Space News thread

[bobo746]

A NASA image shows the International Space Station as it flew over Madagascar, showing three of the five spacecraft docked to the station in this photo taken by the Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA on April 6, 2016 and released on April 8, 2016. The station crew awaits the scheduled launch today, April 8, of the third resupply vehicle in three weeks: a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft.

[bobo746]

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, April 8, 2016. The rocket will deliver almost 7,000 pounds of science research, crew supplies, and hardware to the International Space Station.

[bobo746]

The New Shepard rocket and capsule blasts off in this handout photo provided by Blue Origin, from a launch site in West Texas on April 2, 2016. Jeff Bezos’s space transportation company Blue Origin successfully launched and landed for the third time a suborbital rocket capable of whisking six passengers off their home planet, taking another step on the company's quest to develop reusable boosters

[Takeovers]

On the latest supplie flight by a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft among other items the Bigelow BEAM expandable module was delivered and is now attached to the ISS for tests.

First photo is the module as it was sent up in the Dragon trunk.


The graphic shows it expanded providing extra volume to the module. The front side shows the docking adapter that connects it to the ISS.




Note that the builder Bigelow Aerospacae insists on calling the process expanding not inflating like a balloon. Thecombination of layers will provide better protection against micrometeorites and radiation than the conventional aluminium can habitats do.

[BaitongBoy]

Some clever stuff...

[CaptainNemo]

Something about that logo reminds me of Wall-E...

[kingwilly]

Cassini gears up for final fiery plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere


By Andy Coghlan

The countdown has begun. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has spent more than a decade orbiting Saturn, dipping in and out of its rings and peering at its moons. But in just one year, it will begin its grand finale, a daring series of manoeuvres that will bring views of Saturn like never before – and end with the spacecraft plummeting to its death in the gas giant’s atmosphere.

“It’s going to be a tough day,” says project manager Linda Spilker of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who presented details of Cassini’s last act in Vienna on 20 April at the European Geophysical Union meeting.

The so-called Grand Finale programme will begin next year, following six months studying Saturn’s outermost F ring, including 12 close fly-bys of Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon, which sports rivers and lakes filled with liquid hydrocarbons.

Cassini’s last act will be its most daredevil mission yet. From April 2017 to September, the probe will zoom 22 times between the planet and the innermost of Saturn’s famous rings. “No spacecraft has flown in that region before, so it’s very exciting,” said Spilker.

Enduring mysteries
The scientific payback will be enormous. Flying closer than ever before to the gas giant’s surface – some 64,000 kilometres from its centre – Cassini will gather information previously unobtainable to help solve Saturn’s enduring mysteries. These include such basic questions as whether it has a rocky core, how its weather works and the precise length of its day.

“We’ll have the opportunity to study Saturn’s internal structure, measure its gravity and magnetic fields and hopefully measure Saturn’s rotation rate for the first time,” says Spilker.

At such close quarters, Cassini’s instruments can gather unprecedented information about the composition of the planet’s ionosphere and atmosphere. The craft will also collect data on radiation belts girding the planet, and will be in a position to use gravity measurements to give the best estimate yet of the mass of the rings.

“I am especially interested in Cassini’s measurement of the mass of Saturn’s rings,” says Larry Esposito at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado. Knowing the mass will help determine whether the rings were recently created, or whether they are as old as the solar system – Esposito’s favoured idea. “It will be a major scientific discovery either way, with implications for the formation of planets in proto-planetary discs.”

And the images it will send back should be spectacular. “We will get some of the highest resolution images ever obtained of the inner D ring,” says Spilker. “We’ll get wonderful views with the sun high in the sky for the solstice.”

Daredevil descent
In terms of derring-do, the only comparably hazardous mission was in 2008, when Cassini flew through enormous plumes of warm water 100 kilometres across gushing from the surface of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons.

The risk was worth it, because the data collected from that and subsequent fly-bys demonstrated that Enceladus has a salty ocean containing organic material, energy and a hydrothermal system at the base of the ocean – all ingredients necessary for life.

Ironically, that potential for life is part of why Cassini must die. After a decade of orbiting and two mission extensions, Cassini is almost out of fuel.

“We are ending the mission by burning up in Saturn’s atmosphere to protect two worlds, Enceladus and Titan, that might have oceans suitable for life,” Spilker says. “NASA required that we dispose of Cassini… in a way that would protect Enceladus and Titan from a later impact.”

Sentimental goodbye
The mission will end on 15 September, 2017. “Even in its final plunge, it will continuously download data until the last few minutes,” says Spilker.

The team speaks of the end sentimentally. “As Mephistopheles told Faust, ‘all that exists is worthy to perish’,” Esposito says. “This is a worthy ending for Cassini that allows us to take more risk to discover new results.”

“There’s something romantic about the idea of Cassini sailing on forever, but it’s trapped in Saturn orbit and can’t roam the cosmic void,” says Jonathan Lunine of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. “There’s some solace in thinking that Cassini’s atoms will merge in Saturn’s interior with atoms that have been there since the beginning.”

“On the day, we’ll gather at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory with the Cassini family, and when the signal stops, there will be a moment of silence for the loss of a dear friend we’ve known since 1990,” says Spilker. “It will be a sad day, but it’s achieved so much over the course of many years, we’ll say goodbye with a mixture of sadness and pride.”

https://www.newscientist.com/article...-CASSINIPLUNGE

[BaitongBoy]

“There’s something romantic about the idea of Cassini sailing on forever, but it’s trapped in Saturn orbit and can’t roam the cosmic void,” says Jonathan Lunine of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. “There’s some solace in thinking that Cassini’s atoms will merge in Saturn’s interior with atoms that have been there since the beginning.”

Incredible stuff...

The risk was worth it, because the data collected from that and subsequent fly-bys demonstrated that Enceladus has a salty ocean containing organic material, energy and a hydrothermal system at the base of the ocean – all ingredients necessary for life.

Again, wow...That moon sounds like a Mexican Restaurant...




Enceladus


Enceladus was one of the Gigantes, the Giants, in Greek mythology, son of Gaea and Uranus. All the Giants were born when Cronus, son of Uranus, castrated his father and the blood fell onto the earth (Gaea).

During the Gigantomachy, the great battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods, Enceladus was the primary adversary of goddess Athena, who threw the island of Sicily against the fleeing Giant and buried him under it. Another source, however, mentions that it was Zeus that hurled a thunderbolt against Enceladus and killed him. Many sources claim that Enceladus was buried under Mount Etna, although others thought it was the monster Typhon or Briareus, one of the Hekatonheires, that was buried there. In any case, Enceladus was considered to be the main cause of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and when Mount Etna erupted, it was considered to be Enceladus' breath.

[Luigi]

^ If you're looking for nearby alien sea creatures, try Europa (Jupiter) and Enceladus (Saturn). Likely hydrothermal vents on an ocean seabed. If live evolved there it would likely be translucent, without vision, the rest would be more of a guess.

[Topper]

.......without vision

so they already have something in common with us.....

[bobo746]

For the past five years, Russia has been building a new spaceport in its Far East, about 3,500 miles (5,500 kilometers) away from Moscow, called the Vostochny Cosmodrome. Russia is seeking to reduce its dependence on the existing Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in Kazakhstan, for both civilian and military launches. The first successful launch took place late last week, on April 28, 2016. The building-out of Vostochny continues, as many support facilities and another six launch pads are planned.

[Sumbitch]

God is with us. (Russian national motto)

[misskit]

SpaceX Successfully Lands Rocket


This image posted to Twitter by SpaceX shows an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket that landed May 6, 2016 on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean.


SpaceX has once again successfully landed a booster rocket on an ocean platform. The feat was accomplished after the rocket deployed a Japanese communication satellite into orbit.

The unmanned Falcon 9 rocket landed early Friday on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern U.S. coast of Florida.

Last month, internet entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully landed a used booster rocket after it launched a unmanned cargo ship to the International Space Station.

SpaceX is striving to perfect the technique of landing the booster rockets, making them as reusable as aircraft rather than dumping the expensive equipment into the ocean after each launch.

SpaceX Successfully Lands Rocket

[Takeovers]

SpaceX has once again successfully landed a booster rocket on an ocean platform. The feat was accomplished after the rocket deployed a Japanese communication satellite into orbit.

This second barge landing is significant, because it shows that they can repeat their success and because this is a landing with very small fuel margin. This was a very heavy satellite while the first two landings were achieved after launching light payloads that gave them a lot of fuel to use for landing.

I have not seen any video yet because of a poor internet connection but heard the landing was spectacular compared to the last one because they used a fuel saving 3 engine maneuver with much faster braking. People said on video it looked almost as if the landed rocket appeared out of nowhere.

[misskit]

^ WOW! Found the vid. Hope you can see it.

[harrybarracuda]

Another chance to blind yourself...

Mercury Is About to Sail Across the Sun—Here’s How to Watch

[Takeovers]

WOW! Found the vid. Hope you can see it.

Thanks. Yes with a lot of patience I got it loaded. Will watch it repeatedly.

BTW the people in the background chanting are the people who actually built this thing. Also the presenters they use during the live show are SpaceX technicians, not professional presenters.

Following their sounds they too thought for a moment with the bright flash, it exploded. Only after the camera dimmed it down and the rocket became visible they started to cheer again.

[Takeovers]

That rocket comes down from more than 100km in free fall. From powering up the engines to landing it is only about 8 seconds. That's how precise the timing got to be to get it landed safely. Also switching off the engines only a split second late would cause ther rocket to lift off again and then crash.

They come in fast, brake to speed zero at zero altitude and turn off the engine at precisely that moment too.

A bit similar to driving for a brick wall at max throttle, then do max braking to have your bumper touching the wall but not dented. Plus being penalized for failure when stopping 10cm early.

[Luigi]

What's the plan for landing astronauts?

In a separate landing module that is ejected before landing and parachutes down?

[Takeovers]

What's the plan for landing astronauts? In a separate landing module that is ejected before landing and parachutes down?

Presently they are working on a manned version of their Dragon capsule. It will launch people to the ISS and bring them back. Other capsules have external escape rockets that pull the capsule away to safety from the launch vehicle in case of failure. The capsule then descends under parachutes.
SpaceX builds engines in the side walls of the Dragon capsule. Those engines would pull Dragon to safety and then land under parachutes. In case of a normal landing Dragon has a variety of options.

It can come down under parachutes into the ocean like Apollo did. It is the easiest method and is presently favored by NASA.

SpaceX wants land landing because dipping into the sea makes reuse much harder. They can do that in two ways. One is coming down under parachutes and do a short burst of the engines for a soft landing. SpaceX assures the parachute landing even if the engines fail would not be harder than present landings of the russian Sojus capsules. But NASA being ultra conservative does not accept that.

The really preferred option by SpaceX is fully powered landing on the spot with helicopter precision. Though it would be very safe. There are 8 engines of an extremely robust and reliable type. Only 4 of those engines would need to work for safe landing. SpaceX proposes to test fire the engines at an altitude where they still can deploy the parachutes. If anything at all is off they would switch to parachute landing. Once that test is passed they have to rely on at least 4 of the engines to work on landing. NASA is even more sceptical of that and SpaceX is working on demonstrating those landing types until NASA is satisfied and accepts it.

Long term, for landing on Mars, people would actually be on a rocket that lands on its main engines but that will be a new vehicle under development. Details are announced to be released this year in September. The space community is waiting for that. The architecture will be way in advance of anything NASA is even contemplating.

[bobo746]

The Richat Structure, also known as the Eye of the Sahara




Australia

[bobo746]

[BaitongBoy]

^ Wow!...I remember it well...The Bears won the SuperBowl, thrashing the Patriots...And Loretta Lombardi gave me the flu...

[Nutznbolts]

I also remember it well; the, radio, news came mid morning in Darwin (Australia).
I went into the office, turned on the TV and the phone rang. It was my mate in the RAAF (Oz air force), he said "What does NASA stand for?"

Need Another Seven Astronauts.

Maybe within five minutes of first hearing about it.

The aviation community has a very black sense of humor.

Posted to acclaim all those associated aviation pioneering, not to deride the tragedy.

[harrybarracuda]

I also remember it well; the, radio, news came mid morning in Darwin (Australia).
I went into the office, turned on the TV and the phone rang. It was my mate in the RAAF (Oz air force), he said "What does NASA stand for?"

Need Another Seven Astronauts.

Maybe within five minutes of first hearing about it.

The aviation community has a very black sense of humor.

Posted to acclaim all those associated aviation pioneering, not to deride the tragedy.

Yes, ''their favourite drink was Seven Up with a dash of Teachers'' was another one.