Space News thread

[harrybarracuda]

NASA will launch a mission to Mars this weekend which - if successful - will reveal whether the planet could ever be habitable.

Mars is a difficult planet to investigate. Its thin atmosphere makes landing a challenge and its extreme temperature swings make it very difficult for missions to be conducted on the surface.

Only 40% of the missions ever sent to Mars have been successful.

InSight, which stands for Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, will place a single lander spacecraft on Mars.

NASA says the mission will help scientists understand what is happening around the planet's core.

It will also help explain how all rocky planets, including the Earth, evolved. There are significant mysteries here, because while both Mars and the Earth were formed from the same stuff more than 4.5 billion years ago, they are now very different planets.

InSight will study what motion is taking place underground in Mars, motions known as marsquakes.

NASA's scientists have seen a lot of evidence that Mars has quakes - known as marsquakes. Unlike Earth, where quakes are caused by tectonic plates, Mars has very quiet tectonic processes.

This means marsquakes are more likely to be caused by other forms of tectonic activity, including volcanism and cracks forming in the planet's crust.
NASA said: "Each marsquake would be like a flashbulb that illuminates the structure of the planet's interior.

"By studying how seismic waves pass through the different layers of the planet (the crust, mantle and core), scientists can deduce the depths of these layers and what they're made of.

"In this way, seismology is like taking an X-ray of the interior of Mars."

Earth and Venus have tectonic systems which have destroyed most evidence of their early history, but Mars (which is just one third the size of those planets), contains less energy to power these tectonic processes.

NASA said this makes Mars a fossil planet in many ways because it has remained static for more than three billion years.

The mission will launch before dawn from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Usually, missions to other planets launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and fly east, over the water of the Atlantic Ocean.

Flying towards the east adds the momentum of Earth's eastward rotation to the launch vehicle's own thrust - but the Atlas V-401 rocket launching InSight is powerful enough to fly south towards the sea from Vandenberg.

It will take InSight about six months to travel the 301 million miles (485 million kilometres) to Mars, and it is expected to arrive at Mars on 26 November 2018.

https://news.sky.com/story/could-we-...d-out-11359215

[BaitongBoy]

Approximately 50 million miles per month...Amazing...

[Simon43]

Currently pulling my hair out trying to receive images from the NOAA LEO weather satellites that transmit around 137.5 MHz.

I know that as the satellite passes overhead, the signal should be smoking hot, even using a simple antenna.

Nada, not the slightest wiff of a signal....

I assumed my pass calculations were off, but 2 separate programs confirm the same pass-times.

Fcuking annoying - why are simple things always difficult??

[Topper]

Fcuking annoying - why are simple things always difficult??

And usually difficult things turn out simple....drink a beer, walk out on the balcony and don't think about the problem....that's when the answers come....

[cyrille]

I know that as the satellite passes overhead, the signal should be smoking hot

Blimey...sounds exciting.

[Looper]

Currently pulling my hair out trying to receive images from the NOAA LEO weather satellites that transmit around 137.5 MHz.

I know that as the satellite passes overhead, the signal should be smoking hot, even using a simple antenna.

If the NOAA satellite image direct antenna downlink does not come through for you then I heard it is supposed to be sunny with a chance of light showers tomorrow...!

[Wilsonandson]

[Latindancer]

Currently pulling my hair out trying to receive images from the NOAA LEO weather satellites that transmit around 137.5 MHz.

I know that as the satellite passes overhead, the signal should be smoking hot, even using a simple antenna.

Nada, not the slightest wiff of a signal....

I assumed my pass calculations were off, but 2 separate programs confirm the same pass-times.

Fcuking annoying - why are simple things always difficult??

Simon, do you have a right hand circularly polarized antenna? And have you accounted for the Doppler Effect ?

[Simon43]

Simon, do you have a right hand circularly polarized antenna? And have you accounted for the Doppler Effect ?

Gawd, you must think I was born yesterday! Yes, I have accounted for the Doppler effect and adjusted my centre frequency and bandwidth to allow for it. And yes, I am using the correct polarisation on my receive antenna to ensure no 3dB signal loss.

I think the main reason for my failure to receive and decode the signals is that my system is crap....

[bobo746]

The NASA InSight spacecraft launches onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas-V rocket on May 5, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NASA launched its latest Mars lander, called InSight, designed to perch on the surface and listen for "Marsquakes" ahead of eventual human missions to explore the Red Planet

[BaitongBoy]

“Yet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end of the nineteenth century, expressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all, beyond its earthly level. Nor was it generally understood that since Mars is older than our earth, with scarcely a quarter of the superficial area and remoter from the sun, it necessarily follows that it is not only more distant from time's beginning but nearer its end.”

― H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

[OhOh]

even using a simple antenna

I have accounted for the Doppler effect and adjusted my centre frequency and bandwidth to allow for it. And yes, I am using the correct polarisation on my receive antenna to ensure no 3dB signal loss.

All very impressive knowledge. But as you know any adjustment of your "centre frequency" is always a hit and miss affair.

Are your cables connected, have you rebooted your system or have you recently installed new software or Chinese components - cables, switches etc.

My support deck time has finally paid off.

[Latindancer]

have you rebooted your system

[Simon43]

have you rebooted your system

Been a bit busy this weekend installing and testing some shortwave antennas for my ham radio station instead.

I checked everything and yes - rebooted my system (several times). I think maybe my receive antenna is either crap or the signal is being shielded by the building/trees.

The solution is to build a turnstile antenna, placed on open ground (but you knew that didn't you?)

[David48atTD]

A monster black hole has been discovered, and it's growing very fast (but it's far, far away)


Look carefully. This is the SkyMapper image of the giant black hole. It is the tiny dot just to the upper right of the pink cross.

Australian scientists have discovered the fastest growing black hole known in the universe.
It is growing at a rate of 1 per cent every 1 million years, and it is so big it is consuming a mass equivalent to our Sun every two days.


A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...


What did the first quasars look like? An artist's impression shows a primordial quasar as it might have been, surrounded by
sheets of gas, dust, stars, and early star clusters.

For those trying to unlock the secrets of the universe, the bigger a black hole is, the better.

And Dr Christian Wolf and his team at the ANU's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics have found a monster.
"What's really important in this business is now to actually find the most massive ones because they are the hardest ones
to explain," he says.

Supermassive black holes — or quasars — are hard to find among the billions of stars in the universe.
The ultra-violet light emitted from the quasar was detected by the SkyMapper telescope at the ANU Siding Spring Observatory.
There is a supermassive black hole at the centre of our own galaxy, but compared to this one, it's a lightweight.

"That one has a mass of 5 million solar masses — that is 40,000 times less mass than the one that we have now found," Dr Wolf says.

"We estimate that this black hole has a mass of at least 20 billion times the mass of the Sun."

http://www.xxx.xxx.xx/news/2018-05-1...y-fast/9761540

[Takeovers]

On May 5 SpaceX has launched a geostationary com sat for Bangladesh, Bangabandhu 1. That's just an ordinary launch. Except it isn't. This Falcon 9 is block 5, the latest and presumed last version of the Falcon 9 rocket. Some called it the end of the beginning of SpaceX. Block 5 incorporates all lessons learned from the development and previous flights of Falcon rockets.

SpaceX has already landed and reflown rocket boosters. But they reflew them only once. Block 5 is designed to fly 10 times without any refurbishment, just a look over and then refly them. It includes hundreds of changes to components that were damaged during previous launches and had to be replaced for reflight. Also it includes many changes demanded by NASA to make the rocket manrated. It is the version that will fly Astronauts to the ISS, once NASA certified. NASA wants SpaceX to fly block 5 at least 7 times before it can fly humans. Not a problem for SpaceX. They have a full launch manifest to fly them commercially.

SpaceX has already the lowest launch price of all launch providers for big payloads at $62 million. Only some smallsat launch vehicles are cheaper. With the first launch of block 5 Elon Musk announced that in future the price for already flown rockets will be reduced to $50 million. We can be sure that this price will include a substantial profit for SpaceX.

This first block 5 booster will be taken apart and checked very carefully to make sure such a procedure will not be needed in the future. It will fly again but will take some time before it happens. Elon Musk thinks that some time next year they will demonstrate the ability to fly a booster again after 24 hours. The booster after landing needs to be safed, checked, transported to the launch pad hangar, integrated with a new second stage and payload, then rolled out, refuelled and relaunched. A truly hard goal to reach.




The rocket on the way to the launch pad.



launch

[Takeovers]

More photos of that booster.



Showing the size of these gridfins compared to the people working on them.



I would love to see the photos that SpaceX technician is taking. He is taking photos of the new thermal protection system for the engine bay. The old system did its job but was destroyed and had to be replaced after flight. The new one is made of titanium and should last forever. Plus they added some water cooling.



A photo by Julia Bergeron of the booster arriving at port Canaveral. Look at the bottom. After landing the rocket needs to be safed for transport. So far humans had to do that job. Now they have the octograbber. That's the wite piece of equipment at the bottom. After landing it comes out of its storage, drives under the rocket and attaches itself to the rocket. Much faster and safer because it is done before humans board the vessel.

[OhOh]

Company launches China's first privately designed commercial rocket

By Shen Weiduo in Inner Mongolia and Bai Tiantian in Beijing Source:Global Times Published: 2018/5/17 17:03:40 Last

"Chinese company OneSpace Technology on Thursday successfully launched the country's first privately designed commercial rocket, with the company's CEO saying OneSpace may be able to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX in the next five to 10 years.

The OS-X rocket, "Chongqing Liangjiang Star," designed and developed by Chongqing-based start-up company OneSpace, took off from an undisclosed location in Northwest China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 7:33 am Thursday.

The 9-meter high, 7,200-kilogram rocket is capable of reaching an altitude of 38.7 kilometers with a maximum speed of 5.7 times the speed of sound, according to a OneSpace statement.

The company said the launch has met the requirements of the client, a Shenyang-based research institute under the Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

OneSpace CEO Shu Chang conceded at a Thursday press conference the gap between his company and SpaceX, but said OneSpace may be able to compete with SpaceX in certain areas in the next five to 10 years.

"OneSpace is dedicated to developing small-launch vehicles that carry micro- and nano-satellites. SpaceX is sending much larger satellites," Shu said.

SpaceX is now worth $21.5 billion. Shu declined to reveal his company's worth.

However, Zhengxuan Investment Co chairman Xia Zuoquan, who led investment worth more than 100 million yuan ($15.7 million) in OneSpace in 2016, said Thursday's successful launch gave him confidence in China's commercial space sector, and that he intends to help OneSpace surpass SpaceX.

Established in 2015 in Beijing, OneSpace has since received three rounds of investment totaling 500 million yuan.

OneSpace President Ma Chao told the Global Times on Thursday that compared with other overseas private space companies, OneSpace enjoys low costs.

Ma said OneSpace has already signed contracts with domestic and overseas clients, and orders of the OS-X series have been made for 2019.

It has also established partnerships with satellite companies in Asia and Europe.

Turning into a space power

In 2014, China began encouraging private capital in the satellite and spaceflight industries, a previously closed sector.

The country said in its 2016 space activities white paper that its vision is to "build China into a space power in all respects."

In April, another private Chinese company, Space Honor, successfully launched a solid-propellant rocket from Hainan Province to a height of 108 kilometers.

But OneSpace stressed its rocket is based on self-developed technology, claiming the company had completed research on rocket engines in nine months and control systems in six months, and there is much room for improvement in technology and costs.

Lin Guiping, a professor at Beihang University, said the opening-up could improve competition in the industry, boost innovation and develop China's space sector.

Lin said that the high-efficiency and profit-oriented nature of private companies could help China conduct space experiments at a much lower cost and shorter time, and that the companies can also serve as a platform for universities to test their research projects.

Pang Zhihao, a Beijing-based rocket expert, told the Global Times that China needs to develop commercial rocket launch sites to accommodate the companies, as the current fields are military controlled.'

Company launches China's first privately designed commercial rocket - Global Times

[Takeovers]

China goes for a scientific first. China is planning to land a lander and a rover on the backside of the moon, that is never visible from earth. It has not been done by the US or Russia as it is impossible to send data back directly. So the first step of the mission is sending up a relay sat that sees the landing site and the earth and provide communication. This step is planned for tonight, May 20, 2018. Lander and rover are scheduled to launch next year.

[Takeovers]

The chinese relay sat was launched successfully and is on the way to its final position beyond the moon. Here a mission profile.



I have always wondered how they would communicate from EML-2 (Earth Moon Lagrange point 2) as it is behind the moon. I never knew they can fly a halo orbit arount L2. Very tricky.

[david44]

Is the design of the Chang e based on a beer bottle, it's certainly launched me into a few orbits until I realized the less strong Leo was the cruisers fuel.

[Luigi]

Richard Branson reveals his astronaut training as space visit looms

The Virgin boss claims he is "months not years" away from getting his space tourism company Virgin Galactic off the ground.



https://news.sky.com/story/richard-b...looms-11385732

[TuskegeeBen]

I apologize for raining on the Starship Enterprise fantasy parade, but the facts of the matter are that space travel beyond the firmament
(dome ceiling) will not be available to this current civilization of human beings. Absolutely no sirree! The gods are not stupid.

[Luigi]

I apologize for raining on the Starship Enterprise fantasy parade, but the facts of the matter are that space travel beyond the firmament
(dome ceiling) will not be available to this current civilization of human beings. Absolutely no sirree! The gods are not stupid.

Pretty poor troll.


But in a way I agree with you. Space travel to places such as Mars will be doable, but space/Mars colonization won't, in terms of human reproduction and long-term human colonization. Not for at least 1000's years until we can either alter human DNA or properly Terraform other Worlds.

[Takeovers]

Space travel to places such as Mars will be doable, but space/Mars colonization won't, in terms of human reproduction and long-term human colonization. Not for at least 1000's years until we can either alter human DNA or properly Terraform other Worlds.

I have my doubts that colonization of Mars will be feasible but my doubts are based in economic obstacles. Will the money needed be spent? It would have to come from private initiative as I think no country will do it. If any, it would be China, but not soon.

About ability of humans to reproduce under conditions of Mars I am optimistic but it will need to be proven. I expect that it will be tried within the next 20 years. Trying with small mammals like mice or rats will be first.

I am thinking of an update for the Mars thread. There are lots of things going on but nothing definitive yet. Several high ranking representatives of SpaceX have said recently they are still on track for a manned mission in 2024. At the same time there is discussion within NASA and the government space representatives that with a major international effort and increased NASA funding first humans on Mars may be possible in ~2035.