Space News thread

[david44]

Cloning and nuclear fusion at low cost may change the timescale, oddly the major incentive maybe like those prepper bunkers , as life on earth becomes unsustainable a lucky/desperate few may choose/ be forced to relocate

Mining rare earths from tethered asteroids could provide the seed corn , the first to get there will clean up.

[BaitongBoy]

Goldman Sachs...

"Space mining could be more realistic than perceived. Water and platinum group metals that are abundant on asteroids are highly disruptive from a technological and economic standpoint. Water is easily converted into rocket fuel, and can even be used unaltered as a propellant. Ultimately being able to stockpile the fuel in LEO [low earth orbit] would be a game changer for how we access space. And platinum is platinum. According to a 2012 Reuters interview with Planetary Resources, a single asteroid the size of a football field could contain $25bn- $50bn worth of platinum."

[TuskegeeBen]

I reiterate ~ The Gods are not stupid ~ ~ there is no Mars.

[TuskegeeBen]

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.

And here's another fyi to consider ~ the only "other" worlds the human "species" (on this planet) is even remotely capable of "Terra-forming", is within their own Human Grow & Developmental arena of consciousness.

Considering that "the message" has been made abundantly clear, for the past 10K-years, without having produced any "progressive" results, then I choose to salute the best side of your usual disposition. Cheers!

[Luigi]

Oh great... another nutter.

[TuskegeeBen]

Oh great... another nutter.

Ditto! And thank you St. Louis, Missouri, sir.... for the brilliant confirmation. Cheers!

[Takeovers]

Goldman Sachs.

Space mining could be more realistic than perceived. Water and platinum group metals that are abundant on asteroids are highly disruptive from a technological and economic standpoint.

I always find this kind of calculation seriously funny. True that there is so much platinum out there. But its value is based on its scarcity. Bring in substantial amounts of it and the price will nosedive. Platinum does have real value beyond jewelry. It is valuable because it chemically resistant and can be used as catalyst if it is not too expensive but it won't be easy to make the investment back based on a reduced value.

[Looper]

True that there is so much platinum out there.

How much is there?

I think I remember reading that there are 4(?) Olympic swimming pools of gold currently in human circulation.

I like gold more than diamonds as the cosmological origin story is so much more spectacular.

[Takeovers]

How much is there?

I think I remember reading that there are 4(?) Olympic swimming pools of gold currently in human circulation.

Wikipedia says the total amount of gold makes a cube of 20.65m.

Wikipedia says an Olympic pool has 2500m³

That makes it 3.5 pools. So about right.

According to a 2012 Reuters interview with Planetary Resources, a single asteroid the size of a football field could contain $25bn- $50bn worth of platinum."

That single asteroid they refer to would crash the market only when it becomes available all at once. But spread over a number of years possible but is it worth the effort? The mining won't come cheap but with launch prices nosediving as anticipated with SpaceX BFR maybe.

[OhOh]

their own Human Grow & Developmental arena of consciousness

There is an article on SN suggesting the Voyager Spacecrafts embedded recoded message from earth will only confuse any aliens encountering it. This mishmash of the contents cover too much unrelated info.

https://sputniknews.com/science/2018...ord-confusing/

[TuskegeeBen]

Click the link, or not. TB doesn't give a flying-fuck,.......anymore. ~ https://www.theguardian.com/science/...ay-researchers

[Topper]

Click the link, or not. TB doesn't give a flying-fuck

CSFFAN is not clicking a link from someone who speaks of themselves in the 3rd person.

[Takeovers]

Another upcoming flight of the Soyuz capsule on a Soyuz rocket, bringing Cosmonauts and Astronauts to the ISS.

One all important milestone for the launch has just been achieved.



The orthodox Bishop has blessed the launch vehicle.

[David48atTD]

^ Most important that bit

---

Asteroid on collision course with Earth burns up hours after it was detected



An asteroid on a collision course with Earth has burned up in the evening sky over southern Africa
eight hours after first being noticed.


The asteroid, dubbed 2018 LA, was discovered out near the Moon's orbit early on Saturday morning.

Asteroid trackers at NASA and elsewhere determined the rock to be about 2 metres wide.



Automated alerts were sent out to the community of asteroid observers to obtain further observations, and to the
Planetary Defence Coordination Office at NASA headquarters in Washington.

However, since the asteroid was determined to be so small, no further impact alerts were issued by NASA

[OhOh]

Life on Mars? NASA discovers best evidence yet of potential life on Red Planet




NASA’s Curiosity rover has uncovered organic material in an ancient lakebed and confirmed a seasonal cycle of methane - offering the strongest evidence yet of potential life, past or even present, on the Red Planet.

The discoveries were revealed by NASA researchers in a highly-anticipated announcement on Thursday, and details have been published in the journal Science.
The revelations build on a similar announcement made by NASA in 2014, where scientists confirmed that they had discovered chlorinated molecules on the planet for the first time. This latest evidence, however, is far more compelling.

Questions remain, however, as to how the organic material was formed. “While we don’t know the source of the material, the amazing consistency of the results makes me think we have a slam-dunk signal for organics on Mars,” Eigenbrode said. “It is not telling us that life was there, but it is saying that everything organisms really needed to live in that kind of environment, all of that was there.”

Another team of scientists, led by Christopher Webster from the California Institute of Technology, presented evidence that methane concentrations detected on Mars follow strong seasonal variations. The seasonal variation provides an important clue for determining the origin of martian methane.

Webster explained that this is an exciting discovery because 99 percent of methane produced on earth has a biological origin, giving examples of rice paddies and termites. He also pointed out that as methane only lasts for 300 years in the atmosphere and any detections mean that it was created or released relatively recently.

Overall, the latest discoveries bode well for future endeavours. "The chances of being able to find signs of ancient life with future missions, if life ever was present, just went up," said Curiosity's project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada.

https://www.rt.com/usa/429082-nasa-discovery-mars-life/

[Takeovers]

The japanese probe Hayabusa 2 is approaching its target, asteroid Ryugu. An article by Emily Lakdawalla of the planetary society. She is great with deep knowledge. When she writes something it is in depth, unlike the work of journalists even in major publications.

Hayabusa will take samples of the asteroid and return them to Earth by December 2020 using an ion drive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa2

Hayabusa2's Approach phase has begun with a new photo of Ryugu!


Hayabusa2 has officially transitioned from cruise to Ryugu approach mission phases. On June 3, the spacecraft ended use of its ion engines, for now, and is now coasting the remaining distance toward the asteroid. It's using an optical navigation camera to image the asteroid's position against a field of background stars to help it navigate. Most of those images over-expose the asteroid to make background stars visible, but since Hayabusa2 is now close enough to resolve the asteroid as more than one pixel, they took a shot at a much shorter exposure to reveal Ryugu. Are you ready? (Drum roll) here it is...

The highest resolution picture yet available with full 9 pixels.

[uncle junior]

.......

[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.

The satellite has reached its destination orbit and has taken a few very good photos. It is now waiting for the lunar landers that will use it as a relay for communications with Earth.

Quegiao, meanwhile, has arrived in its complex halo orbit around the second Earth-Moon LaGrange point, from where it can see both the Moon and Earth at the same time. Change'4 is expected to launch in December.

[David48atTD]

US President Donald Trump says he is ordering the establishment of a sixth branch of the military to clear the way for
American dominance in space.

Key points:

• Mr Trump said he wants a 'Space Force' to stop China and Russia' from leading the US
• But, the international Outer Space Treaty bars the stationing of weapons of mass destruction in space
• Mr Trump also signed a directive on the management of traffic and debris in space

"It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space," Mr Trump said
before a meeting of his National Space Council.

"We are going to have the Air Force and we're going to have the 'Space Force.' Separate but equal," he said later.

"It is going to be something. So important."

The United States, however, is a member of the Outer Space Treaty, which bars the stationing of weapons of mass destruction
in space and only allows for the use of the moon and other celestial bodies for peaceful purposes.

[OhOh]

Russian aerospace firm to test new rocket engine operating on iodine



MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/.

Russia’s Energia Rocket and Space Corporation is developing a new electric propulsion rocket engine operating on iodine and its tests are planned for late June, the Energia press office reported on Thursday.
Energia is also set to test the new engine aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and a Progress resupply ship in 2022, the press office said.

"The developers will hold the ground tests of the propulsion unit already in late June," project co-head and design engineer Pavel Shcherbina was quoted by the Energia press office as saying.
Energia specialists have patented an iodine storage and feed system for the future electric propulsion rocket engine, the press office said.

"The Ostrovsky experiment is planned for 2022. It was named in honor of Valery Ostrovsky, the corporation’s senior researcher and the author of the idea to use ‘pure’ reactive iodine as the engine’s propellant - the substance that is necessary to get the thrust impulse. The first part of the experiment is expected to be held aboard the ISS and the second part will be carried out with the use of a Progress cargo spacecraft. After undocking, the spacecraft will stay in orbit for another month to test new iodine electric propulsion rocket engines," the Energia press office said.

New engine’s advantages

As its advantage, the new iodine engine is, first of all, cost effective, the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation said.
"Xenon, which is considerably more expensive than iodine, is traditionally used as the propellant in existing electric propulsion engines. Besides, the xenon storage and feed system is quite complex and bulky, which significantly increases the propulsion unit’s dimensions and mass. Another essential factor is that the quantity of xenon produced is insufficient for solving future space exploration tasks, for example, flights to the Moon," the press office said.

As Energia said, iodine is kept well in its solid state and can be easily converted into gas without using a multi-stage pressure reducing system.

"During life-cycle tests, iodine re-circulation is also possible. As a result, the cost of ground testing of such an electric propulsion rocket engine is tens of times lower while the iodine engine parameters are at least no inferior to the characteristics of electric propulsion rocket engines operating on xenon," Energia said.

The engine’s version proposed by Energia engineers will be equipped with a non-flow neutralizer cathode that will make it possible to do without an additional gaseous propellant - xenon or argon. Such an engine can be used as the main propulsion system for orbit adjustments, for example, aboard communications satellites, and also for solving deep space transport tasks, Energia said.


More:
TASS: Science & Space - Russian aerospace firm to test new rocket engine operating on iodine

[Takeovers]

To add to the iodine thruster here a link to a NASA pdf on the matter.


NASA iodine thruster


Iodine electric thrusters are suitable for small satellites because their propellant storage is compact and lightweight.

[Takeovers]

The japanese probe Hayabusa2 continues its approach to asteroid ryugu.

Pictures are getting better than the 9 pixel first one I showed earlier.

[Takeovers]

The new commercial crew vehicles that will bring back the capability of launching astronauts to space and to the ISS are approaching readiness for their first test flights.

Both SpaceX and Boeing believe they can do their unmanned test flights this year. Here a photo of the SpaceX Dragon 2 at the NASA Plumbrook test facility.

Crew Dragon is at @NASA’s Plum Brook Station testing facility in Ohio, home to the largest thermal vacuum chamber in the world, to demonstrate its capability to withstand the extreme temperatures and vacuum of space.

[OhOh]

To add to the iodine thruster here a link to a NASA pdf on the matter

Thanks.

[David48atTD]

Russian billionaire declares himself leader of new 'space nation' Asgardia at lavish castle ceremony


A Russian billionaire has held a lavish ceremony at a castle in Austria to declare himself the leader of a new, independent
"space nation" called Asgardia.

The self-funded event was held at the opulent Hofburg palace in Vienna and included a choral performance of the nation's anthem, an official oath,
and a video message from Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemiev on the International Space Station.

So what is Asgardia, who is the man behind it, and why are thousands of people signing up to be part of it? Here's what you need to know.


What is Asgardia?



Asgardia is the brainchild of Russian rocket scientist Igor Ashurbeyli.
He wants it to be the first fully independent "nation" in space, with its own government, virtual currency, justice system and calendar.

In 2016, Dr Ashurbeyli and a team of scientists, engineers and law expertsunveiled plans to establish an Asgardian colony on the Moon,
and to build a series of special space platforms, called Space Arks, where people can live.


Who will live on Asgardia?

At the moment, anyone can become a citizen of Asgardia.
But Dr Ashurbeyli has said he wants to attract the world's most creative minds, and may eventually bring in a mandatory IQ test for potential Asgardians.
More than 200,000 people have already signed up via the nation's website, including thousands of Australians, but Dr Ashurbeyli wants to recruit a total population of about 150 million within the next 10 years.
How close is it to becoming a reality?

It has a long way to go and many hurdles ahead of it, but Dr Ashurbeyli has made some impressive progress since its inception.
He launched the nation's first satellite, called Asgardia-1, last year and plans to expand that to a "constellation" of satellites by 2019.
He's also established a parliament made up of dozens of MPs, who met for the first time ahead of the inauguration ceremony in Vienna.


Is Dr Ashurbeyli paying for everything?

You better believe it.
The Asgardian website says: "Let's be very clear: every penny, every cent spent on Asgardia up to date and still for quite some months to come is the investment by Dr Ashurbeyli."

"Not a single person, not a single company, not a single entity has spent a penny on funding Asgardia. This is all funded from the resources
of Dr Ashurbeyli," it adds.

So what was this ceremony all about?

Dr Ashurbeyliwants Asgardia to become an official member of the United Nations, but to do so, it needs to be a functioning state or government.
Dr Ashurbeyli took the first steps towards it becoming one by holding parliamentary elections in December last year, and then later declaring himself Head of Nation.