Space News thread

[OhOh]

Lets hope it stopped OK, before the crater!

[BaitongBoy]

Cheers, Takeovers...For a brilliant thread...

It's getting harder to keep up with all the events that are happening lately...

6.8 billion kilometers away and we're monitoring it from the couch!...

Only limited by the imagination...

Meanwhile, the crafty Chinese are searching the backroom...

Reminds me of the gold rush days where it was stated some Chinese made good money with the gold dust they found sifted through the floorboards where trading went on...

Cheers, and Happy New Year...

[NamPikToot]

Cheers, Takeovers...For a brilliant thread....

BB seconded. As a child the moon landings and early exploration left me spell struck and i still find the possibilities, challenges and discoveries fascinating - it seem less so for the younger generation which is sad because unlike most things its effectively limitless, how can you get bored....I think Govts in the West with their funding reductions are not enthusing the younger generations enough but acknowledge that the use of tech in communications with broadcasts from the ISS etc offer more engagement than i had when i was young.

[Takeovers]

BB seconded. As a child the moon landings and early exploration left me spell struck and i still find the possibilities, challenges and discoveries fascinating - it seem less so for the younger generation which is sad because unlike most things its effectively limitless, how can you get bored....I think Govts in the West with their funding reductions are not enthusing the younger generations enough but acknowledge that the use of tech in communications with broadcasts from the ISS etc offer more engagement than i had when i was young.

Thanks both.

Don't underestimate the Chinese. They are behind but they are working steadily to close the gap. Even if their lander and rover are not very advanced, landing on the backside of the moon and have constant communication is a major achievement.

NASA has a great history and their science probes all over the solar system are a great achievement, worthy of their moon landings. But recently they are just treading water. They are NOT lacking money. The problem is the available money is squandered under mandate by Congress. Especially manned spaceflight is a money pit with multi billions shoved into Boeing and Lockheed Martin with ZERO return. As is the wish of Congress. They are achieving their goal of shifting money to those companies with no interest of achieving anything in spaceflight. At this rate in 10-15 years the Chinese will surpass NASA. The european ESA is no better.

The only hope for a young generation waiting for advances is SpaceX. They may still fail because their resources are a pittance compared to what NASA squanders but I hope and believe they will succed with their plans.

Humans on Mars in 10 years or less. For those who can not believe this, let's see in 2 years. By then we will probably see positive proof of their concept.

[Takeovers]

Lets hope it stopped OK, before the crater!

It stopped short.

[OhOh]

Some background on the naming of the Lunar Lander - Chang'e 4, the Luna Explore - Yutu and the Relay Satellite - Queqiao.

"Today at 2:26 utc the lunar lander module Chang'e-4 and its six wheel rover Yutu-2 landed on the far side of the moon. They used the Queqiao relay satellite to send us the first ever close range pictures (see below) of the far side of the moon.




The names Chang'e, Yutu and Quegiao have no meaning for people who grew up in 'western' cultures but are well known throughout Asia:

In a very distant past, ten suns had risen together into the skies and scorched the earth, thus causing hardship for the people. The archer Yi shot down nine of them, leaving just one sun, and was given the elixir of immortality as a reward. He did not consume it straight away, but hid it at home, as he did not want to gain immortality without his beloved wife Chang'e. However, while Yi went out hunting, his apprentice Fengmeng broke into his house and tried to force Chang'e to give him the elixir; she refused and drank it herself. Chang'e then flew upwards towards the heavens, choosing the moon as residence. Yi discovered what had transpired and felt sad, so he displayed the fruits and cakes that Chang'e had liked, and gave sacrifices to her.
...

On mid-autumn day, the full moon night of the eighth lunar month, an open-air altar is set up facing the moon for the worship of Chang'e. New pastries are put on the altar for her to bless. She is said to endow her worshipers with beauty.

Yutu, the jade rabbit, is the companion of Chang'e. He and his mortar can been seen in the full moon. Yutu is pounding the ingredients of the elixir of life for Chang'e.

Wikipedia, Moon rabbit




The Chinese lunar exploration program uses the names of Chang'e and Yutu for its lunar landing modules and the exploration rovers that comes with them. Chang'e-3 and her Yutu-1 rover landed on the near side of the moon on December 14 2013. It was the first lunar landing since 1976.

Earlier today Chang'e-4 autonomously landed on the far site of the moon. This is the first mission ever that touched down on the half of the moon that can not be seen from earth. (The far side of the moon is not dark, but gets the same amount of sunshine as the near side. The "Dark Site of the Moon" is an allusion to lunacy. Pink Floyd mentions do not fit the event.)

Being on the far side of the moon Chang'e-4 can not directly communicate with her lover on earth. A special relay satellite was stationed in the halo orbit some 75,000 kilometer beyond the moon where it can see the far site of the moon as well as earth. Its name is Queqiao or Magpie bridge:

Zhi Nu, the seventh daughter of the goddess of heaven, fell in love with the cow herder Niu Lang. They lived happily for many years. Both were sad when Ziu Nu had to return back to heaven. But the goddess of heaven took pity with the sweethearts and allowed them to be reunited once every year. On this seventh night of the seventh moon, magpies form a bridge with their wings in order that Zhi Nu might cross and meet with her beloved husband. That day (during August) is the Chinese equivalent of Valentines day.

The legend of magpie bridge



https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/0...moon.html#more

[Takeovers]

SpaceX is preparing the new Crew Dragon spacecraft for launch. SpaceX is ready to launch and has been for a while. Launch had been scheduled for Jan 17 but paperwork by NASA has been stopped due to the government shutdown. A new date can be set after the shutdown has ended.

The black part on the left of the Dragon trunk are solar panels. The white part on the right of the trunk are radiators that radiate excess heat away from the spacecraft.




Spacecraft and launch vehicle at rollout from the hangar.

[Takeovers]

Just a fun fact. The new Raptor engines by SpaceX have turbopumps for pumping fuel into the engines. The power of those turbopumps is 75MW each engine. With 7 engines on the second stage that's over 500MW, well in the range of major nuclear power plants for the fuel pumps only. And that is the second stage. The first stage has much higher power.

[harrybarracuda]

https://1337x.to/torrent/3502272/MAR...-264-QOQ-EtHD/

[BaitongBoy]

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

[Takeovers]

This is about the chinese moon mission. A short video about a german radio amateur with his equipment. In german but still worth looking at. A quite impressive antenna he has built himself. Of all radio amateurs worldwide who track the chinese mission he is the only one who has official permission to not only listen in on the signals but to send commands. Something that besides him only the chinese mission specialists are allowed to do.

[Luigi]

Of all radio amateurs worldwide who track the chinese mission he is the only one who has official permission to not only listen in on the signals but to send commands.

That's pretty amazing.


Had never really thought about it, but if some amateur bloke can send commands to the probe, presumably NASA, ESA, and every other space agency have the ability to send command to the other space agency's probes etc. Has there ever been any sabotage, or another space agency sending commands without permission or anything like that?

[Takeovers]

Had never really thought about it, but if some amateur bloke can send commands to the probe, presumably NASA, ESA, and every other space agency have the ability to send command to the other space agency's probes etc. Has there ever been any sabotage, or another space agency sending commands without permission or anything like that?

Nothing was ever made public, I don't think anything happened. Probably too risky because both sides are vulnerable. The Russians have blamed the West for their abysmal failure of their Phobos Grunt misssion. It was intended to reach the Marsmoon Phobos but failed to even leave earth orbit. They alternatively blamed a US radar installation to interfere with their electronics or it was substandard imported electronics components from the West. In reality it was just one of frequent failures of their upper stage.

I was very sad about this failure. I had high hopes for this mission.

BTW the nations are very cooperative with science probes. On missions by NASA and by Russia there are frequently science instruments from other nations. For example the Mars InSight probe that recently has landed on Mars has two main science instruments. One has been provided by the french space agency, the other by the german DLR. The latest chinese moon lander also has instruments from Europe.

[Luigi]

Cool, cheers.

With the major space agencies working together, sharing knowledge and instruments etc, it's a real pity that this doesn't extend into the private companies such as Space X, Blue Origin, Virgin etc. As they seem to be the ones that are really getting sheet done when it come to human space exploration and future space technologies etc.

[OhOh]

^Only winners get more funding.

[thailazer]

Cheers, Takeovers...For a brilliant thread...

It's getting harder to keep up with all the events that are happening lately...

6.8 billion kilometers away and we're monitoring it from the couch!...

Only limited by the imagination...

Meanwhile, the crafty Chinese are searching the backroom...

Reminds me of the gold rush days where it was stated some Chinese made good money with the gold dust they found sifted through the floorboards where trading went on...

Cheers, and Happy New Year...

Indeed amazing how commonplace these events seem to be getting. Still a lot of science and technology to implement to get it right.

[Luigi]

Wait until humans (or humanoid-AI) master the manipulation of space-time in a few hundred years. If we're not killed off first.

[uncle junior]

Panoramic photo of the dark side of the moon from the PRC mission......alien bases photoshopped out apparently

[Takeovers]

Nice one. With real colors this time. They did the white balancing.

[harrybarracuda]

Panoramic photo of the dark side of the moon from the PRC mission......alien bases photoshopped out apparently

No, they've scarpered. You can see the last ship leaving on the right hand side.

[OhOh]

Next lunar mission's details released


By ZHAO LEI | China Daily | Updated: 2019-01-15 07:01


Chang'e 5 tasked with retrieving soil from moon, completing program's third phase


"China plans to send its Chang'e 5 probe to the moon around the end of the year and bring lunar samples back to Earth, a senior space official said.

Wu Yanhua, deputy head of China National Space Administration, said at a news conference in Beijing on Monday afternoon that the Chang'e 5 mission will be the next step in China's lunar exploration and will mark the completion of the program's third phase, whose goal is guiding a probe carrying lunar soil back to Earth.

The country's first Mars mission is scheduled for around 2020, he said.

If Chang'e 5 succeeds in its mission, China will become the third nation to retrieve lunar samples, after the United States and Russia.

According to sources close to China's lunar program, Chang'e 5 will be launched on a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket at Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province.

The 8.2-metric ton probe has four components－orbiter, lander, ascender and re-entry module. When the probe reaches lunar orbit, the components will separate into two parts. The orbiter and re-entry module will remain in orbit, and the lander and ascender descend to the moon's surface, sources said.

They will make a soft landing and get to work on tasks such as drilling to collect underground rocks and gathering soil with a mechanical arm
.
When the surface operations are completed, the ascender's rocket will return it to lunar orbit, where it will dock with the re-entry module. The samples will be transferred to the module, which will carry them to Earth. The samples will be distributed among scientists for research, according to sources."

Also a photo of the Lunar Lander taken from the Lunar Rover.



Photo taken by the rover Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2) on Jan 11, 2019 shows the lander of the Chang'e-4 probe. [Photo/Xinhua/China National Space Administration]

Next lunar mission's details released - Chinadaily.com.cn

[misskit]

China plants sprout on moon's far side

Despite the high vacuum, huge temperature changes and strong radiation on the moon, China has developed the first plants on the planet, according to Chongqing University, which leads the bio-science test load project of China's Chang'e 4 Mission.


Chang'e 4 was launched atop a Long March 3B rocket in early December at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province. It is the country's fourth lunar exploration and the world's first expedition to successfully land on the moon's far side, most of which never faces Earth.


The university announced on Tuesday morning at a news conference that at 8 pm on Jan 12, the bio test load sent back the last photo showing that the tender shoots have come out and the plants are growing well inside the sealed test can.

MORE China's plants sprout on moon's far side - Chinadaily.com.cn

[Takeovers]

Iran had a satellite launch. First 2 stages operated nominal but the third stage failed. The satellite did not reach a useful orbit. Seems there was a statement that another launch for an earth observation satellite is coming up and it will not fail.

[harrybarracuda]

Don't know if anyone posted this. It's a slightly sped up video of a Falcon launch over downtown LA. Spectacular!

[Takeovers]

News for the James Webb space telescope. New cost increase is approved in a spending bill, agreed by Democrats and Republicans. Won't pass as President Trump won't sign any spending bill that does not include the wall to Mexico but that is beside the point.


https://spacenews.com/house-spending...-shot-at-jwst/

Just look at this wording:

“There is profound disappointment with both NASA and its contractors regarding mismanagement, complete lack of careful oversight, and overall poor basic workmanship on JWST,” the report states. “NASA and its commercial partners seem to believe that congressional funding for this project and other development efforts is an entitlement, unaffected by failures to stay on schedule or within budget.”


The bill does increase the cost cap for JWST by about $800 million, to a little more than $8.8 billion, to address the latest overruns. “NASA should strictly adhere to this cap or, under this agreement, JWST will have to find cost savings or cancel the mission,” the report states.

If you have followed the developments around James Webb, you know that this is the mildest possible language. Development and building has been an unmitigated desaster. It would still be sad if James Webb does not fly, a loss for science. Failure after failure, delay after delay, cost increase after cost increase. Cost for James webb stands now at $8.8billion. The initial estimate of less than $1billion was low, but this is absurd.