Space News thread

[Takeovers]

We are getting closer to american companies being able again to send astronauts to space. It will likely happen next year.

Today SpaceX revealed a first photo of their space suit they will use with the Crew Dragon. Note that this is not a full spacesuit as used by astronauts when on missions outside the ISS. It is only an emergency suit to keep people alive in case of depressurization.

First a preview published about a year ago. It triggered responses, especially from the experts, that's nonsense. No way a spacesuit can look like this.



Todays photo of the real suit. Tested and accepted by NASA, or at least very close to accepted. It is already vacuum tested.



We are promised to get more photos of the suit over the next few days.

elonmusk First picture of SpaceX spacesuit. More in days to follow. Worth noting that this actually works (not a mockup). Already tested to double vacuum pressure. Was incredibly hard to balance esthetics [sic] an function. Easy to do either separately.

For Elon Musk esthetics are very important besides functionality.

[harrybarracuda]

I suppose aesthetics are important when you are charging people a gazillion dollars for a ride into space. Do they get to keep the suit?

[Takeovers]

I suppose aesthetics are important when you are charging people a gazillion dollars for a ride into space. Do they get to keep the suit?

The ride on SpaceX Dragon 2 is going to be the cheapest so far. But not really cheap. What I have heard these suits are personalized quite a lot. So probably yes, any space tourist would probably get to keep it.

We don't have a price for that planned loop around the moon tourist flight. Best guesses are around $100 million per person for a two person flight. The tourists have requested to fly alone without a pilot for privacy.

[BaitongBoy]

Maybe the suits will come off when they become the first card-bearing members of the 100-mile high club...

Interesting stuff, as usual, TO...Wonder if any TD members are on the list...Probably the no-fly list, for sure...

[Takeovers]

The names of the moon tourists were not revealed yet. Speculation is they are a couple. Guess what they want the privacy for?

BTW NASA has rules against a couple flying together on the ISS. Yet it did happen. Two astronauts married and had a mission together before they informed NASA. Officially nothing happened on that flight.

[BaitongBoy]

That was my next question...With all the time being spent in space, there must have been some incidents...Any info on that...A friend wants to know...

[Takeovers]

With all the time being spent in space, there must have been some incidents...Any info on that...A friend wants to know...

Nothing official and inofficial not even a hint. Just baseless speculation.

[Luigi]

Baseless speculation is fine. Go on....

[BaitongBoy]

Win El Gordo and you could ring the bell at Hansum Man's bar and take the whole staff to the moon, Alice...

[Luigi]

Nasa's Orion Spacecraft's on-board computers powered up for the first time.

NASA powers up spacecraft that could one day carry humans to Mars - Aug. 22, 2017



NASA just got one step closer to its most ambitious spacecraft ever: One that can carry humans to the moon, Mars and perhaps beyond.

It's called Orion. And Lockheed Martin (LMT), NASA's contractor for the project, said the latest version of the vessel was powered on for the first time Tuesday morning, lighting up the intricate on-board computers that will one day help guide Orion through the vacuum of space.

"This is the brains and heart of the spacecraft," said Lockheed spokesperson Gary Napier. He added that the inaugural power-up appeared to go "very well."
For the next one or two months NASA will add even more computer systems and continue testing its hardware and software, Napier told CNNMoney.

It's an important milestone for Orion, which NASA has been working on ever since the Space Shuttle program was retired in 2011.

The hope is to one day launch the spacecraft on the Space Launch System (SLS), a truly massive rocket that is also currently under development by NASA and a handful of private-sector contractors.

When it's up and running, SLS could be the most powerful rocket ever built. The current record holder is NASA's Saturn V rocket, which was used in NASA's Apollo missions, including the 1969 moon landing, and has long been retired.
Orion and SLS are seen as NASA's next great step forward.

Orion is tentatively scheduled to fly on SLS for an unmanned test flight around the moon in 2019.
"Although astronauts will not fly in this capsule on this flight, a large majority of the [tech is] the same design that astronauts will rely on during following missions with Orion into the solar system," Lockheed said in a statement.

It's not clear when the first humans will actually climb aboard Orion. NASA originally slated the first manned mission for sometime in 2021, but the timeline has since shifted and NASA has yet to set a new target date.

[Takeovers]

NASA just got one step closer to its most ambitious spacecraft ever:

One that can carry humans to the moon, Mars and perhaps beyond. It's called Orion.

This piece of junk is not even capable of reaching a low lunar orbit like Apollo did. It is definitely not capable of going to Mars, at least not in any useful function, like return to earth. It has only one useful function and it does perform it perfectly. Channel multi billions into Lockheed Martin. A sensible spacecraft it is not.

Orion is tentatively scheduled to fly on SLS for an unmanned test flight around the moon in 2019. "Although astronauts will not fly in this capsule on this flight, a large majority of the [tech is] the same design that astronauts will rely on during following missions with Orion into the solar system," Lockheed said in a statement. It's not clear when the first humans will actually climb aboard Orion. NASA originally slated the first manned mission for sometime in 2021, but the timeline has since shifted and NASA has yet to set a new target date.

There is still a decent hope it will never fly with crew.

[Takeovers]

Baseless speculation is fine. Go on....

There is really nothing beyond thinking of human nature it is hard to believe it never happened.

[Luigi]

Saw a doco about long term space exploration and colonization, and it was a part of it.

Among many of the other physical issues that humans just aren't naturally evolved for, when it comes to doing the ol' lulu, apparently the zero-gravity effect on blood-flow, as well as the natural positioning - jackhammering for example isn't as easy as in a bed/on a beach/in Big C changing rooms.

As well something about sperm, being created and getting to the egg.

Surely astronauts on the ISS haven't gone 6 months up there without knocking one out or rubbing one off.

[BaitongBoy]

They don't need socks, anyway...And the shower drains won't get clogged...

But you'd better duck if you see it coming...

[Takeovers]

Saw a doco about long term space exploration and colonization, and it was a part of it.

Actually producing offspring in microgravity will likely not work. The question to be answered is will it work on Mars? I think yes but it will need proof. Before any settlement of Mars begins, so early after landing there.

[Latindancer]

Surely astronauts on the ISS haven't gone 6 months up there without knocking one out or rubbing one off.

That's a good point. Current medical opinion is that the ol' pipes and tubes need to be cleaned out regularly.
If I don't get it a minimum of once a week, I start to get jumpy, and womens bodies begin to look more attractive than they previously had.

Either the book or the movie "2001 : A Space Odyssey" vaguely describes the astronauts on their way to Jupiter as having certain sex aids.

So what DO men do up there in the International Space Station ? Hold it in till they have wet dreams ?

[Luigi]

Fok being an astronaut. Just not worth it.

[Luigi]

The question to be answered is will it work on Mars? I think yes but it will need proof. Before any settlement of Mars begins, so early after landing there.

The PC and Pro-Life brigade will love that experiment.

[Takeovers]

The question to be answered is will it work on Mars? I think yes but it will need proof. Before any settlement of Mars begins, so early after landing there.

The PC and Pro-Life brigade will love that experiment.

You won't believe some of the discussions. Some people argue that even trying is deeply immoral because of unknown risks. Astronauts sent to Mars should be sterilized to make sure it does not happen. No less than several decades of animal trials, beginning with smaller animals then ramping up tests to no less than primates over several generations. Of course they expect to have a fully equipped hospital and a full complement of doctors in place as well. People who think like me that initial tests with mice and then maybe rabbits or cats then have people who want it, try are seen as monsters advocating experimenting with human lives.

While I see it as deeply immoral to try and interfere with peoples wish to have children like people always did even in unfavorable situations. I am assuming that matters of basic survival have been solved by that time.

[Takeovers]

BTW this seems a good moment to mention that on Sept. 29 Elon Musk will provide a major update on his plans at the IAC conference in Adelaide. Changes needed because he really will have to finance it all by himself. I will put info into the SpaceX - On to Mars thread.

[BaitongBoy]

Think of the visa hassles when yer holding a Martian passport...

Fok being an astronaut. Just not worth it.

There's a reason they're called 'ass'tronauts...

[misskit]

Formosat-5 Mission


Update August 24th, 3:05PM ET: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket landed on the company’s drone ship 10 minutes after take off, marking the ninth successful rocket landing for SpaceX this year and the fifteenth recovery overall. Meanwhile, the vehicle also successfully deployed FORMOSAT-5 into its intended orbit. That means SpaceX has pulled off a dozen missions in 2017 — the most it has ever done in a year and one more than Russia so far this year.

[Luigi]

The question to be answered is will it work on Mars? I think yes but it will need proof. Before any settlement of Mars begins, so early after landing there.

The PC and Pro-Life brigade will love that experiment.

You won't believe some of the discussions. Some people argue that even trying is deeply immoral because of unknown risks. Astronauts sent to Mars should be sterilized to make sure it does not happen. No less than several decades of animal trials, beginning with smaller animals then ramping up tests to no less than primates over several generations. Of course they expect to have a fully equipped hospital and a full complement of doctors in place as well. People who think like me that initial tests with mice and then maybe rabbits or cats then have people who want it, try are seen as monsters advocating experimenting with human lives.

While I see it as deeply immoral to try and interfere with peoples wish to have children like people always did even in unfavorable situations. I am assuming that matters of basic survival have been solved by that time.

Interesting to say the least.

Gravity is around 1/3rd that of Earth - 3.7 m/s2 compared to 9.8 on Earth.

That would have to play havoc with the development of skeletal and muscular systems, both before and after birth.

[Luigi]

Really, no matter how much we want (or need) humans to successfully and totally become an interplanetary species, with total independency from Earth if needed, just isn't possible without tens of thousands of years of terraforming and evolution, if at all.

[Latindancer]

Yes.... humans are finely attuned to everything about Earth....we evolved out of it in a veeery long process.