Space News thread

[Necron99]

The Mars Opportunity Rover has dementia and is on it's last legs after 11 years.
They are hoping a software upgrade will fix it.

In the meantime, here's a pic from Cape Tribulation.



What a View! Opportunity Rover Nears 11 Years on Mars - NBC News

[Takeovers]

They are hoping a software upgrade will fix it.

I think they have actually now fixed it. It is one section of the flash memory that caused the problem and they have mapped that out. It was difficult to achieve because the ability was not built in.

But think more than 10 years. The design life time was 3 months. They always hoped for more but 11 years is astounding. Lets hope Curiosity can do as well.

[Markus]

Right now isnt he already the main US supplier of the space station?

He is one of two. The other supplier had its rocket exploding at the pad though. They are presently grounded. They will launch on an Atlas 5 until they get a new rocket ready but the switch will take some time. They won't fly their present vehicle again because it is inherently unsafe.

SpaceX Dragon is the only spacecraft capable of cargo downmass. The ISS lab is producing a lot of stuff that needs to get back to earth and scientists have been waiting for years. Since the Space Shuttle was terminated there was no means to transport the material. The russian Soyus that is transporting Astronauts cannot do it because it has very little spare capacity for materials and none for freezers that have been piling up on the ISS with science samples. Dragon has now started getting them down, providing the freezers with electricity to keep cold during landing.

Dragon is also the only vehicle that can deliver vacuum cargo that is intended for installation outside of the ISS and is too bulky to be transported through the ISS.

The Russians are still ahead of SpaceX.

[Takeovers]

The Russians are still ahead of SpaceX.

Yes but not much longer. They have the Soyus capsule which is presently the only manned access to the ISS or to space in general. They have the Progress that can deliver more cargo than Dragon.

Edit: I checked and it is not true. Dragon can deliver similar mass and more volume than Progress. Dragon can also deliver more bulky cargo and is the only vehicle that can deliver vacuum cargo.

They don't have down mass capability. Their Soyus is tiny. In that point SpaceX is already ahead. Two years from now SpaceX will have the manned Dragon with much better capabilities than Soyus. SpaceX has won a contract with NASA to develop them for regular crew service, ending the dependence of the US on Russia.

The abort tests for their manned Dragon 2 will happen in the next few months. Those are to prove safety of the crew in case of launch vehicle failure.

[Takeovers]

There is a major earthquake on the way shaking up the US launch industry.

SpaceX had sued the Airforce for giving a long term nearly exclusive launch contract to their presently only supplier ULA shortly before SpaceX was ready to launch at much lower prices. The airforce has stonewalled that court case for a long time refusing to enter settlement negotiations with SpaceX as the court had suggested.

There must have been strong action by the court because the Airforce has now agreed to talks as well as delaying decisions on awarding other launches. The Airforce had used delay tactics on certifying SpaceX for flights after promising as recent as mid December that they would certify SpaceX Falcon 9 by end of December, only to announce early January that it would take another six months before a decision would be reached.

The administration has ordered a review of certification processes with the aim of streamlining the process and making it easier to enter that market so cheaper launches can be used.

SpaceX, U.S. Air Force To Enter Mediation over ULA Block Buy - SpaceNews.com

Elon Musk is on record in a recent interview saying that the judge reminded the Department of Justice staff that they are in the service of the people, not Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Very strong wording indeed.

[Necron99]

Maybe Elon should go and make a stealth fighter that doesn't go 350 billion over budget and years beyond it's delivery date.
(And one that can actually shoot it's gun)

[Takeovers]

Maybe Elon should go and make a stealth fighter that doesn't go 350 billion over budget and years beyond it's delivery date.
(And one that can actually shoot it's gun)

His interests don't expand in that direction.

But he has announced that he is planning to revolutionize the satellite building industry as well as the launch industry. On friday there will be the big announcement that he will start a satellite manufacturing company in Seattle. It will start small but he expects staff to increase to 600-1000 over the next years.

He stated that he needs both the expertise and the revenue for advancing his Mars plans.

[thailazer]

Comet Lovejoy made APOD today. It's been visible with binoculars, but just barely.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1501...ejoy-lores.jpg

[Takeovers]

No video of that failed Falcon landing yet but a few great photos released by Elon Musk.

Comments by Elon Musk

Before impact, fins lose power and go hardover. Engines fights to restore, but …


Rocket hits hard at ~45 deg angle, smashing legs and engine section


Residual fuel and oxygen combine


Full RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) event. Ship is fine minor repairs. Exciting day!

[Takeovers]

Meanwhile at the ISS:

Unloding of the Dragon spacecraft has started.

Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti

[Takeovers]

I want to add, despite the fiery end this is a huge success and Elon Musk is rightfully happy. It gave him all the data for a perfect landing next try. What more can you wish for in a first try of something exceedingly difficult and daring?

Sure he would have been even more happy if he succeded in first try.

Next try maybe at Jan. 31 or the first days of February at the DISCOVR science mission for NASA.

[Takeovers]

The video is out. Spectacular!

http://vine.co/v/OjqeYWWpVWK

A need to see, absolutely.

[Necron99]

The video is out. Spectacular!

http://vine.co/v/OjqeYWWpVWK

A need to see, absolutely.

Close but no cigar.
Good effort just to make the platform though.

[Necron99]

The Beagle Has Landed!

Missing spacecraft Beagle-2 finally located on Mars, European Space Agency says

IT turns out the Beagle has landed after all — but it never called home.
The gone-but-not-forgotten spacecraft Beagle-2 went AWOL on Christmas Day, 2003, when it was supposed to land on Mars and start transmitting data back to Earth.
Instead, the British-built craft went dark. After several months, it was declared lost — presumed to have been destroyed during its approach or while trying to land on the red planet.
On Friday, more than 11 years later, European Space Agency officials reported that the Beagle-2 had been finally found — thanks to extensive detective work based on new photos taken by the high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
DISCOVERY: Have scientists solved the Beagle 2 mystery?
The photos show the craft landed safely on Mars and partially deployed — but was unable to fully deploy and start communicating.
Still, it was a vindication of sorts for space scientists who had wondered for more than a decade about the fate of their pet project, which was designed to search for signs of life on Mars.
Rudolf Schmidt, ESA’s Mars Express project manager at the time, called the finding “excellent news.”
He said not knowing what happened to Beagle-2 had “remained a nagging worry.”
Soon after Beagle-2’s disappearance, NASA landed both Spirit and Opportunity near the Martian equator.
Both sent back troves of images and discoveries, providing the sort of information astronomers had been seeking when the first Mars probes began.

Missing spacecraft Beagle-2 finally located on Mars

[Bettyboo]

here's a pic from Cape Tribulation

I've been there.

Elon Musk is on record in a recent interview saying that the judge reminded the Department of Justice staff that they are in the service of the people, not Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Very strong wording indeed.

Good work by the judge.

Sure he would have been even more happy if he succeded in first try.

These are test flights when you find stuff out, so possible they learnt more from the 'accident'?

Instead, the British-built craft went dark.

I could've told them that before they started, saved lots of bitcoin.


Nice thread Takeovers, lots of nice pics and info.

[thailazer]

The Beagle Has Landed!

Missing spacecraft Beagle-2 finally located on Mars, European Space Agency says

IT turns out the Beagle has landed after all — but it never called home.
The gone-but-not-forgotten spacecraft Beagle-2 went AWOL on Christmas Day, 2003, when it was supposed to land on Mars and start transmitting data back to Earth.
Instead, the British-built craft went dark. After several months, it was declared lost — presumed to have been destroyed during its approach or while trying to land on the red planet.
On Friday, more than 11 years later, European Space Agency officials reported that the Beagle-2 had been finally found — thanks to extensive detective work based on new photos taken by the high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
DISCOVERY: Have scientists solved the Beagle 2 mystery?
The photos show the craft landed safely on Mars and partially deployed — but was unable to fully deploy and start communicating.
Still, it was a vindication of sorts for space scientists who had wondered for more than a decade about the fate of their pet project, which was designed to search for signs of life on Mars.
Rudolf Schmidt, ESA’s Mars Express project manager at the time, called the finding “excellent news.”
He said not knowing what happened to Beagle-2 had “remained a nagging worry.”
Soon after Beagle-2’s disappearance, NASA landed both Spirit and Opportunity near the Martian equator.
Both sent back troves of images and discoveries, providing the sort of information astronomers had been seeking when the first Mars probes began.

Missing spacecraft Beagle-2 finally located on Mars

I wonder if they have tried turning it off and back on again....

[Takeovers]

These are test flights when you find stuff out, so possible they learnt more from the 'accident'?

Yes, they know what went wrong and they have already fixed it for the next flight that will come on January 31 or early February. Success is much more likely but still not assured. But they will get there. The advantage of their approach is it does cost very little per try. These are stages that got paid for, did their work and would drop into the sea anyway.

[Luigi]

On January 5, NASA released an image of the Andromeda galaxy, our closest galactic neighbour, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The full image is made up of 411 Hubble images, takes you through a 100 million stars and travels over more than 40,000 light years. For the record, it's a mammoth 1.5 billion pixel image (69, 536 x 22, 230) and requires about 4.3 GB disk space.

Watch in full screen.

[Topper]

^ Saw the video last night on youtube....amazing.

[Luigi]

Makes you wonder how many hundreds, if not thousands, if not tens of thousands, intelligent civilizations we were just looking at. 40,000 light years across and the stars are like grains of sand on a beach.

[Topper]

Makes you wonder how many hundreds, if not thousands, if not tens of thousands, intelligent civilizations we were just looking at. 40,000 light years across and the stars are like grains of sand on a beach.

I'd like to meet an intelligent civilization....

[philw]

Thanks for posting that Luigi.
And you are right, there must be a lot out there.

It's wonderful and nobody knows, yet.

[Takeovers]

Thanks for posting that Luigi.
And you are right, there must be a lot out there.

It's wonderful and nobody knows, yet.

I am sure too. There must be many. I doubt though that we will ever meet one. But just the thougt is comforting.

[Takeovers]

I have talked about Elon Musk wishing to go to Mars before. His idea was he develops cheap transport and someone else would build a martian city and people would go to live there. Cargo and people using his affordable transport.

It seems he has now come to the conclusion that even with cheap transport this will not happen. What to do?

He has now decided he will build his city by himself. That will cost substantial money, maybe 5 Billion $ a year for quite a while. His money is not nearly enough. So he will take another side job that he expects will earn him that amount a year or more.

He has announced in Seattle, that he is going to develop satellites and build a satellite internet backbone with the capability to connect end users plus transport large amount of data for a new faster and more capable internet backbone. He made that announcement for a group of people who may want to sign up for that job. Media not allowed in. Word got out though anyway. He is trying to attract the best and brightest of game software developers because those are the best programmers in the world.

He hopes to have some initial capability network online in 5 years. The full network is supposed to be operational in 12-15 years. During that time he plans to develop 3 generations of satellites, the last one with the full planned capability. It will consist of 4000 satellites with 5 years operational life time. That means to maintain the service they need to build and launch 800 satellites a year, every year.

Satellite receiver boxes are planned to be available at 100-300$ and provide better than 100 mbit/s at very fast ping rates at any place in the world and at the lowest rate. Initially excluding the polar regions. Commercial access at much higher rates will be available too.

Should be interesting for some Thailand expats too.

Links for the story coming up soon.

[Takeovers]

A link to his presentation.



A link to a transcript for those who prefer to read.

Shit Elon Says - Transcript - SpaceX Seattle 2015

Among other things he mentioned the need to avoid building a skynet. So no need for a terminator.

Today the online news are buzzing with reports that SpaceX will team up with Google and Google will provide an initial 1 Billion $ for developing satellites and building the satellite mass production factory.

Here the first news site that reported on it.

https://www.theinformation.com/Googl...ter-Satellites