Space News thread

[Luigi]

I'll let Takeovers inform us if it's actually going to happen or not.


Exciting times coming though. In the next decade possibly people based on both Mars and the Moon!


Imagine how many more children will be interested in space and science if that's the case.

[Topper]

Imagine how many more children will be interested in space and science if that's the case.

I've tried to explain this in my classes and it generally goes over like a lead balloon.

[Luigi]

Maybe they can make an App with poppy balloons or something, for it.

[Topper]

Maybe they can make an App with poppy balloons or something, for it.

I'd like to do a STEM style project with the M2's next year with going to the Moon/Mars as the theme for their independent study class.

[Takeovers]

I'll let Takeovers inform us if it's actually going to happen or not.

Thanks for your confidence, but I have no clue what is going on. NASA is splashing out some small change to mostly small companies to develop some capabilities. But what for and what is their long game I can not fathom. Maybe for a change not super expensive plans that lead nowhere but instead less expensive plans that lead nowhere. Lunar programs in the capability range of the chinese orbiters and rover on the backside of the moon.

Maybe the next step would be plans that involve the Vulcan rocket ULA may fly in 2021 and/or the New Glenn rocket Blue Origin may fly in 2021, maybe even the SpaceX Falcon Heavy that is already available. But that is even more fuzzy than the present plans. These would allow to develop complex mission plans that might bring people to the moon but barely something more robust and lasting than the Apollo program.

But they carefully avoid making plans even tentatively that would involve SpaceX Starship.

[Takeovers]

NASA has canceled the attempts to reestablish contact with the Opportunity Mars rover. The mission ends after 15 years. Opportunity has not survived last years massive dust storm. Given that the design life span was 3 month, 15 years is a huge achievement.

[NamPikToot]

I'd like to do a STEM style project with the M2's next year with going to the Moon/Mars as the theme for their independent study class.

Topper, space for kids unless they are interested is a difficult concept to relate to, why not start them on thinking about how to live and thrive underwater, conceptually there are similar problems, Air to breath, growing food and a different medium to move in. Once they get their heads around that you can move them on to space and its hostile challenges. You could start off by setting a scenario where rising sea levels drives mankind underwater - there's load of material out there too. Get them to think about challenges like air, water, food, building materials etc

EDIT

An easy example of challenges; drill a hole in some wood, get a screw and a screwdriver and some thick gloves. Tell them to screw the screw into the wood with no gloves. Now change the scenario and tell them the screw is a plug to stop water or oxygen leakage and causing catastrophic damage, put the gloves on and tell them that now they have to screw the screw in to prevent it - just picking it up, locating it in the hole becomes a whole challenge - use a magnetic screwdriver next to show how mankind could overcome this or latex gloves as a development to make handling easier. just an idea, i used to piss around a lot with this sort of stuff with my kids.

[harrybarracuda]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this photo of the Opportunity Rover after it went silent. It's that little speck in the middle of the box.

Poor thing.

[harrybarracuda]

I give you the Stratolaunch.... due to finish testing and fly this year. The biggest aircraft in the world.



Why is it in the Space News thread you may ask. Aaaaaahhhhh...



It's Paul Allen's launch platform, but unfortunately the actual vehicles seem to have been abandoned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratolaunch_Systems

[harrybarracuda]

How ESA plan to "3D-print" a lunar base.

[Takeovers]

It's Paul Allen's launch platform, but unfortunately the actual vehicles seem to have been abandoned.

After Paul Allen died the funds are drying up. Development of the orbital vehicles has stopped. They will probably get the plane flying and then the project will slowly die. This plane is a solution in search of a problem.

Seeing it fly will still be impressive.

[BaitongBoy]

Reminds me of Howard Hughes and his Spruce Goose...

At least this behemoth should easily fly farther than a mile at 70 feet off the ground...

[harrybarracuda]

Some have taken the opportunity to remember the late Mars Spirit rover. The first craft to draw a dick and balls on a different planet.

[BaitongBoy]

^ Heh...

[BaitongBoy]

NASA Will Launch a New Space Telescope in 2023 to Investigate the Universe:




Come 2023, NASA will have a new eye tracking the heavens and looking to solve some of the greatest scientific mysteries we know of.

That's thanks to a newly approved mission called Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer and nicknamed SPHEREx. The instrument is designed to tackle two key questions: how the universe evolved and how common some crucial building blocks of life are across our galaxy.

"I'm really excited about this new mission," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. "Not only does it expand the United States' powerful fleet of space-based missions dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of the universe, it is a critical part of a balanced science program that includes missions of various sizes."

The SPHEREx instrument will be able to gather optical and near-infrared light from a mind-bogglingly large number of sources: more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way itself and more than 300 million other galaxies. It will manage to tackle two different but equally fundamental questions in those two different purviews.

All told, SPHEREx will scan through the whole sky and gather data in 96 different wavelengths of light. Within our Milky Way galaxy, SPHEREx will map water and organic molecules, which are both fundamental ingredients for life as we know it.

And beyond our galaxy, it will look back into the very first moments of our universe. Scientists will be able to use its data to prioritize observing targets for other future space telescope missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope and the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope.

"This amazing mission will be a treasure trove of unique data for astronomers," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in the same statement.

"It will deliver an unprecedented galactic map containing 'fingerprints' from the first moments in the universe's history. And we'll have new clues to one of the greatest mysteries in science: What made the universe expand so quickly less than a nanosecond after the big bang?"

SPHEREx is slated for launch in 2023, is designed to last two years and budgeted to cost $242 million, not including launch costs.

[Takeovers]

SPHEREx is slated for launch in 2023, is designed to last two years and budgeted to cost $242 million, not including launch costs.

Good to hear that there are still very good missions that don't cost $10 billion.

[Takeovers]

SpaceX has built this device to drive under a landed rocket, grab it with the arms and secure it before people enter the landing platform. It is called the octagrabber, or the roomba by some fans. Very important a human standing on it for scale.

[harrybarracuda]

At last someone is doing something about all the crap we've left in space.



https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/harpoo...s-space-debris

[Takeovers]

At last someone is doing something about all the crap we've left in space.

I wish I could agree with you. I better leave it at that.

[Takeovers]

NASA and Commercial crew. NASA is purchasing 2 more seats on Soyuz.

[harrybarracuda]

I wish I could agree with you. I better leave it at that.

Why, you think they're wasting their time?

[Takeovers]

Why, you think they're wasting their time?

There are hundreds of thousands objects in space that can potentially be dangerous. No way to harpoon them all, even if there were will and money to clean up which isn't. This is just window dressing. Not that doing a few technology demos is a bad thing in itself.

The only way forward is be more careful not blowing up spent upper stages or satellites and build deorbit capability into them so they don't stay up there to cause trouble. But even that simple straightforward solution is not followed strictly.

Fortunately most of the dangerous pieces clear themselves out over decades, just don't add more and the problem mostly goes away given time. But even that is not done properly. Satellites have deorbit capability at the end of their calculated lifespan. But instead of removing them very frequently just their use time is extended until they are no longer capable of removing themselves.

[Dragonfly]

After Paul Allen died the funds are drying up. Development of the orbital vehicles has stopped. They will probably get the plane flying and then the project will slowly die. This plane is a solution in search of a problem.

Seeing it fly will still be impressive.

from what I understand with a source I know close to Paul Allen, there is a trust fund setup with all his money that will continue financing all his toys projects

that said, this particular project seems to lack vision, complete waste of money

Paul Allen had over 200 properties all over the world and over 30,000 items in his art collection, a complete legal and tax nightmare to evaluate and transfer to the new trust fund

His sister is getting a nice little "inheritance" but very small compared to his enormous fortune (over 15bn I think)

[harrybarracuda]

There are hundreds of thousands objects in space that can potentially be dangerous. No way to harpoon them all, even if there were will and money to clean up which isn't. This is just window dressing. Not that doing a few technology demos is a bad thing in itself.

The only way forward is be more careful not blowing up spent upper stages or satellites and build deorbit capability into them so they don't stay up there to cause trouble. But even that simple straightforward solution is not followed strictly.

Fortunately most of the dangerous pieces clear themselves out over decades, just don't add more and the problem mostly goes away given time. But even that is not done properly. Satellites have deorbit capability at the end of their calculated lifespan. But instead of removing them very frequently just their use time is extended until they are no longer capable of removing themselves.

Well I can't disagree that they need to work on not leaving the shit up there in the first place, but surely something that can remove the larger or more dangerous bits can't be a bad thing?

The US Space Surveillance Network tracks 40,000 objects and it is estimated that there are more than 7,600 tonnes of ‘space junk’ in and around Earth’s orbit - with some moving faster than a speeding bullet, approaching speeds of 30,000 miles per hour.

[Takeovers]

but surely something that can remove the larger or more dangerous bits can't be a bad thing?

The thing is the big pieces that can be removed are not dangerous. They are charted and known and can be evaded. They become dangerous when they break up. So it should really be enforced that the owners remove them. They can then chose to deorbit them while they can or hire a junk removal satellite to do it, whatever comes cheaper to them. Unfortunately presently all rules are just recommendations, not binding. Abandoned upper stages according to present rules should be in trajectories that let them deorbit within 25 years. Emphasis on should be.

Especially older US spy satellites tend to break up many years after they stopped working. Procedures to passivise them, properly decharging batteries and venting fuel tanks have often not been properly executed or batteries used that can not be safed. Recently a ULA Centaur fragmented many years after the mission.