Space - The Final Frontier

[ERD50]

...

My technicians used to joke SpaceX is the only $20/hour job you can make over $100K/year at!

That's only 14 hour days, with 7 days off a year! Luxury!

-ERD50

 

[clifp]

When I was in my 20s, I had jobs which, if I screwed up, could result in my death and the deaths of many other people. It gave me great perspective on life, and a lot of confidence.

You were a submariner correct?

I was in Air Force ROTC, when I found out my eyesight wasn't good enough to be a flight officer (like a navigator), which was my dream. I briefly considered becoming a Minuteman ICBM operator, I liked to say that my consciousness got the better of me and the thought of wiping out entire cities was terrifying. But the real reasons I quit ROTC were I couldn't image spending a winter in Nebraska or the Dakota, and software engineers made twice as much as 2nd Lt.

 

[JoeWras]

I'd love to hear more from Gumby and others who spent time in our earth's "inner space" and give their perspective about outer space, especially long time travel in a tube stuck with other people.

 

[CaptTom]

There have been a few articles lately, like this one, about Russia making implied threats to pull out of (or do something to) the Space Station.

My knee-jerk reaction is "Good!" But maybe it's not that simple.

Long-term, it's possible Putin will no longer be in office and Russians will renew their interest in working with the West. It's also possible current events will turn Russia more to the East. I could see Russia and China working together to further to agendas of autocratic governments and resist democracy.

In the short term, it makes sense to evaluate what options we (the rest of the ISS partners) have. I've read mostly about SpaceX, but maybe the European partners have some ideas, too.

 

[Gumby]

I'd love to hear more from Gumby and others who spent time in our earth's "inner space" and give their perspective about outer space, especially long time travel in a tube stuck with other people.

Along those lines, this might be an interesting read.

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2015/june/submariners-space

 

[Chuckanut]

Here's an interesting and piece of news from the week's Ars Technica Rocket Report. Even after all these years I still find booster re-usablity to be amazing. We really are living my childhood science fiction.

https://link.arstechnica.com/view/5d89233cfc942d478884a0e1g5oxd.db2/044ec273

Falcon 9 pushes reuse record. SpaceX flew one of its Falcon 9 rocket boosters for a record 12th time early Saturday, delivering 53 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit and closing out the first quarter of 2022 with 11 missions, Spaceflight Now reports. The booster, numbered B1051, debuted in March 2019 with the unpiloted test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. The booster has launched from all three of SpaceX’s active pads in Florida and California.

Not bad for a pogo-stick. Or was it a trampoline?

 

[Yoheadden]

https://earthsky.org/space/artemis1-our-return-to-moon/

This is an interesting article about the current and future Artemis flights that will be going to the moon.

 

[CaptTom]

Anyone else notice that launches aren't making the news as much any more?


I still try to watch them when I can. If not, I'll usually go back and watch the video later. Yeah, it's getting a bit monotonous, but that's a good thing, right?

SpaceFlightNow does post a launch schedule, but there are a lot of TBD's and last-minute changes. It's getting easy to miss a launch entirely.

 

[Yoheadden]

I agree. You are hearing less about rocket launches. I do suppose it’s a good thing, since nothing bad is happening and it’s becoming more commonplace.

Here’s an update from Mars or at least on the rover that is there.
I’m amazed at the quality of the pictures it is sending back.

https://earthsky.org/space/perseverance-rover-sprints-to-martian-delta/

 

[Chuckanut]

Here's some interesting news from SpaceX. They aren't going to build anymore Dragon spacecraft.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-no-more-crew-dragon

The other takeaway, according to Reuters? It’s yet another sign that SpaceX’s leadership is stepping up pressure on the company to deliver on its wildly ambitious Starship spacecraft, a much more full-featured space travel vehicle that Musk anticipates sending large numbers of people to Earth’s orbit, the Moon, and even beyond to Mars.

Starship had better work. And, the same goes for Boeing's Starliner. I hate to think that America's manned space flight system might depend completely on Starliner.

 

[Gumby]

I'm guessing that Joshua had great fun writing this article:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/us-science-advisors-desperately-want-204500526.html

Ultimately, it’s unclear whether scientists will get to probe Uranus within the next decade. But, it does sound like they’re going to try their hardest.

 

[CaptTom]

I'm guessing that Joshua had great fun writing this article...

Sigh. We're in for 20 years of bad Uranus puns.


Maybe we should just rename the planet?

 

[REWahoo]

Sigh. We're in for 20 years of bad Uranus puns.

Maybe we should just rename the planet?

I agree. That planet has been the butt of far too many jokes.

 

[CaptTom]

I agree. That planet has been the butt of far too many jokes.

You're not helping!

 

[Koogie]

I realize this is kind of "talking up my book"** (disclosure: RKLB shareholder) but Rocket Lab is going to attempt something pretty cool tomorrow.


"There and Back Again" orbital mission

"Rocket Lab is preparing for its There and Back Again mission that will launch from Launch Complex-1A, Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand.

On the There and Back Again mission, Electron will carry 34 payloads for commercial operators Alba Orbital, Astrix Astronautics, Aurora Propulsion Technologies, E-Space, Unseenlabs, and Swarm Technologies via global launch services provider Spaceflight Inc.

Moreover, this mission will mark the first attempt of a mid-air helicopter capture of the Electron launch vehicle as it returns to Earth from space."

Further information here:
https://everydayastronaut.com/there-and-back-again-electron/



**unless it goes wrong...

 

[Chuckanut]

Reports indicated that our little Martian helicopter is having a tough time keeping its batteries charged. Ingenuity has already gone well past its expected life and met its goals. But, the cold of the Martian nights will probably cause it some damage. No doubt there be other, more sophisticated copters on Mars in the future.

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...rs-nasas-helicopter-faces-a-long-dark-winter/

To compensate for a thinner atmosphere, Ingenuity had to prove it could spin its blades faster than they were designed for. After a short test flight in late October, Ingenuity made a triumphant return on November 6 with a 407-meter flight across a wintry Martian surface, ascending to an altitude of 12 meters. Its next flight, the autonomous helicopter's 16th overall, could take place as soon as this Saturday.
The mission's planners don't know how long the plucky vehicle will last, because it has far out-lived its design lifetime, so they're just enjoying the ride. Thanks to this new video, we can as well.

 

[CaptTom]

Interesting article, thanks! We've heard about dust on solar panels during other Mars missions. You'd think that, with a helicopter, there would be the option to blow the dust off. No doubt the engineers already thought of that, and it's not that simple. No matter what, Ingenuity has had a great run!


The pedantic side of me caught this sentence in the article:

After losing contact, the engineers figured that the Ingenuity's field-programmable gate array—essentially, its flight computer—entered into shutdown mode due to a lack of power.

Field-programmable? Where do I sign of for the job of "Field programmer" on Mars?

 

[dixonge]

Anyone else notice that launches aren't making the news as much any more?

I just follow SpaceX on Twitter. Catch most things that way, can always fire it up live on YouTube if I wish...

I realize this is kind of "talking up my book"** (disclosure: RKLB shareholder) but Rocket Lab is going to attempt something pretty cool tomorrow.
<snip>
Moreover, this mission will mark the first attempt of a mid-air helicopter capture of the Electron launch vehicle as it returns to Earth from space."

I see that they supposedly snagged it temporarily, but then the pilot had to hit the 'release!' button, probably because it tried to drag the helicopter into a spin, or the ocean. It's an odd poor-man's version of reusability. I guess it's faster than copying the one successful reusable rocket design/tech...?

 

[dixonge]

Thread Anniversary and Elon Musk Net Worth

Just noticed that in 12 days this thread will be 10 years old!!!

Also one other interesting factoid. When this thread started Elon Musk's net worth was approximately $40 Billion. As of right now, it sits at $237.1 Billion.

Just finished reading his 2015 biography, which cut off when he was just reaching initial successes and hit around $10 Billion in net worth. There were still lots of quotes from multiple people naysaying him at every turn. And now we have multiple Gigafactories, multiple Tesla models with ever-increasing production, over 100 successful rockets landing on the ground or a floating platform, and successful Starship test flights. And pending hyperloop rollouts. And I think I read somewhere that within 18 monhts SpaceX will own 2/3 of all active satellites in orbit!

That's just insane!

 

[JoeWras]

Field-programmable? Where do I sign of for the job of "Field programmer" on Mars?

I spent a good deal of my career working on the programming of FPGAs.

It is not as glamorous as you think.

But seriously, way back in the dark ages, we actually did have to go into the field (get your space suit on!) to program them using various devices. In more recent times, it can all be done remotely.

 

[CaptTom]

Also one other interesting factoid. When this thread started Elon Musk's net worth was approximately $40 Billion. As of right now, it sits at $237.1 Billion.
...
That's just insane!

Yeah, it's amazing how far he's gotten. That whole hyperloop thing seems to have gotten off to a slow start, but who knows, it may pan out.

I am wondering how long Musk's winning streak can last. You know the saying; the bigger they are the harder they fall. Space is a risky business, and getting cocky can be catastrophic for any program (see: Challenger.)

I do hope all these space ventures succeed, but I'm very glad we have more than one of them, pursuing different paths.

But seriously, way back in the dark ages, we actually did have to go into the field (get your space suit on!) to program them using various devices. In more recent times, it can all be done remotely.

I assumed as much. Presumably they can do OTA updates to the ones on Mars! It still made for an humorous moment reading that sentence.

 

[Chuckanut]

Hopefully, Boeing's Starliner launch later this month will be a great success. It's currently scheduled for May 20.

 

[Freedom56]

What could go wrong? Boeing is now being run by an accountant who still hasn't been able to figure out how to generate positive cash flow. The Starliner is already obsolete and if not for SpaceX and the firm fixed price contract, Boeing would have just continued the program as another government welfare project like the SLS.

 

[Gumby]

Voyager 1

Data anomalies reported from Voyager 1, the most distant man-made object. I am quite fond of the Voyager spacecraft, so I hope this can be overcome.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/engineers-investigating-nasas-voyager-1-telemetry-data

The engineering team with NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is trying to solve a mystery: The interstellar explorer is operating normally, receiving and executing commands from Earth, along with gathering and returning science data. But readouts from the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS) don’t reflect what’s actually happening onboard.

 

[Chuckanut]

That Starliner launch is scheduled to go in about two hours.

While I have been critical of Boeing and how it has [-]bungled[/-] handled the development of this new spacecraft, I sure hope they are successful. Space is hard, and it's only a matter of time until SpaceX has a serious accident and it gets grounded for a while. We need an alternative (other than trampolines and pogo-sticks as suggested by the head of Roscosomos).