Space News thread

[Luigi]

What are the 4 wheel drive tracks?

[Takeovers]

What are the 4 wheel drive tracks?

Just wait 10 years. Maybe then the scientists will have an answer. That's one of the points their heads are smoking over. That plane is one of the nitrogen areas and they will do huge amounts of calculations on how nitrogen behaves over the pluto year. Right now Pluto has just passed its perihelion, the point closest to the sun. Years on Pluto are dominated by different distances from the sun while ours is dominated by position of the earth axis.

This area is one that completely surprised the scientists. They were unprepared for a landscape like this.

[Neo]

More on Sir Norman Foster's plans for Martian settlements...



This is How Foster + Partners Want to 3D-Print a Martian Settlement

By Jamie Condliffe on 25 Sep 2015 at 4:00PM

The acclaimed architecture firm Foster + Partners has unveiled a series of images that depict plans for a 3D-printed settlement that could be built on Mars.

The designs have been shortlisted as one of the finalists in the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge organised by America Makes and NASA. They describe a 93-square-metre base which would be built from regolith — the loose soil and rocks found on the surface of Mars.



The firm’s concept would involve a delivery of semi-autonomous robots ahead of the arrival of astronauts on the planet. These automatons would be used to dig a 1.5-metre-deep crater, where a second delivery of inflatable modules would be installed.



When the inflatables were in place, a series of smaller robots would then move the Martian soils to cover them, building up the material a layer at a time. At each stage, a series of ‘Melter’ robots would use microwaves to fuse the loose material together — a kind of large-scale 3D printing.

The finished structures would, Foster + Partners claims, provide “a permanent shield that protects the settlement from excessive radiation and extreme outside temperatures”.

Inside the 93-square-metre building there would be a series of private and communal spaces, “finished with ‘soft’ materials and enhanced virtual environments, which help reduce the adverse effects of monotony, while creating positive living environment for the astronauts.”

This isn’t the first time Foster + Partners has shown an interest in building in distant locations. Last year, it unveiled plans put together with the European Space Agency to build the first moon base.

We might never manage to build a base on Mars, of course, let alone one that looks like this. But the exercise of imagining how to do it could help inspire all kinds of future building projects — on this planet and others. [Foster + Partners via Dezeen]

[Takeovers]

3D printing is the fashinable thing today. Hard to say anything about the building concept because the article contains very little info.

Funny is the part that components are landed with airbags. That method allows only for very small payloads. You may be able to make these individual robot rovers small enough but then they cannot do anything heavy. You would need a whole army of them. Then the landing with parachutes and airbags is very inprecise. They would land at many km distance from each other. It would take maybe a year to even get them together in one place to start working. And each of many would need its own team on earh that steers them to the rendezvous point. The heavier habitat components cannot be delivered that way at all.

They should really have concentrated on the building part. The landing part is just hilarious.

[Neo]

About 6 months ago there was some more in depth articles on the 3D printing technology that Foster wants to use and it's certainly viable. Think of a backhoe with a 3D former on the end of it's boom. The technology for it is sound in principle, but a workable unit is still a way off.

I believe if Foster says he can do it it most likely can be done and it's certainly the best approach to autonomously build habitation on a planet before sending humans.

[Takeovers]

I believe if Foster says he can do it it most likely can be done and it's certainly the best approach to autonomously build habitation on a planet before sending humans.

I won't argue about that. I only say he should have stuck with the architecture and building part. The landing concept is hilarious, really.

[Neo]

The Veil Nebula from Hubble.

[Luigi]

NASA on Monday will announce "a major scientific finding" from Mars.

[Takeovers]

NASA on Monday will announce "a major scientific finding" from Mars.

It is widely speculated that it will be about evidence of liquid water on Mars. Which would be a very salty brine to exist under martian conditions.

[harrybarracuda]

Sneak preview:

[Takeovers]

Sneak preview:

Looks similar to the sneak preview I found. If you take that chair away, that is.



My gues the dark spots are seasonal and are where that brine reaches the surface.

[Takeovers]

OK here the big release.

They found intelligent life on EARTH.



And he wants to go home to MARS.

[bobo746]

Supermoon lunar eclipse 2015: Amazing pictures of once in a generation event - live - Telegraph
Supermoon lunar eclipse 2015: Amazing pictures of once in a generation event - live

Seen from the UK, a rare blood-red eclipse is due to begin at 1:10am (BST) Monday - join us for the best of the photographs and reaction

[Takeovers]

^

Beautiful. But it must be a stock photo. I am watching it live right now and the moon does not pass centrally through the earth shadow. There is always one side that is somewhat brighter. Still quite red and most interesting. We are lucky with a totally clear sky though it is really cold. Probably the first night this coming winter with temperature touching the 0°C.







Photos not mine.

[bobo746]

^ get some shots and put on here.

[Takeovers]

^ get some shots and put on here.

Done but photos not mine.

Jen Gupta ‏@jen_gupta 20 Min.vor 20 Minuten #supermoon #lunareclipse from Winchester (all credit to my Dad who set up the camera, I just hit the button!)

[Takeovers]

The Mars announcement will be live on NASA TV at 11:30 EDT.

NASA Television | NASA


https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...mystery-solved

[Takeovers]

Confirmed liquid water on Mars. It is mostly a perchlorate brine, poisonous to humans but bacteria can thrive on that.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/j...le-crater-mars

Dark, narrow streaks on Martian slopes such as these at Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on contemporary Mars. The streaks are roughly the length of a football field. The imaging and topographical information in this processed, false-color view come from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
These dark features on the slopes are called "recurring slope lineae" or RSL. Planetary scientists using observations with the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer on the same orbiter detected hydrated salts on these slopes at Hale Crater, corroborating the hypothesis that the streaks are formed by briny liquid water.
The image was produced by first creating a 3-D computer model (a digital terrain map) of the area based on stereo information from two HiRISE observations, and then draping a false-color image over the land-shape model. The vertical dimension is exaggerated by a factor of 1.5 compared to horizontal dimensions. The camera records brightness in three wavelength bands: infrared, red and blue-green. The draped image is one product from HiRISE observation ESP_03070_1440.
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Last Updated: Sept. 28, 2015
Editor: Tony Greicius

[Takeovers]

This announcement is interesting. It has been strongly suspected for a long time now but today they announced proof of that suspicion.

The timing of the announcement makes me suspicious though. A few days ago they have announced their manned Mars architecture and timeplan. The plan would land people on Mars late in the 2030ies.

I don't put any trust in any such announcement any more. According to NASA for the last 40 years people to Mars are 20 years in the future and it will remain that way I suspect. But this announcement seems timed to push their present plans.

[harrybarracuda]

Yeah notice how they removed the deckchair and bucket and spade.

I'm surprised pseudopuss isn't all over this like a cheap suit.

[Luigi]

One would imagine there are plans for a lander to go there and check it all out, Takeovers?

[Takeovers]

One would imagine there are plans for a lander to go there and check it all out, Takeovers?

One should think yes but one may be wrong. There is the 2020 rover, similar to Curiosity but with partly different science modules. The landing site is not yet selected and could be chosen to access this phenomenon. There are even potential locations the present Curiosity rover could reach.

However there are mountains of Red Tape. It seems unlikely those mountains can be moved. It is all about the Planetary Protection Protocols, international agreements reached at the time of the moon landings. They specify how thoroughly a probe needs to be cleaned from earth microbes before it could access locations where potentially life could exist. It seems beyond our capability to clean a large complex rover well enough to satisfy these requirements. Which means they likely cannot go there.

Those Planetary Protection Protocols apply both ways. Protecting potential life elsewhere from contamination from earth. Protecting earth from potentially hazardous microbes from space. Every biologist knows both are completely bogus. But reality does not apply when it is international law.

[Neo]

APOD: A Blue Blood Moon (2015 Oct 03)
Image Credit & Copyright: Dominique Dierick
APOD: 2015 October 3 - A Blue Blood Moon

[Latindancer]

The NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory some visual results analysed.

In July of 2014, NASA launched its most advanced carbon dioxide monitoring satellite, The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2). The first OCO burned up on launch. There has been a lot of anticipation regarding the data from this instrument. However, over a year after it launch, there has been little public information presented about its results. The only data made available by NASA has been images showing CO2 from an AGU14 session.

Erik Swenson has presented this article along with a program he developed to produce visualizations from the NASA data of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite to stimulate discussion on the emerging data.

Many political decisions are being formulated worldwide, without considering the full data provided, or the scientific ramifications of the data processed by this satellite. Probably important that world scientists AND citizens have the opportunity of examining this important base data on the issue of CO2, it's natural or anthropogenic origin, it's distribution, effects and of course seasonal change on CO2 levels and benefits or negatives this might have.

Link to article Finally: visualized OCO2 satellite data showing global carbon dioxide concentrations | Watts Up With That?

Some very good visual images and sub links on the questions raised, some good stimulating discussion -sample of comments.

G. Karst says: October 4, 2015 at 11:23 am

I am amazed at the speed plants suck down the CO2. Whatever the absolute resident time of CO2, it’s effective or biological resident time is obviously short. GK

Klem says: October 4, 2015 at 10:53 am

From what I can see, Canada and Australia show very low Co2 emissions. They were supposed to be two of the most evil, vile, earth destroying, carbon emitting nations on the planet.
This is hilarious.

Stan Vinson says: October 4, 2015 at 8:46 am

It surprises me that CO2 peaks in the Spring and swings back to lows in late Summer. Does Summer vegetation completely consume the CO2 or is it merely dissipating?

Hans Erren says:October 4, 2015 at 9:43 am

It is dissipating, see eg the mauna loa curve,Below animation has been around for some years, which is what we see in the global oco observations [visual omitted but viewable at the original linked article]



Note.
When looking at comments, there is no claim as to the quality of interpretation that led to the observation, better to try and source the data from the links provided in the report and do your own “looking” and reach your own conclusions,
hopefully this will speed up NASA in supplying both the Raw Data and their own visualizations – in the meantime enjoy the challenge as all goods scientists and observers should.

Note 2 this information is provided for the science on the creation and measurement of CO2- not the political or climate, though these may be intertwined .....the more we learn, the more we are informed observers on the benefits or difficulties that may or may not arise from increases or deficiencies in this gas in our atmosphere.

Enjoy the stimulation of the ideas and results presented and yes..... do your own research and reach your own informed conclusions.

[Takeovers]

Space News thread 03-10-2015 05:00 PM Neo

when talking about the future of space exploration your opinions are very much grounded in the restraints of the now, nobody can predict the real course of technological events and your opinions have become somewhat overbearing in this thread, sorry

Thanks a lot. Usually I am not accused of being grounded in the restraints of now but of being overoptimistic in the development of space technology, especially SpaceX.