... and Tierra del Fuego, don't forget good ol T de FQuote:
If you live in Russia or Canada you are probably safe
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... and Tierra del Fuego, don't forget good ol T de FQuote:
If you live in Russia or Canada you are probably safe
ISS SSTV active on 145.800 MHz FM in April
The ISS will be transmitting images for a couple of days in April - more details at: ISS SSTV active on 145.800 MHz FM in April | Southgate Amateur Radio News
Although the ISS transmits data signals all the time, the sending of pictures usually only happens a couple of times a year.
On the dates in April (2nd and 3rd), I'll be in transit between Myanmar and Laos, but parked up for exactly those two nights at the salubrious Miami Hotel, on Sukhumvit Road.
The ISS will be 'visible' for about 10 minutes as it passes over Bangkok around midnight.
To receive and decode the picture data, all that is needed is a simple half-wave dipole antenna, a 'dongle' USB radio receiver and the free software to decode the data, all of which I have already.
Therefore, if you are staying at the Miami Hotel that night with your 'rent-for-the-night girlfriend or ladyboy(!), please don't worry if some weird, eccentric British guy erects his .. er .. antenna by the swimming pool around midnight, and proceeds to listen to a load of beeps coming from his laptop.....
Good Luck Simon
In case you have nver been pleasured in the charms of the Miami the entrance is up soi 13 a few steps I used to stay 300m further up, where there are nicer quieter digs for little more, tho of course some will endure the rough trade for easy access to BTS and rear entry of Ambassador, Sportsmen and Bengali sloppers
Hi David, I always stay at the Miami when I'm in Bangkok (usually two times every year). I like the old place, and so convenient for jogging in the park round the lake
NASA readies Parker Solar Probe for 'mission to touch the Sun'
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2018/03/58.jpg
Credit The spacecraft, dubbed the Parker Solar Probe, will see a spacecraft launched from Earth in the summer of 2018,
to reach an orbit within four million miles (6.5 million km) of the sun's surface. This will be seven times closer than
any spacecraft that has ventured before it.
Scientists are putting the finishing touches on the Parker Solar Probe ahead of its mission to fly directly into the Sun's atmosphere.
The spacecraft will have to survive temperatures as high as 1,371 degrees Celsius, impacts by supersonic particles and powerful radiation
as it circles as close as 7 million kilometres to the Sun.
Data sent back to Earth 140 million km away will help scientists figure out why the Sun's atmosphere, its corona, is hotter than its surface.
But Parker Solar Probe's deputy project scientist believes it could also lead to unanticipated discoveries.The spacecraft will be shipped to Cape Canaveral in Florida ahead of take-off in July.
"I'm almost certain that we will learn about new phenomenon that we know nothing about now," Nour Raouafi said.
"That is really super, super exciting for us."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBudjihQKsw
THE PARKER SOLAR PROBE MISSION
- The mission launch in the summer of 2018
- It study the outer atmosphere of the sun, known as the corona
- To measure the corona, the probe will reach an orbit within four million miles (6.5 million km) of the sun
- The craft will collect vital information about the life of stars and their weather events
- It will focus on how solar flares are formed, which can disrupt communications on Earth
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2018/03/59.jpg
What to be part of the mission?
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2018/03/60.jpg
More here
A YouTube video on how different rocket engines are ignited. Quite interesting. Fascinating especially how Soyuz first stage engines are ignited. Basically they use large wooden matchsticks. No early april fools joke, it is real. If you want to see only this part, skip forward to 6:00. But worth seeing it all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO_g...ature=youtu.be
Tiangong 1 due to come down at just after 7:30am on Monday, just in case anyone gets an unexpected bump on the head while having a morning coffee :)
SATVIEW - TIANGONG 1 - Norad 37820U - Tracking satellites and Spacejunk in Real time
Nearly time to head for the bunker. :)
Burned up entering the South Pacific. No reports of it scaring the bejaysus out of any fishermen.
Luck was with the Chinks...statistical odds were too, I reckon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Luigi
That's a really cool video, TO! Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by Takeovers
The impact area as given by chinese authorities. It is pretty much the area where they would have brought it down if they still had control. Wide empty ocean.
https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?a...id=11141&stc=1
At the same time they work on a new space station. One that will be more permanent and will be permanently manned once finished, or before that.
The Tianhe 1, Heavenly Harmony, core module will be launched this year, if things go to plan. They don't always go to plan with space programs. Presently their largest launch vehicle the Long March 5 is grounded after a failure. Evaluation is ongoing. The station may be manned first in 2020 if things go well.
Tianhe-1 not to be confused with Tianhe-1A which is their presently biggest Super Computer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDKrbbPGBGU
https://chinaspacereport.com/spacecr...ngong/tianhe1/
Quote:
Tianhe (TH, “Heavenly Harmony”) is the core module and backbone of the Chinese space station, designed to provide the main living quarters and control centre for the station crew. The module resembles the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station in appearance and arrangement. An experimental core module, named Tianhe 1, is scheduled for launch atop a CZ-5B launcher from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre, Hainan in 2018.
The Tianhe module is about 19 m in length and 4.2 m in diameter. The space frame is constructed of 5A06 aluminium-alloy, with a gross mass of 22,000 kg. The entire module is divided into three sections: a front docking hub, a pressurised living compartment in the middle, and an aft service compartment. The module has a total of five passive APAS-type docking ports—four located on the front docking hub and one on the rear end of the service compartment. Externally the module mounts a robotic arm, two pairs of solar panel wings, and docking radar/optical sensors.
The spherical docking hub located at the front end of the Tianhe core module provides four docking ports: two lateral ports used as permanent attachment points for the two laboratory modules, Wentian and Mengtian, and an Earth-facing port as the backup docking for Shenzhou spacecraft. The remaining port on the side of the hub facing away from the Earth is permanently attached to a small airlock module, which allows egress and ingress for spacewalks by astronauts and also provides a storage space to accommodate EVA spacesuits.
The cylindrical living compartment provides habitable living quarters and main working space for a crew of three astronauts, including sleeping quarters, kitchen, space toilet, etc. It is also where the main control station is located, allowing the crew to manage guidance, navigation and control for the entire space station. A secondary control station which performs similar functions is located in the Wentian laboratory module.
The transition section behind the living compartment flares outward from 3.35 m diameter of the living compartment to 4.2 m diameter of the service compartment. The aft cylindrical transfer chamber, also habitable, connects the the forward living compartment with the aft docking port to allow transfer of cargo and crew. The chamber is surrounded by the unpressurised service compartment, which accommodates the main engines, propellant tanks, power system, and communications system. The aft docking port is used for docking of Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, but can also be used as a backup docking port for Shenzhou spacecraft.
The Tianhe module is powered by two pairs of solar panel wings, with a total span of 60 m. Each solar wing has 3 panels and is one-axis steerable in order to obtain maximum solar insolation. The silicon solar cells of the arrays have an efficiency of over 30%. Sun sensors between the panels measure the sunlight incidence angle which allows the panels to be automatically commanded to an optimum angle. Silver-zinc batteries in the service compartment provide emergency power in case of failure of the solar arrays. The spacecraft’s power bus operates at 100 V.
The CAST-designed large robotic arm is designed to assist the assembly and maintenance of the space station, move equipment and supplies around the station, and support astronauts in EVA.
Is this now the cream of the crop, as far as space stations are concerned?...
Maybe.
I am predicting (and hoping) :) that karmically, it'll run into some of the large cloud of space debris they created when they purposely sent a missile into their defunct satellite.
It is based on an older russian design. But that does not mean it is outdated. They have a good robot arm which is important for many kinds of work. They will certainly avoid one major problem of the ISS. The ISS is built from modules provided by the Soviet Union, USA, Japan and Europe. Each of those felt compelled to build their own aluminium can with little regard to compatibility. The docking adapters for connecting the modules are compatible. Electric supplies, lighting, fans and lots of other things are not, making maintenance on the ISS a nightmare and incredibly expensive. The Chinese will make sure that such items are common over all modules, making operations much easier.Quote:
Originally Posted by BaitongBoy
The ISS solar arrays are old and extremely inefficient compared to modern arrays. But that's due to their age, not a technical flaw. The chinese station will have the edge in that area.
Mainly it will be a learning exercise. They are still catching up. Meanwhile in the US Congress and NASA are wasting multi billions of $ for pork projects every year. Their main aim is keeping multiple NASA centers distributed over many congressional districts alive and feeding billions of $ to always the same contractors with all their experience building Saturn V and Apollo 50 years ago. It keeps getting worse. Latest example is the 2020 Mars rover. The $2 billion cost of Curiosity was justified by developing a lot of new technology. The 2020 rover is using all the same technology, even to a large extent using spares built for Curiosity. Yet the cost has expanded from initial $1.5 billion to now $2.5 billion, more than Curiosity. As it is China will surpass NASA before 2030.
Yeah. But unlike the US they learned from their mistake and won't repeat it. At the same time old US spy sats are frequently not properly passivated at the end of their life time and sometimes explode due to bad batteries years later.Quote:
Originally Posted by Latindancer
Edit: To be fair. The Airforce learned too and are trying to avoid that kind of mistake for the future.
I never got a chance to receive the slow scan TV images from the ISS last week.
1 - It was pissing down with rain when the ISS flew over Bangkok
2 - More importantly, it's virtually impossible to get a decent line of sight to receive the VHF radio signal, due to all the high-rise buildings. I could have taken my laptop, antenna and 'dongle' onto Sukhumvit Road, but decided that at 1am in the morning, I might encounter some ladyboys who might play with said dongle.....
There's a second chance to receive these signals around 11-14th April. I'm back in Naypyitaw late on the 12th, so will have another go.
On a second topic, I have now collected most of the components to build my PocketQube micro-satellite 'Myansat PQ-1'. I was able to buy everything COTS (commercial off the shelf), which was my intention. Now to hotfoot it back to Myanmar and start to build the satellite on a table in my hotel room :)
You've spoken to someone in the government about this, haven't you Simon ? I seem to recall you have..
I'd hate you to be arrested for espionage like that guy with the drone in Cambodia.....possibly only because some jerk in minor office sees an opportunity to make money out of you paying your way out of "trouble".
LoL, make money out of me? My ex's cleaned me out, ain't no money left....Quote:
... some jerk in minor office sees an opportunity to make money out of you paying your way out of "trouble".
Yes, I've had a couple of meetings with some very senior people - lot of interest in this little project - it does really need their 'OK' before it flies - literally...
A planned space hotel hopes to welcome guests by 2022 — for a cost of almost $800,000 a night
By Marwa Eltagouri
April 6, 2018 at 9:55 PM
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2018/04/1184.jpgLooking for a getaway that offers unmatched views of sunrises and sunsets? Specifically, 384 of them in 12 days?
Rendering of Aurora Station. (Courtesy of Orion Span/)
Try outer space.
Houston-based Orion Span hopes to launch the “first luxury hotel in space” — the 35-by-14-foot Aurora Station — by late 2021 and bring guests on board the following year. The hotel will accommodate up to four travelers and two crew members at a time, racing them around the planet at high speeds for 12 days, the company said in anews release.
Adventurers pay $9.5 million per person — or about $791,666 a night — and their $80,000 deposit can already be reserved online, company officials said. But don't fear: The deposit is fully refundable.
“We want to get people into space because it’s the final frontier for our civilization,” Orion Span’s founder and chief executive, Frank Bunger,told Bloomberg.
Bunger said that one reason Orion Span can aim for a price of less than $10 million per person is because of the declining price of launches.
“Everybody’s forecasting that [launch prices are] going to fall,” he told Bloomberg. “Almost every week, there’s another rocket-launch company that’s starting up with a new way to get to orbit cheaper, faster, better.”
Orion Span's announcement of a luxury hotel in space comes amid a revival of the commercial space industry. The launch of Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy from the Kennedy Space Center in February, for example, was the latest in a series of milestones that have renewed companies' interest in space.
The launch raised the question of whether SpaceX and other private enterprises could maintain their momentum and fulfill the promise of returning humans to space. That likelihood could increase as the Trump administration looks to restructure the role of NASA, allowing private enterprise and international partners to work closely with the space agency.
Orion Span's proposed hotel offers plenty of attractions: zero-gravity flying throughout the station, views of patrons' home towns from space, the ability to take part in research experiments such as growing food while in orbit, and live-streams with friends and family at home through high-speed Internet.
Since commercial spaceflight has yet to launch humans into space, Aurora Station visitors will have three months of training, which would begin with online courses to better understand “basic spaceflight, orbital mechanics, and pressurized environments in space,” officials told Bloomberg. The guests will also have contingency training at the company's headquarters in Houston.
“Orion Span has ... taken what was historically a 24-month training regimen to prepare travelers to visit a space station and streamlined it to three months, at a fraction of the cost,” company officials said. “Our goal is to make space accessible to all, by continuing to drive greater value at lower cost.”
Bunger, a former software engineer, told Bloomberg that the experience won't be for everyone. The Aurora Station will mainly cater to those who are passionate about space and astronomical study.
“We're not selling a hey-let’s-go-to-the-beach equivalent in space,” Bunger said. “We’re selling the experience of being an astronaut. You reckon that there are people who are willing to pay to have that experience.”
Christian Davenport contributed to this report.
Read more :- http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/s...00000-a-night/
Investment scam.
Quite possible. A new company, nobody ever heard of them. Have apparently no capital. The concept is doable, maybe in 6-8 years. 3 years is laughable. There are other players who are much more credible who could go for this kind of venture.Quote:
Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
Bigelow Aerospace, though Robert Bigelow is an UFO believer and leads his company very badly. But he has money and is willing to spend hundreds of millions just because he is a space geek.
NASA Basically Missed a Huge Asteroid That Passed Unnervingly Close to Earth.
While the world was busy doing its thing on Saturday, a giant asteroid the size of a football field whizzed by our planet.
NASA scientists noticed the massive asteroid at an observatory in Arizona just a few hours before it gave Earth a surprise flyby.
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2018/04/573.jpg
A mere 21 hours after that initial sighting, Asteroid 2018 GE3 came a little too close for comfort.
Travelling around 106,000 kilometres per hour (66,000 miles per hour) the asteroid was as far away from Earth as half the average distance between Earth and the Moon.
And while that may sound far away, in space-terms, that's spine-chillingly close.
https://scienceknowledge5.blogspot.c...eroid.html?m=1
So that's an asteroid the size of a football pitch, doing 106,000kph, gets spotted less than a day before it whizzes past us at half a lunar distance.
Scary shit, could have sent us all back to the Stone age. ...if we were lucky.
According to that website it was about the size of the 1908 Tunguska meteorite. So it could wreak havoc in the range of a major nuclear weapon, except for no radiation involved, but not globally.
Must be a helluva long zoom lens you've got on your camera, Luigi. Great photo!!
:tumbs:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luigi
Thank you kindly Sir. :)
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2018/04/562.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by Luigi
^^^ THat's an odd website...here is another article from it, and it's not dated April the 1st https://scienceknowledge5.blogspot.c...years-old.html
You got that right.Quote:
Originally Posted by Latindancer
A short look shows lots of nonsense. Like the EM-drive article, claiming it is proven. Lots of people try but it is not even close to be proven. If that happens I will know and will shout it out in this thread. Believe me. An article about the EM-drive and they show a stock photo of an ion drive.
:bananaman:
Idiots !
They can't tell the difference between an EM drive and an ion drive ? I fart in their general direction.
Why, everyone knows that Flash Gordon used one and that Captain Kirk used the other. I just can't quite recall who used which.
A Tass article on Dmitri Rogozin, deputy prime minister and responsible for the russian space agency Roskosmos. He basically says no point in competing with SpaceX in the launch vehicle market. According to him it is only 4% of total space market. Much more money in building satellites.
Sounds much like sour grapes. Besides while true that money is in satellites, the record of Roskosmos in satellites is dismal. They can barely sell some to third world countries. The last was Angosat for Angola and the sat failed right after launch. One could think the once proud Soviet Space industry is in a death spiral. Maybe not yet, we will see.
© AP Photo/John Raoux
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2018/04/466.jpg
Quote:
"The share of launch vehicles is as small as 4% percent of the overall market of space services. The 4% stake isn’t worth the effort to try to elbow Musk and China aside," Rogozin said in an interview on the RBC-TV channel on Tuesday.
He estimates the real market of space services at approximately $350 billion, with the creation of payloads, and not the launch of these payloads in space, accounting for the bulk of the sum.
"Payloads manufacturing is where good money can be made," he said.
More:
TASS: Science & Space - Russian deputy PM sees no reason for competing with Musk on launch vehicles market
At the same time they say since SpaceX wants to go to Mars soon, they will speed up their own Mars program.
TASS: Science & Space - Elon Musk?s efforts might push Russia to speed up its Mars program, cosmonaut notes
Myansat PQ-1:
A few weeks ago I casually mentioned that I planned to build a micro-satellite in my bedroom, a Pocketqube satellite to be precise, which is approximately the size of a Rubik's Cube, about 5 x 5 x 5 cm. This would be Myanmar's first satellite designed and constructed in-country, albeit not by a Burmese person (that will come with the next satellite - Myansat PQ-2, this first project is just to test the waters).
These Pocketqubes are launched into a LEO, so it is practical to use off-the-shelf components, because the lifetime of the satellite may be only a few months before it burns up as it re-enters earth's atmosphere.
When I was in Bangkok last week, I collected some of the satellite components that I had ordered online, and also bought some more components.
Now I'm back in my hotel room AKA satellite integration facility, I can start to put it all together. Here is a typical grotty photo from my mobile phone of the very expensive integration facility. (The banner behind the tables is just in case the cleaning lady thinks it's a pile of rubbish and sweeps it all into her black bin-bag...)
https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?a...id=11979&stc=1
Anyway, a brief description of the satellite design and components (the components are on the left table and some construction/measurement tools are on the right table).
There's a 5 cm cube 'box' to house the components. well, I don't have a 5 cm cube box. But I do have a metal, model red telephone box that is 5 cm x 5 cm x about 12 cm! So I'll cut this down to size..
The satellite needs a power supply. So this comes from solar panels, mounted on 5 sides of the cube (the 6th face is the satellite baseplate). I ordered some solar panels online from China - they should hopefully have been delivered to my school address.
The solar panels charge Lithium Ion batteries. It's difficult to find physically small batteries, but old Nokia phones use a suitable type. I bought a couple when I was in Bangkok.
It's important to regulate the recharging of the batteries by the solar panels, since the voltage from these panels will depend on whether the satellite is in light or darkness or in between. So some miniature charge-control circuits are used, one for each solar panel.
The micro-satellite is in LEO. So it passes over different regions of the earth and is only 'visible' to the user on earth for about 15 minutes on each pass. To help the user locate the satellite, there is a beacon transmitter which continuously 'beeps' and sends out a morse-code ID, as well as a telemetry signal which is the value of the satellite power supply voltage at any time. (If the voltage fails or goes haywire, then there is nothing that I can do, but at least I'll know that 'Houston, we have a problem'. The beacon transmitter sends out a 100 mWatt signal on about 435 MHz.
Now we need the 'big' data transmitter and receiver component. This is a 1 watt unit that transmits on a different frequency from the beacon transmitter, but still in the 435 MHz range. This unit also includes a 435 MHz receiver, because the satellite needs to receive inbound command signals from me/other authorised ground stations to switch on the data transmitter, or to reboot the satellite power rail etc if things go haywire. Tone signals are sent to the satellite receiver and decoded by a DTMF 'chip' and thence to various on/off digital switches.
This data transceiver is a nifty little module that's normally used in Chinese walkie-talkie units.
What about the antenna for the data transceiver? Simple, just use a metal tape measure that is cut to resonate at 435 MHz. Since my satellite is very small, I found a keyring tape measure on Lazada that should do the job.
Finally, the 'payload' of this micro-satellite. There are many different payloads that could be flown, such as radiation measurement equipment, a simple camera etc. For this first attempt, I decided to simply play back audio music and digital signals that can be decoded using simple free software to display an image of the Myanmar flag, and another image of me stark naked! (Sorry, that is a joke, but doing something like that would make me infamous....)
So there is a miniature TF memory card playback circuit board, which is connected to the data transmitter, and is activated by command signals received by the data receiver. The digital audio file on this memory card plays for about 15 minutes and then switches off, so just fine for an earth-bound receiver to receive all the test data during an overhead pass.
So that's it. I'm about ready to integrate all these components and test the damn thing :)
Update:
Here is a close-up photo of the component table:
https://teakdoor.com/attachment.php?a...id=11980&stc=1
Some components that I forgot to mention are mechanical kill-switches which isolate the power supply from the satellite circuitry to ensure that the satellite isn't accidentally activated before it is launched into space. These kill-switches are physically held in an 'off' state by the micro-satellite launch housing. When the satellite is launched into space, the kill-switches activate to an 'on' position and the supply voltage is then passed to the various circuitry.
To ensure that the tape antennas don't accidentally open prior to launch, they are physically tied 'shut' with nylon fishing line. when the satellite is launched and the supply voltage activated, this voltage heats up some nichrome wire that is wrapped around this nylon fishing line. Nichrome wire is similar to the wire of a toaster element - it heats up red-hot but doesn't break. So this nichrome wire will rapidly heat up red-hot, melt the fishing line, and the tape antenna will pop out :)
Do you have a technical drawing of the cube? I could probably fabricate one out of aluminium (or any other suiatle material) in my home workshop if you want.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon43
Which company will you use for the launch and how much will it cost?
Fascinating stuff. Cheers Simon.
Hi Barty, yes I can send you an ICD. Although my telephone box has the correct box dimensions (50 mm x 50 mm), the base-plate of the satellite is a bit of a problem because it is slightly larger than the box and it has to be a certain thickness of aluminium, (because it slots into a launch deployment box).
The launch cost is about $20,000 (I don't intend to use my own money for this - I'll cross this bridge if/when I reach it. Hey, what about we make this a TD satellite instead, invite financial sponsors?)
Typically, these micro-satellites are launched in 'clusters' when they piggy-back on a major satellite launch. Often, the launch vehicle is Russian, Chinese or Indian.
I was offered a Q3 2019 launch date, but I'm holding off this due to the launch costs. I'm sure that 'organisations' within Myanmar would cover this cost, but from face-to-face meetings with said organisation, there are strings attached which I prefer not to get attached to....
Send me the size (with tolerences) and spec of the base plate, I am sure I can sort it out for you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon43
Can you have it transmit 'Fok Fok Fok Fok Fok Fok Fok'?Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon43
I'll be part of it. :)