Space - The Final Frontier

[mpeirce]

Frankly we'd be better off with a "prize" approach. Keep NASA management (basically keep Congress) as far away from it as possible.

We already proved it could be done. Why not offer $50B to the first company who can do something useful like a $50B prize for returning a human to the moon and another $50B for having someone stay there for at least a month. What goals would be worth pursuing?

[GalaxyBoy]

Now Elon says he thinks he could get the BFR to the moon within five years. I’m skeptical of course, but it would be pretty cool to see it happen.

https://www.inverse.com/article/5439...humans-to-moon

Quote:

SpaceX could send humans to the surface of the moon in just five years’ time, founder Elon Musk declared Tuesday. The company’s upcoming Starship, under development at the firm’s Boca Chica test facility in Texas, is designed to send the first humans to the surface of Mars. Musk believes it’s possible the same ship could host a return to Earth’s nearest neighbor.

[Chuckanut]

Looks like we need to wait another day to see Falcon Heavy do its thing. That’s fine with me. Take the time to do it right. Space travel isn’t easy.

[Koogie]

A reminder that the Israelis are going to attempt to make a moon landing today. Roughly 3 to 4 pm EST.

https://www.space.com/israel-moon-la...t-webcast.html

[CaptTom]

Mice in SPAAAAAAAAAACE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCHUtHZZ0E

This is either really cool, or really scary!

Next they'll have to test how a mousetrap works in space. Or get a cat.

[Chuckanut]

I appears that SpaceX has identified the problem that made the Crew Dragon spacecraft blow up in April. The article below indicates they have a good idea of the what caused the problem, and are close to winding up up the investigation and finding a fix.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/05/2...ln0k_Qo_tRJJ1c

Quote:

While not providing any details about the cause of the explosion or what corrective actions might be required, Lueders said SpaceX is working to get the newly assigned Demo 2 capsule ready for flight “by the end of the year,” processing the spacecraft in a way that will allow engineers to make downstream changes as needed. “We need to close out the anomaly investigation,” she said when asked about the schedule. “I think that’s the big thing, we’ve got to make sure we’ve really taken our learning from this anomaly investigation and made sure that if we need to make a change to the vehicle that it gets done. I think that’s the big thing. <snip> “NASA and SpaceX, we have some really good ideas on what the core cause was, but we want to make sure we get it right before we go forward because if we don’t have it right, then we’ll have to put out new information and create even more confusion,” Bridenstine said. “Which we don’t want to do.”

Time will tell.

[6miths]

Just came in from watching the ISS go over. 6 minutes - NW to E with a maximum altitude of 42 degrees in the predawn sky at 0500h. I used to be able to go out on the lakefront to watch with an unobstructed view but with Lake Huron-Michigan up over 5 feet in 5 years, I don't have anywhere to stand anymore so I went up on the roof. Still impressive but a bit less so with only the brightest stars visible. It was paced by a jet flying roughly the same track and it brought to mind and old high school math problem.

I saw an article in the paper the other day about a middle school opening a time capsule from 50 years ago. It had a letter from the then Prime Minister in it commenting on all of the advances over the previous 50 years and what marvels the next 50 would hopefully hold. Looking at the space station and thinking that 50 years ago today, final preparations were being made for the launch of Apollo 11 two days hence it is hard to wonder if he might not have been disappointed. There was a time when if one would have asked me if I would live to see humans on Mars that I would have answered yes for sure. I'm no longer so certain but still hopeful.

[CaptTom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 6miths There was a time when if one would have asked me if I would live to see humans on Mars that I would have answered yes for sure. I'm no longer so certain but still hopeful.

It is sad to see that we (who saw the moon landing live) probably won't live to see the first humans land on Mars. Admittedly, I take all the rosy predictions from SpaceX and NASA with a very large grain of salt.

It strikes me that, barring an existential threat like the Cold War, governments aren't really good at this sort of thing. Just as Queen Isabella bankrolled Columbus, governments are great for putting up seed money for the initial phase. But North America wasn't really settled by Europeans for a couple of hundred years after Columbus. And then it took private investment, in hopes of making huge returns, to really get things going.

I hope it doesn't take another 150 years to start settling the Moon or other planets, but the economics point that way. I'm not likely to be around to see it anyway, so I suppose I shouldn't care.

[Chuckanut]

It won't be that long until there will be nobody who walked on the Moon alive on Earth.

I think we've done a great job of exploring our own solar system with robots. I would like to see the world's powers find a way to detect asteroids that might impact Earth and deflect them. The one that hit Russia a few years ago was not a major catastrophe since it exploded in the air and was not very close to a major populated area. But, a hit very near any major city and POOF! no city.

Quote:

Its explosion created panic among local residents, and about 1,500 people were injured seriously enough to seek medical treatment. All of the injuries were due to indirect effects rather than the meteor itself, mainly from broken glass from windows that were blown in when the shock wave arrived, minutes after the superbolide's flash. Some 7,200 buildings in six cities across the region were damaged by the explosion's shock wave, and authorities scrambled to help repair the structures in sub-freezing temperatures.

[Koogie]

As the saying goes:

"Born too late to explore the Earth"
"Born too early to explore Space"

[Chuckanut]

The Tesla Roadster sent into solar orbit on the test flight of Falcon Heavy has apparently completed one orbit of the Sun.

https://electrek.co/2019/08/18/tesla...rst-orbit-sun/

Quote:

Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster that SpaceX launched into space on their Falcon Heavy rocket last year has completed its first orbit around the sun, according to a tracking report.

That was one of the most exciting launches (and landings) I have seen in a long time.

[Koogie]

I thought this was pretty cool. The first photographed eclipse on Jupiter as Io makes its transit.


juno-sees-io-moon-shadow-on-jupiter
https://www.space.com/juno-sees-io-m...n-jupiter.html

[harley]

I was outside working in the yard about an hour ago, and there was a tremendous noise and the ground started shaking. It felt like a minor earthquake. I was looking around to see what was going on, and got to see a rocket launching from Wallops Island (VA) NASA base, about 20 miles away. I am usually on top of these planned launches, but I missed the announcement on this one completely. It was pretty cool, and being cold and clear outside I had a great view.

It was a Cygnus rocket, named the SS Alan Bean. I'm buying a lottery ticket today if my luck is running this good. Rocket launches from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harley I was outside working in the yard about an hour ago, and there was a tremendous noise and the ground started shaking. It felt like a minor earthquake. I was looking around to see what was going on, and got to see a rocket launching from Wallops Island (VA) NASA base, about 20 miles away. I am usually on top of these planned launches, but I missed the announcement on this one completely. It was pretty cool, and being cold and clear outside I had a great view. It was a Cygnus rocket, named the SS Alan Bean. I'm buying a lottery ticket today if my luck is running this good. Rocket launches from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia

Is this the one carrying the cookie oven to the ISS?

[MuirWannabe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harley I was outside working in the yard about an hour ago, and there was a tremendous noise and the ground started shaking. It felt like a minor earthquake. I was looking around to see what was going on, and got to see a rocket launching from Wallops Island (VA) NASA base, about 20 miles away. I am usually on top of these planned launches, but I missed the announcement on this one completely. It was pretty cool, and being cold and clear outside I had a great view. It was a Cygnus rocket, named the SS Alan Bean. I'm buying a lottery ticket today if my luck is running this good. Rocket launches from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia

Thanks for sharing this. My dad went to aerospace engineering school with Alan Bean some 64 years ago. It was a small class and they were friends. They both went on to work for what eventually became nasa, with Alan becoming quite famous of course. Anyway, I shared this news story with my dad this morning after seeing your post. My dad is barely hanging on these days and his short term memory is gone. But his long term memory is still remarkably good and it was nice to hear him recount some of those days from long ago, even though I’d heard the stories before.

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckanut Is this the one carrying the cookie oven to the ISS?

Affirmative.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuirWannabe Thanks for sharing this. My dad went to aerospace engineering school with Alan Bean some 64 years ago. It was a small class and they were friends. They both went on to work for what eventually became nasa, with Alan becoming quite famous of course. Anyway, I shared this news story with my dad this morning after seeing your post. My dad is barely hanging on these days and his short term memory is gone. But his long term memory is still remarkably good and it was nice to hear him recount some of those days from long ago, even though I’d heard the stories before.

That's great! I used to know the names of all the astronauts, although between the increased number of them and the decreased number of living brain cells I've got these days, that's no longer the case.

[Chuckanut]

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft passed its abort test today. Only two of the three parachutes opened. Apparently, two chutes are all that's needed for a safe landing.

https://www.space.com/boeing-starlin...t-success.html

[CaptTom]

Watched the Starliner launch. Some random thoughts:

1) Remember the Apollo launches? Narrated by some stodgy old white guy in a suit? Now, it's a pair of hipsters, the guy sporting a ski cap and full beard. No judgement from me, I'm OK either way. Just observing the change.

2) Aren't market forces great? Now with two prime contenders (SpaceX and Boeing) vying for the contracts, the pace of innovation seems to have picked up.

3) Did you notice the Boeing folks using the words "reusable" and "reusability" a lot? Didn't they scoff at SpaceX for that, before SpaceX became successful at it?

[Chuckanut]

Here's an interesting weekly summary of launches and rocket information:

https://link.arstechnica.com/view/5d...p.730/96d8921e

Here's a sample of the type of information it provides.....

Quote:

Northrop Grumman launches upgraded Antares. On Saturday, a more powerful version of the Antares rocket took flight from Wallops Island, Virginia, launching a cargo supply mission to the International Space Station. This was the first launch of the Antares 230+ variant, NASASpaceflight.com reports.

[mpeirce]

This is good too

https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/launch-schedule/