Space News thread

[Takeovers]

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.

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.

[harrybarracuda]

[Luigi]

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.

[David48atTD]

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.

[Luigi]

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.



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

[Neverna]

Must be a helluva long zoom lens you've got on your camera, Luigi. Great photo!!

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.



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

[Chittychangchang]

Scary shit, could have sent us all back to the Stone age. ...if we were lucky.

[Takeovers]

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.

[Luigi]

Thank you kindly Sir.

[Latindancer]

^^^ 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

[Takeovers]

THat's an odd website

You got that right.

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.

[Latindancer]

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.

[Takeovers]

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

"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

[Simon43]

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...)



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:



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

[Barty]

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.

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.


Which company will you use for the launch and how much will it cost?

[Luigi]

Fascinating stuff. Cheers Simon.

[Simon43]

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....

[Barty]

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).

Send me the size (with tolerences) and spec of the base plate, I am sure I can sort it out for you.

[Luigi]

what about we make this a TD satellite instead,

Can you have it transmit 'Fok Fok Fok Fok Fok Fok Fok'?

I'll be part of it.

[David48atTD]

Uranus smells like rotten eggs, scientists find


Scientists spotted the noxious gas swirling above the clouds in Uranus's atmosphere.

Scientists have solved a "longstanding mystery", confirming Uranus smells bad.They discovered hydrogen sulphide gas — also
known as rotten egg gas — swirling in the planet's cloud tops.

"If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus's clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant and odiferous
conditions," lead author of a study, published in Nature Astronomy, Professor Patrick Irwin said in a statement.

The composition of Uranus's clouds, and whether their main component was hydrogen sulphide or ammonia, has long been debated.
The scientists found the answer by looking at Uranus through an eight-metre-diameter telescope at the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii,
and spotted the noxious gas swirling above its clouds.

"We were able to detect the 'fingerprint' of [hydrogen sulphide] in the light reflected from Uranus's clouds," Professor Irwin said.

"From the strength of the fingerprint, we were able to figure out how much [hydrogen sulphide] is present at the cloud tops."

But Professor Irwin noted Uranus's bad smell would be far from the biggest concern for a human visitor.
"Suffocation and exposure in the minus-200-degrees-Celsius atmosphere — made of mostly hydrogen, helium and methane — would
take its toll long before the smell," Professor Irwin said.


Findings 'shed light on planets' formation'

In contrast, no hydrogen sulphide was seen above the clouds of inner gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn.
Instead, most of their upper-clouds were made of ammonia ice.

The Gemini Observatory said the planets' differences in atmospheric composition "shed light on questions about the planets'
formation and history".
The differences were likely imprinted in their early history, determined by the conditions where they formed, study co-author
Dr Leigh Fletcher said.

"This composition information is invaluable in understanding Uranus' birthplace, evolution and refining models of planetary
migrations," the Gemini Observatory said.
Professor Irwin said there was now another mystery about Uranus to solve.

"We should also see a very thick cloud of methane about the [hydrogen sulphide] cloud, but actually only see clear methane
clouds in small, occasional storm cloud systems," he said.

"Uranus has many more secrets to reveal."

Here

[BaitongBoy]

Heh...Zeus' grandfather farts mak mak...

[Takeovers]

The new era of reusable rockets is here. The first Falcon 9 block 5 is on the pad for a static fire test.



SpaceX has landed and reflown first stages before. They call them flight proven. But they reflew them only once. It was already economic but there were many components not yet ready for many reflights and it takes a lot of work to get them flight ready again. Taking all the lessons learned they developed a new version that is planned to fly 10 times without any refurbishments. Just a short check and it is ready to fly again. For the future the plan is to refurbish them after 10 flights and then do another 10 flights for a total of up to 100 flights. They don't even clean them, the soot from landing stays on. Except for the CEO of Iridium satellites, a big customer of SpaceX and a great space fan. He did write a remark into the soot using his fingers - with gloves - before it flew another set of Iridium satellites.

This booster will fly a com sat for Bangladesh, Bangabandhu on May 7. With a new generation booster it would not be surprising if the date slips a bit though.

[Takeovers]

SpaceX have declared a while back that they won't make second stages of Falcon 9 reusable. Only the next generation, the BFR will be fully reusable. BTW the family friendly translation of BFR is Big Falcon Rocket. Guess what the real meaning is.

But Elon Musk is known to sometimes change his mind. He recently declared that they will attempt to bring second stages back using a huge party balloon. Here an artists impression of how this would look like. That balloon is for providing drag and slowing down the stage in the high atmosphere for reentry, not for floating like a balloon usually does.



The stage would reenter the earth atmosphere with a giant balloon slowing it down and then be caught by a ship in a net. This will work only on LEO flights, not to higher altitudes. But they will begin deploying their starlink satellite constellation probably next year which will need many LEO launches. They may soon do the majority of their launches for their own project instead of flying for external customers. Reusing second stages would bring down cost for that project.

A ship like this that is built to catch fairings coming down from space on parafoils. Both the fairing reuse and second stage reuse are examples how SpaceX does advanced research on low cost. They do their testing on commercial flights. Those rockets have earned their money before the tests happen. NASA doing similar research would run up cost in the billions of dollars.



The teak door post on reusing fairings:

https://teakdoor.com/the-teakdoor-lounge/110294-space-news-thread-66.html#post3720311 (Space News thread)

[Takeovers]

I like this one.

[harrybarracuda]

NASA will launch a mission to Mars this weekend which - if successful - will reveal whether the planet could ever be habitable.

Mars is a difficult planet to investigate. Its thin atmosphere makes landing a challenge and its extreme temperature swings make it very difficult for missions to be conducted on the surface.

Only 40% of the missions ever sent to Mars have been successful.

InSight, which stands for Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, will place a single lander spacecraft on Mars.

NASA says the mission will help scientists understand what is happening around the planet's core.

It will also help explain how all rocky planets, including the Earth, evolved. There are significant mysteries here, because while both Mars and the Earth were formed from the same stuff more than 4.5 billion years ago, they are now very different planets.

InSight will study what motion is taking place underground in Mars, motions known as marsquakes.

NASA's scientists have seen a lot of evidence that Mars has quakes - known as marsquakes. Unlike Earth, where quakes are caused by tectonic plates, Mars has very quiet tectonic processes.

This means marsquakes are more likely to be caused by other forms of tectonic activity, including volcanism and cracks forming in the planet's crust.
NASA said: "Each marsquake would be like a flashbulb that illuminates the structure of the planet's interior.

"By studying how seismic waves pass through the different layers of the planet (the crust, mantle and core), scientists can deduce the depths of these layers and what they're made of.

"In this way, seismology is like taking an X-ray of the interior of Mars."

Earth and Venus have tectonic systems which have destroyed most evidence of their early history, but Mars (which is just one third the size of those planets), contains less energy to power these tectonic processes.

NASA said this makes Mars a fossil planet in many ways because it has remained static for more than three billion years.

The mission will launch before dawn from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Usually, missions to other planets launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and fly east, over the water of the Atlantic Ocean.

Flying towards the east adds the momentum of Earth's eastward rotation to the launch vehicle's own thrust - but the Atlas V-401 rocket launching InSight is powerful enough to fly south towards the sea from Vandenberg.

It will take InSight about six months to travel the 301 million miles (485 million kilometres) to Mars, and it is expected to arrive at Mars on 26 November 2018.

https://news.sky.com/story/could-we-...d-out-11359215