stages of the mission).

Meanwhile, the Japan Space Agency's sample return mission from asteroid HAYABUSA landed in the Woomera Prohibited Region of Australia, an incredibly technically challenging feat from beginning to end. (Twitter)

And today.... whooooo boy! SpaceX put on a show that delivered on the nerdgasms.

Starship SN8 test flight - scheduled for yesterday - was aborted by the flight computer at about T-0.01. That was frustrating for the folks who sat on a livestream for ELEVEN hours waiting for the test to start (for there record: I was not one of them. I did check in from time to time, though).

With the abort, the launch window shifted to today - Dec 9th - and ran pretty much for the entirety of daylight hours. After a false start that cause a countdown pause at T-2.09, SpaceX announced a scheduled liftoff time (very nice of them, giving folks a chance for a bathroom break). 

Tuning in at 5:40pm EST, this is what viewers saw — an AMAZINGLY successful test flight. Just jaw-dropping....

[ame]https://youtu.be/ap-BkkrRg-o?t=6477[/ame]


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

I have no way of determining if this is true, but... a Twitter user posted the image below. If accurate - that's some seriously cool coincidence...


*Ciro J Grijalva *@CiroJGrijalva

_Quite fitting to have Mars photobomb SN8 in this shot_​10:09 PM · Dec 9, 2020·​










*And another amazing angle on the bellyflop-flip-burn from SpaceX - it takes a few seconds to load, and doesn't look like it's playing, but give it time. The video looks like an animation with the high-contrast...
*










There's an aspect of SpaceX's development that doesn't get the attention it deserves - and that's their investment and commitment to providing absolutely amazing visuals. Watch their satellite launches and compare with anyone else out there. BlueOrigin, RocketLab, etc. Amazing tracking, high-quality streams... and the coverage on the SN8 test was fabulous. It's a smart move - expensive, sure, but providing those kinds of visuals feeds a demand for enthusiasts, who now expect other ventures into spaceflight to give as much attention to the PR side of the business.


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

China moon probe begins journey back to Earth










A Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the moon has begun its journey back to Earth, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday, putting China on course to become the first country to successfully retrieve lunar samples since the 1970s.

Engines on the Chang’e-5 probe were ignited 230 km (143 miles) from the lunar surface early on Sunday, Beijing time, before being shut down after 22 minutes with the craft on a trajectory towards Earth....

A successful landing in Inner Mongolia would make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples after the United States and the Soviet Union. The plan was to collect 2 kg (4.4 lbs) of samples, although it has not been disclosed how much was actually gathered.


(National Post)​


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Japan Has Opened Hayabusa2’s Capsule, Confirming It Contains Samples From Asteroid Ryugu*










The Japanese space agency (JAXA) says it has begun opening the capsule returned to Earth by its historic Hayabusa2 mission – and has confirmed asteroid samples are inside.

Today, Monday, December 14, the capsule was opened for the first time since it touched down in the Australian outback on December 6 following its journey through space.

On board, scientists were hoping to find pieces of asteroid Ryugu, collected millions of kilometers from Earth – and now JAXA has confirmed the mission was successful.

“A black granular sample believed to be derived from the asteroid Ryugu was confirmed inside the sample container,” JAXA said in a short statement.

“This is thought to be the particles attached to the entrance of the sample catcher (the container in which the sample is stored).”

The entire capsule itself has yet to be opened, meaning there are likely more samples of the asteroid waiting inside.

(Forbes)​


----------



## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/scie...d-the-moon/ar-BB1bYLwW?ocid=spartan-ntp-feeds

Very interesting. Bon voyage.


----------



## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*CHINA JUST BROUGHT THE FIRST MOON ROCKS BACK TO EARTH SINCE 1976*










China’s Chang’e-5 mission has officially returned with the first new samples collected from the Moon’s surface in almost half a century.

The spacecraft touched down in the Siziwang district of Inner Mongolia around 1pm Eastern time, and search teams have likely already found it. 

Thermal camera footage shown by state media TV network CCTV appears to show the capsule sitting in an otherwise barren landscape.

It’s a historic moment, and an extraordinary testament to China’s space ambitions. The last time humanity returned samples from the Moon was in 1976, when the Soviet Union’s robotic Luna 24 spacecraft brought back about six ounces of lunar samples on board.

(Futurism)​

*MORE COVERAGE:*


*China recovers Chang’e-5 moon samples after complex 23-day mission* (SpaceNews)
*Chinese sample return capsule lands on Earth after round-trip flight to moon* (SpaceFlightNow)


----------



## 18m2 (Nov 24, 2013)

Look up to see some Astronomical events coming in 2021.


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

18m2 said:


> Look up to see some Astronomical events coming in 2021.



Are you sure that's the correct URL???

Nothing there really works for me.



- Patrick
=======


----------



## 18m2 (Nov 24, 2013)

pm-r said:


> Are you sure that's the correct URL???
> 
> Nothing there really works for me.
> 
> ...


The URL works for me and I can't find any options for an alternate URL. Perhaps you are using one of the ad blocker? The videos seem to not run if there are ad blockers implemented.


----------



## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

18m2 said:


> The URL works for me and I can't find any options for an alternate URL. Perhaps you are using one of the ad blocker? The videos seem to not run if there are ad blockers implemented.



Thanks Rod,

I should have double checked the URL with a different browser. It works with Firefox, so I guess I must have something blocking something in my Google Chrome.



- Patrick
======


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_And in one fell swoop, Elon Musk becomes a hero of the "Drill, Baby, Drill!" crowd...._

*Elon Musk Plans to Use Texas Natural Gas for His Starships*

Elon Musk became the richest man in the world thanks to enthusiasm for Tesla Inc.’s sleek electric cars -- and the company’s stratospheric stock price. But while Musk is perhaps the most well known clean energy CEO, SpaceX, his other company, is likely to rely on drilling for natural gas to power Starship, the new spacecraft and rocket designed to carry humans to the moon, Mars and beyond.

Musk’s SpaceX aims to use a site in South Texas to launch rockets to carry people and cargo to the moon and Mars. To do that, the company intends to drill gas wells to make its own fuel and electricity, according a Federal Aviation Administration document seen by Bloomberg.

* * *

The SpaceX site in Texas will be supplied by at least five nearby gas wells, along with two gas-fired power plants, according to the FAA document. Purified gas from the wells will be pumped into refrigeration equipment that turns it into liquid methane, the document shows. The methane can be combined with liquid oxygen and other compounds to make rocket fuel.

(Yahoo! Finance)​

....and while you're here, SpaceX is launching it's "Starship" test vehicle - SN9 - possibly on Monday (delayed from Friday). And once it blows u---.... I mean, "lands".... SN10 is sitting right beside it on the pad, ready for it's test flight. YouTube has a few good channels covering it, including the 24/7 live feed from NASA SpaceFlight Now

Scroll back in this thread to see the SN8 frakkin' amazing test flight, when the Starship launched, hovered, cut its engines, belly-flopped, flipped upright, and then.... experienced a RUD* (missed it by thatmuch)

_______________________________________
*RUD = Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly


Right now, at SpaceX's Boca Chica facillity, you have this pretty awesome sight:











Satirical Twitter account NominalNews has a preview of what we can expect from SpaceX in the not-too-distant future...


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

*Whoopsie.*

Only 1 of 2 engines re-lit on the landing attempt. Slightly less successful attempt than the first one. Oh well - SN10 is sitting right there, ready to go once they figure out how to light a match more confidently 

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zZ7fIkpBgs[/ame]


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

_Meanwhile, SpaceX has announced the first private-citizen spaceflight will go into orbit this year:_

*SpaceX aims to launch 'all-civilian' trip into orbit*

SpaceX announced Monday it's aiming to launch this year the first all-civilian mission into Earth's orbit, led by a tech billionaire who plans to raffle off one of the spots aboard the craft.

Entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is to be joined by three other novice astronauts for a multi-day journey into space, including one lucky winner of a drawing.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime adventure: a journey into outer space on the first all-civilian space flight," according to a website dedicated to the mission.

SpaceX, the company started by Elon Musk, said Isaacman is "donating the three seats alongside him... to individuals from the general public who will be announced in the weeks ahead."

Launch of the Dragon spacecraft is being targeted for "no earlier than the fourth quarter of this year", the firm said.

One seat will go to a worker from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which treats childhood cancers and pediatric diseases, and the second is to be drawn from those who enter the raffle and are encouraged to donate to the hospital.

A third will be picked by a panel of judges from entrepreneurs who use an ecommerce tool from Isaacman's company, Shift4 Payments.

All three crewmembers "will receive commercial astronaut training by SpaceX on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft," as well as orbital mechanics and stress testing, including operating in micro- or zero gravity, the statement said.

SpaceX says that during the multi-day mission, the astronauts will orbit Earth every 90 minutes.

After the mission, the spacecraft will reenter the atmosphere for a water landing off the Florida coast.


(RFI)​


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## pm-r (May 17, 2009)

> Only 1 of 2 engines re-lit on the landing attempt. Slightly less successful attempt than the first one.



Still, I must say all very impressive.

By the way, those are pretty damned expensive engineered matches they use!!! ;-)




- Patrick
======


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

SpaceX's Starship "SN10" had an interesting day!

Mid-afternoon the countdown went to T-0, the engines fired, and.... they aborted.

Two hours later, they lit her again, and made a successful flight to 10km, belly flop manoeuvre, flip back to vertical, and - SUCCESSFUL vertical landing!

Video: 






Oh, and when I say "successful", I mean... mostly. It landed but was kind of "leaning tower of pisa", with a fire under its bum.












A few minutes later, well... RUD:


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Yowza! Looks like the Hindenburg!


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

SHE's BEEN HIT! THE CANADARM HAS BEEN HIT!


















Space junk hit the International Space Station, damaging a robotic arm | CNN


A robotic arm located outside of the International Space Station has been hit by orbital debris, but it's still functioning.




www.cnn.com


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

For those who may not have been following....

SpaceX today mated the latest Starship test vehicle (SN20) on top of the 4th iteration of the Super Heavy (SH) Booster. 

The SH Booster - with 29 raptor engines to light - was rolled out three days ago.

We're still a few (?) months away from this thing being launched, in SpaceX's first orbital launch test:

The 230-foot-tall (70 meters) Booster 4 will soon go through a series of pressurization and engine tests. Providing Booster 4 passes the trials, the rocket will then be prepared to send SN20 on a round-the-world trip. But it's unclear when the rocket will launch, given that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is performing an environmental review of Starship's launch operations, and we don't know when that will finish. 


The orbital flight plan calls for Booster 4 to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) offshore, a few minutes after launch. SN20 will continue into orbit, make one circuit of Earth and then come down in the Pacific Ocean roughly 90 minutes after liftoff, near the Hawaiian island of Kauai.​
The livestream is rather entertaining - worth popping in and scrubbing back to watch the crane hoist SN20 up and onto the booster. A pretty impressive sight:


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Aaaaaand.... it's been de-stacked (by the end of the livestream). Expect scenes like this for the next month or so, at least, as they figure out if the things they designed and built actually fit together properly LOL.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Captain Kirk is (finally) going into space...

In just under a week's time, William Shatner will be launched into space (but not orbit) onboard a Blue Origin rocket.



https://www.space.com/william-shatner-blue-origin-space-crew



Also check out this entertaining interview between Shatner and Anderson Cooper:


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## groovetube (Jan 2, 2003)

Wow, how cool is that. Captain Kirk, in space! How is this guy 90???


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Today's Blue Origin launch of Capt. Kirk to space has been pushed to Wednesday, 13 October, due to weather concerns.






Blue Origin successfully and safely completes second human flight to space and back | Blue Origin







www.blueorigin.com


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

CubaMark said:


> Today's Blue Origin launch of Capt. Kirk to space has been pushed to Wednesday, 13 October, due to weather concerns.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

Shatner went up.

Shatner came down.


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## groovetube (Jan 2, 2003)

This was a chuckle:


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)




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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

CubaMark said:


> Shatner went up.
> 
> Shatner came down.


They should have better contamination procedures. I could see a mugato fleeing across the desert in the background.


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## CubaMark (Feb 16, 2001)

So many of these... great comic fodder!


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

Chinese rover investigates 'cube' on far side of the moon | CBC News


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## Dr.G. (Aug 4, 2001)

'Hut' on the moon is the latest imagined alien artifact | CBC Radio


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