Space - The Final Frontier

[meierlde]

But what form of communication would we use? How would they understand us ? What technology could we use where they would recognize it as a form of communication? I do not have an answer for that.

Actually as in Carl Sagans Novel Contact encode at various levels starting with sending multiple digits in a stream that anyone who has radio astronomy could detect.

 

[HFWR]

I suspect that traveling to other star systems will remain a dream for far longer than I'll be around.

As for Mars, I haven't followed Musk's "plans" for visiting or colonizing Mars, but I'm thinking multiple unmanned cargo trips would be required prior to any womanned mission.

 

[Totoro]

As I understand one way would be a slow manned mission with faster high-G cargo missions send after it. A bit like the Martian.

 

[Chuckanut]

Here's an interesting article on what the Russians may try to do in the future to compete with SpaceX on price.

https://arstechnica.com/science/201...ly-reduce-prices-by-15-20-percent/?comments=1

The expendable Soyuz 5 would be less complicated than earlier versions of the Soyuz family while costing as much as 20 percent less to fly. "If we achieve this goal, it will ensure its competitiveness," Komarov said. He is betting that SpaceX, with its aggressive push toward reusability, will only succeed in reducing the cost of launch by 15 to 20 percent over the next five years.

What I found most interesting was the comment by 'marsilies' on what SpaceX had to do to make the 1st stage reusable. Reusality has to be desinged into the rocket - no surprise there.

Among other things they used multiple low-power rocket engines so that they can fire just a few rockets and have the low thrust to weight ratio they need for landing. Apparently one or two large engines would not land the first stage but push it back up! They also needed a more powerful second stage so as to give the first stage an easier trajectory for landing.

Also see DanNeely's comment on why reusablity reduces the load the rocket can carry by quite a bit.

 

[Chuckanut]

Happy Moon Landing Day!

 

[Chuckanut]

48 years ago Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left the moon to return to Earth. The first human beings to step onto another celestial body.

Six years ago STS 135 landed. The last Space Shuttle mission, and the last time a USA spacecraft carried human beings into space.

What a difference 4 decades make.

 

[Alan]

And a vacuum bag used to collect moon dust from that Apollo 11 mission just sold for $1.8m. It was bought by an Illinois lawyer for $995 in 2015. How about that for an impressive ROI

Moon dust bag sold for $1.8m at New York auction - BBC News

 

[DrRoy]

Just got back from EAA Airventure in Oshkosh WI. Went primarily for the Salute to Apollo, with host David Hartman, and Al Worden, Joe Engle, Buzz Aldrin, Fred Haise, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, Walt Cunningham, and Gene Kranz.

Also saw the Blue Angels for the first time.

.

 

[Koogie]

This is making the rounds and I thought it was very cool. A map showing the relative surface areas of the solid planets, moons and asteroids of the solar system as compared to the continents of earth.

https://xkcd.com/1389/large/


I was most surprised by Ganymede and Europa for some reason.

 

[MooreBonds]

This is making the rounds and I thought it was very cool. A map showing the relative surface areas of the solid planets, moons and asteroids of the solar system as compared to the continents of earth.

https://xkcd.com/1389/large/


I was most surprised by Ganymede and Europa for some reason.

I was most surprised by the "human skin" part! lol. I thought it looked small, so did a very quick and rough guesstimate....only to find that it was, indeed, probably graphically correct, using Sri Lanka as a rough comparison. I assumed 5ft average height, 6 billion people, 12 sq ft of skin per person.

 

[Chuckanut]

I didn't think Venus was that big. Maybe we should terraform that instead of Earth. OTOH, I understand it's rather hot and humid there.

 

[Koogie]

I didn't think Venus was that big. Maybe we should terraform that instead of Earth. OTOH, I understand it's rather hot and humid there.

Gonna assume you meant terraform Mars, not Earth..

When I was a kid, speculative fiction about Venus was on par with that about Mars (Rice Burroughs notwithstanding) Pioneer kind of killed that off.

 

[Walt34]

I didn't think Venus was that big.

I remember in high school I missed out on winning a $1,000 prize (serious money in 1967) from a radio station call-in quiz because I was too lazy to get my butt out of bed and make the call. In a science class that day the question had been answered.

The question was "What planet in the solar system is closest in size to the earth?" I knew the answer was Venus. But I had insomnia for some reason, it was 3:00 AM, I was listening to the radio via a small transistor radio on my bed, I had school the next morning, and I (wrongly) figured I'd be too late to dial in. And yes, "dial" was the way it was done then, no push-buttons on our phone.

After about five minutes of no one calling and giving me ample time to call in, someone else did. And got it wrong! He said "Mars".

Talk about figuratively kicking yourself in the butt for the rest of the month!

 

[mystang52]

I didn't think Venus was that big. Maybe we should terraform that instead of Earth. OTOH, I understand it's rather hot and humid there.

Definitely hot (900 degrees), but I don't think humid. Predominantly CO2 and, I believe, sulfuric acid. Not particularly pleasant....

 

[Chuckanut]

Definitely hot (900 degrees), but I don't think humid. Predominantly CO2 and, I believe, sulfuric acid. Not particularly pleasant....

Are you sure? I saw this movie years ago "Queen of Outer Space" with Zsa Zsa Gabor. It looked pretty good to me.

 

[ERD50]

Are you sure? I saw this movie years ago "Queen of Outer Space" with Zsa Zsa Gabor. It looked pretty good to me.

OMG! Check out the trailer:

So in 1958, they figured we would be traveling to Venus by 1985! And we are still waiting for flying cars!

OK, the whole thing was meant as a joke, but still. I didn't know it could get this bad (but some of those girls from Venus are very nice looking!).

-ERD50

 

[brett]

We opted for less space. 1400 sq feet...down from about 4000.

It is perfect.

 

[Koogie]

We opted for less space.

but is that your final frontier ?

 

[clifp]

If you haven't seen Elon's/SpaceX blooper video how not to land you're in for a treat.

It worth noting that Elon posted this at 2 AM California and evidently was involved in the making of it. Does the guy sleep?

 

[imoldernu]

What happens when 4 men and 2 women live together for 8 months in a 1200 square foot room?

News from The Associated Press

 

[GalaxyBoy]

If you haven't seen Elon's/SpaceX blooper video how not to land you're in for a treat.

"Entropy is such a lonely word." Gotta love that man.

 

[DrRoy]

I can't believe that no one mentioned the end of the Cassini probe yet. This video of Saturn images is awesome.

https://twitter.com/x/status/908678835603951617

 

[mystang52]

I can't believe that no one mentioned the end of the Cassini probe yet. This video of Saturn images is awesome.

https://twitter.com/x/status/908678835603951617

I have been following the Cassini mission since it began. The ongoing pictures. and what we learned as the mission progressed, defied proper adjectives. Awesome, awe-inspiring, breathtaking are good starts. But I agree this entire mission was just amazing.
Can't wait (and hope I'm still around!) when the 2 planned Europa missions reach that moon.

 

[kgtest]

If you haven't seen Elon's/SpaceX blooper video how not to land you're in for a treat.

It worth noting that Elon posted this at 2 AM California and evidently was involved in the making of it. Does the guy sleep?

I think a lot of fortune exec's live off 4hrs of sleep on a semi-daily basis. I knew a VP at GM finance, she never turned work off. Worked from 5am until dinner, then after putting kids to bed right back working on her laptop until 1am.

Couldn't pay me enough.

 

[Chuckanut]

For those of your who can't get enough Star Trek, check out this freebie on YouTube for Star Trek Continues. IMHO, they get better as ones gets farther into the 10 episodes.