Space News thread

[thailazer]

Will be neat if Rover Curiosity can get images of it from the surface of Mars. That would be a first.

[harrybarracuda]

Will be neat if Rover Curiosity can get images of it from the surface of Mars. That would be a first.

I believe they had two cameras looking at it. Not sure if both were "optical" though, for want of a better word.

[Topper]

Waishingly Pating....

[Takeovers]

Every camera near Mars will be aimed at the comet. But there are far better ones for that purpose in orbit.

I am waiting for pictures from different sources.

[Takeovers]

I have not seen any photos of that comet worth posting. I am sure though scientists have plenty of data.

[Takeovers]

China has launched a probe that will enter moon orbit and then send a reentry capsule back to earth.

This is a test for a planned moon mission, planned for 2017, that will land on the moon and then send back moon samples to earth. The experiment aims at verifying the ability of the capsule to survive earth reentry at the very high speed of a return from the moon.

[Necron99]

Antares rocket carrying supplies for the station fails to launch.
No one died.

[palexxxx]

^ that looked expensive.

[harrybarracuda]

Bit early for Guy Fawkes Night.

[Takeovers]

that looked expensive.

Only 200 Million $ for the launch vehicle and the Cygnus ISS supply vehicle. Plus the cargo and plus the destroyed ground equipment.

It is not yet confirmed but it looks much like a failure of one of the two first stage engines. Those engines are from or very similar to the (in)famous Soviet N1 that they built trying to beat the USA to the moon and that had a 100% rate of explosions at or very near the pad, each time destroying the pad in the process. They were in storage for over 40 years before Orbital Sciences bought them and had them refurbished. One of these engines blew up earlier this year damaging the NASA test facility at Stennis. Another similar incident at the test facility has destroyed another engine at the test stand earlier.

But they are cheaper than buying US-made engines. The Orbital Antares rocket and Cygnus supply vehicle are still a lot less capable than the fully US made SpaceX Falcon9/Dragon and cost a lot more.

[Necron99]

Where no one has gone before: NASA prepares to send humans beyond the Moon


US space agency NASA has completed the construction of Orion, the first spacecraft that is capable of sending humans beyond the orbit of the Moon and into deep space.

The completion of the Orion spacecraft marks the return of manned spaceflight missions for NASA following the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet in 2011.

The Orion vehicle will undergo its first unmanned test fight in December, propelled into space atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket and directed into low-earth orbit.




Orion will reach an altitude of nearly 5,800km above the surface of the earth, travelling at over 20,000km/h, and complete a total of two orbits around the Earth before returning to the surface.

The spacecraft will travel higher and experience conditions that no other manned spaceflight has encountered since the conclusion of the Apollo program more than 40 years ago.

Engineers will be closely monitoring the performance of the vehicle through critical stages of the orbit, including a region of high radiation known as the Van Allen belts.

NASA will also test the re-entry capabilities of the spacecraft, which utilises a state-of-the-art heat shield.

Temperatures are expected to reach up to 2,200C during re-entry, almost double the temperature of volcanic lava, as the spacecraft plunges through the atmosphere.

Once cleared for human spaceflight, the Orion crew vehicle will hold up to six astronauts on missions that venture far beyond previous examples.

The revolutionary vehicle will be capable of traveling beyond the earth-moon system, with plans already being formulated for an asteroid rendezvous.

The technology on the Orion spacecraft may also one day lead to the continuation of manned lunar exploration, and perhaps even a pioneering trip to Mars.

If all goes well during the December test flight, the Orion spacecraft will perform its first official unmanned mission in 2017, on a week-long journey to the moon and back.

The first crewed missions are not expected to commence until the 2020s.



Read more at Where no one has gone before: NASA prepares to send humans beyond the Moon - 9news.com.au

[Takeovers]

The first crewed missions are not expected to commence until the 2020s.

I am an optimist. With any luck this monster may never fly with crew.

[Takeovers]

China has launched a probe that will enter moon orbit and then send a reentry capsule back to earth.

The probe has successfully reentered the earth atmosphere and landed after flying around the moon. The next step will be a new moon lander that will collect samples of lunar material and launch it back to earth in a few years.

I remember a program on Chinese CCTV recently where they said one american President gave them samples of moon material as a gift on a state visit and their scientists were very grateful for the opportunity to examine them but now they want to get their own.



Looks much like a miniature version of the russian Soyus capsule. It cannot deny its heritage. But it is chinese develped and built.

[Takeovers]

It is not yet confirmed but it looks much like a failure of one of the two first stage engines. Those engines are from or very similar to the (in)famous Soviet N1 that they built trying to beat the USA to the moon and that had a 100% rate of explosions at or very near the pad, each time destroying the pad in the process. They were in storage for over 40 years before Orbital Sciences bought them and had them refurbished. One of these engines blew up earlier this year damaging the NASA test facility at Stennis. Another similar incident at the test facility has destroyed another engine at the test stand earlier.

An update to the Antares rocket failure. It is not yet finally confirmed but strongly suggested by the investigation board that it in fact was one of the engines that caused the Antares rocket to fail.

What's more interesting, Orbital Sciences has decided they will not continue flying the Cygnus supply capsule for ISS on Antares. The engines are regarded too unsafe.

They are looking at a number of options how to continue fulfilling their ISS supply contract. They will likely purchase at least two launches on other vehicles. They will also build a new more capable rocket.

No info has been given which company will supply the launches and also not which engines will be used for the new launch vehicle. But it looks certain they will use russian engines again, this time modern engines direct from the assembly line and very likely much more reliable.

BTW it is not the russians who should get the blame for the disaster. It is Orbital and the american supplier that refurbished the engines and qualified them to fly.

[Umbuku]

The huge chunk of gas (called G2) that was supposed to be engulfed by the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy in a wonderful display of pyrotechnics never did and now they think they know why. It’s really a star.

That Gas Cloud Near Our Black Hole Is Not What We Thought It Was | The Skeptics Guide to the Universe

[Umbuku]

ALMA has obtained its most detailed image yet showing the structure of the disc around HL Tau [2], a million-year-old Sun-like star located approximately 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Taurus. The image exceeds all expectations and reveals a series of concentric and bright rings, separated by gaps.

Revolutionary ALMA Image Reveals Planetary Genesis

[Takeovers]

Today is the day for the Rosetta probe lander Philae. Philae has been launched from Rosetta and will land on the comet 2 hours from now. A very complex maneuver with a significant chance of failure.

More on Rosetta in this thread. Link to the first post about it by Mr Lick.

https://teakdoor.com/the-teakdoor-lou...ml#post2675677 (Space News thread)

[Necron99]

It has two systems to maintain contact with the comet before it screws itself on.
A harpoon and active thrusters. The thrusters have dies after 10 years in space, so lets hope the harpoon works....

In any event, it;s been an amazing journey, shot from earth on a 250 million mile trip and nailed it's target.

[palexxxx]

They've done it. Landed on the comet, twice.

Philae spacecraft makes historic landing on comet | Science | The Guardian

[Takeovers]

twice.

That's the problem. A serious one. The status of Philae is as yet unknown. Philae was not able to anchor itself to the comet as planned. Rosetta is presently not in a position to keep contact with Philae. Data are being evaluated. Data have been received but it is not known what position it is in and what science can now be done. When they cannot anchor it they cannot use the drill and cannot get the samples they wanted to examine with the scientific instruments they have.

Hopefully tomorrow we will know more.

They can get a lot of data from Philae nonetheless. It is a major achievement to get as far as they did. And of course there is still the orbiter Rosetta getting a wealth of data.

[Neo]

Space in Images - 2014 - 11 - Sahara desert, Algeria

[harrybarracuda]

twice.

That's the problem. A serious one. The status of Philae is as yet unknown. Philae was not able to anchor itself to the comet as planned. Rosetta is presently not in a position to keep contact with Philae. Data are being evaluated. Data have been received but it is not known what position it is in and what science can now be done. When they cannot anchor it they cannot use the drill and cannot get the samples they wanted to examine with the scientific instruments they have.

Hopefully tomorrow we will know more.

They can get a lot of data from Philae nonetheless. It is a major achievement to get as far as they did. And of course there is still the orbiter Rosetta getting a wealth of data.

It's worse than that. It's landed in the shade and if they can't bounce it into a position where it can get sunlight it dies on Saturday.

Rosetta scientists will order Philae to ‘hop’ in final bid to save lander
Order will be sent to Philae’s legs this evening in a bid to bounce the comet lander into a sunnier position to recharge its batteries

Rosetta scientists will order Philae to ?hop? in final bid to save lander | Science | The Guardian

[reddog]

Great effort by the scientists to get it there,hope they are able to re position Philae
in the sunlight and anchor it but it will be a big ask in near zero gravity,
hope it all goes well for them.

[Takeovers]

If this does not work and it is unlikely it will, there is another small chance. Philae will not just die from lack of energy. It will go into deep hibernation. It is designed to come out of it once there is enough energy. There may be enough some time on because the comet comes much closer to the sun over the next few months.

But even then it is unlikely the drill will be able to get material in the mass spectrometer. That is the instrument that was supposed to analyze comet material.

But even now they have gained data from the surface they will spend years to analyze. It still is a success.

[harrybarracuda]

Philae goes off to sleep on Comet 67P
November 15, 2014 10:39 IST

Rosetta's Philea space probe recently re-established radio contact with Earth from its distant comet 67P and sent a stream of science data just before low battery power dropped it into standby mode.

The robot has now been shadowed by a cliff and cannot get enough light on to its solar panels to recharge its systems. So the engineers fear this contact may have been its last, certainly for a while, the BBC reported.

It was suggested that as much as 80 per cent of the primary science objectives had been achieved before the latest downlink.

In the latest tranche of data are the results from the drilling attempt made earlier in the day. Getting into the surface layers and bringing up a sample to analyse onboard was seen as central to the core mission of Philae.

Philae also took another picture of the surface with its downward-looking Rolis camera.

It also exercised its Consert instrument, which was an experiment that sees Philae and Rosetta send radiowaves through the comet to try to discern its internal structure.

Philae was launched from Earth, piggybacked to the Rosetta satellite, in 2004. The pair covered 6.4 billion km to reach Comet 67P out near the orbit of Jupiter.

Whatever happens to Philae, Rosetta will continue to make its remote observations of 67P.

Philae goes off to sleep on Comet 67P - Rediff.com India News