Space News thread

[Klondyke]

But who remembers they killed Laika the Dog?

Isn't it wonderful how 'arry the Demagog can always discover something positive in any news?

[aging one]

Pity its not the good old days eh comrade?

[Klondyke]

Pity is not the good old days eh comrade?

And now back to the topic...

[harrybarracuda]

Ingenuity live stream starts in 20 mins or so

[harrybarracuda]

So it all worked flawlessly. Amazing. And it has a little bit of the Wright Brothers plane in it.

[Takeovers]

Russia to withdraw from International Space Station starting from 2025, deputy PM confirms, as Moscow works on replacement

Interesting. They had planned to launch the new NAUKA lab module to the ISS some time this year. Let's see how that happens.

I believe in a new russian space station when I see it. Maybe they join the chinese station.

This leaves the US section with an interesting problem. ISS maneuvers like orbit raising or space debris avoidance have been done with a russian section so far. To maintain ISS NASA will need a module that can perform this function. Not a lot of time to fund, design and build one.

[Takeovers]

TASS says however that a technical inspection is under way and the decision will depend on a result.

Russia to decide on pullout from ISS since 2025 after technical inspection - Science & Space - TASS

Given the recent troubles on the russian side, a lot of leaks, they had problems to fix, close down is not unlikely I can imagine.

[Edmond]

And it has a little bit of the Wright Brothers plane in it.

Tremendously cool.

One cool fact is that the first man to fly, could have net the first man to walk on the moon, they were both alive at the same time. Kinda puts in perspective how fast technologies develop after an initial breakthrough.

[Topper]

Ingenuity live stream starts in 20 mins or so

It was fooking cool. It does show what mankind is capable of when we're not trying to kill each other.

[Klondyke]

It was fooking cool. It does show what mankind is capable of when we're not trying to kill each other.

But at the end of the day nothing more matter than the "trying to kill each other". And what's more disappointing: there are people applauding that, denigrating anybody who speaks against that.

[Saint Willy]

NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity successfully completed its historic first flight



(CNN)The Ingenuity helicopter has successfully completed its historic flight on Mars and safely landed back on the surface, according to NASA.

The first powered, controlled flight on another planet took place at 3:34 a.m. ET.
Unlike when the helicopter's fellow traveler, the Perseverance rover, landed on Mars on February 18, there was a bit of wait to know how the helicopter fared in its attempt.

The helicopter team was in mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, early Monday morning to receive and analyze the first data from Ingenuity's flight attempt.
Confirmation of the flight's success came at 6:46 a.m.
The flight was originally scheduled for April 11, but plans shifted after a command-sequence issue was discovered when the helicopter went through a system of preflight checks with its software. The Ingenuity team received data on April 16 showing that the helicopter successfully completed its rapid spin test after they had made a tweak to the command sequence.
The chopper autonomously flew through the thin Martian atmosphere, with no help from its teams on Earth.
"We can now say that human beings have flown a rotorcraft on another planet," said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity project manager at JPL. "We've been talking about our Wright brothers moment on another planet for so long. And now, here it is."
Images, in addition to the data, also helped the team confirm that the flight was successful.
A lower-resolution black-and-white image from the helicopter's navigation camera appeared first.

The helicopter's navigation camera captured a view of the Ingenuity's shadow on the Martian surface during its first flight.





The Perseverance rover has already returned several images it captured of the helicopter.

A view from the Perseverance rover shows Ingenuity with its blades in motion.





The rover will continue to send back more images and video from several of its cameras. The team has already shared the full video of Ingenuity's flight, which was captured by Perseverance.
"Ingenuity is the latest in a long and storied tradition of NASA projects achieving a space exploration goal once thought impossible," said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk in a statement. "The X-15 was a pathfinder for the space shuttle. Mars Pathfinder and its Sojourner rover did the same for three generations of Mars rovers. We don't know exactly where Ingenuity will lead us, but today's results indicate the sky -- at least on Mars -- may not be the limit."
First flight


Ingenuity, which is a technology demonstration, flew for about 40 seconds total on Monday. The 4-pound helicopter spun up its two 4-foot blades, rose up 10 feet (3 meters) in the air, hovered, made a turn, took a photo, and touched back down on Mars.
Ingenuity could fly up to four more times over the coming weeks.


Mars Perseverance rover snaps selfie photo with Ingenuity helicopter



"Mars is hard not only when you land, but when you try to take off from it and fly around, too," Aung said. "It has significantly less gravity, but less than 1% the pressure of our atmosphere at its surface. Put those things together, and you have a vehicle that demands every input be right."
The Perseverance rover helps the helicopter and its mission team on Earth communicate with each other. It received the flight instructions from JPL and sent those plans on to the helicopter. Perseverance is parked at an overlook 215 feet (65 meters) away from the helicopter so it could safely watch the flight and capture images and videos.
During the helicopter's hover, it captured images 30 times per second to feed into the navigation computer. This made sure Ingenuity remained level and in the middle of its 33-by-33-feet (10-by-10-meter) air field.


NASA's Ingenuity helicopter survives first freezing night on Mars



Ingenuity used a second higher-resolution camera pointing toward the horizon to capture images while the helicopter was aloft.
Once the helicopter landed on Mars, it sent back data through the rover to Earth.
Håvard Grip, NASA's chief pilot for the Ingenuity helicopter, said this morning's helicopter flight was perfect.
"It was a flawless flight," he said. "It stuck the landing right in the place where it was supposed to go."
That first black-and-white image from the helicopter's navigation camera is key because "that will help us localize where the helicopter landed," said Tim Canham, Ingenuity operations lead at JPL.
"The primary purpose of this project is to get that detailed engineering data that we can see the performance of the vehicle, and then that data can be used by future projects to make even bigger and better helicopters," Canham said.

The rover captured this view of the helicopter from Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras, afer it safely touched back down on the Martian surface postflight.





The airfield now bears a new name fitting for this historic event.
"Now, 117 years after the Wright brothers succeeded in making the first flight on our planet, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter has succeeded in performing this amazing feat on another world," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, in a statement.
"While these two iconic moments in aviation history may be separated by time and 173 million miles of space, they now will forever be linked. As an homage to the two innovative bicycle makers from Dayton, this first of many airfields on other worlds will now be known as Wright Brothers Field, in recognition of the ingenuity and innovation that continue to propel exploration."
It's fitting that the mission carried a piece of history as well.
A postage stamp-size piece of muslin fabric that covered one of the wings from the Wright brothers' Flyer 1 is attached to a cable beneath the helicopter's solar panel.
The first powered, controlled flight on Earth took place aboard the Flyer near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, when Orville and Wilbur Wright flew 120 feet for 12 seconds in December 1903. History was made when the Wright brothers conducted four separate flights on Dec. 17, 1903, and each one was a little longer than the previous one.
Future flights


"The Mars Helicopter project has gone from 'blue sky' feasibility study to workable engineering concept to achieving the first flight on another world in a little over six years," said Michael Watkins, director of JPL, in a statement.


Ingenuity Mars helicopter: The historic journey to fly on another planet



After the first flight, Ingenuity will get a "rest day" to charge up using its solar panel. The team will use data sent back by the helicopter this week to plan its next flight, now scheduled for no earlier than April 22.
"Ingenuity itself is extremely healthy at this point," said Bob Balaram, the Mars helicopter chief engineer at JPL. "In fact, she's even healthier than she was before this flight. She shook off some of her dust that had been covering a solar panel and is in fact producing even more solar energy than before."
Balaram said the batteries, communication system, landing gear, computers and motors are also in great shape.


The helicopter team celebrates the sucess of Ingenuity's first flight.





"We have been thinking for so long about having our Wright brothers moment on Mars, and here it is," Aung said. "We will take a moment to celebrate our success and then take a cue from Orville and Wilbur regarding what to do next. History shows they got back to work -- to learn as much as they could about their new aircraft -- and so will we."
The helicopter has two weeks of its experiment left, and the team is planning four flights that will push the helicopter to fly higher and longer to test the limits of what it can do.
Meanwhile, the rover will remain at the overlook and may switch on its microphones to capture sounds of the future flights. The rover is currently investigating some intriguing rocks near the overlook.

Sign up here for Wonder Theory, our CNN science newsletter

The cadence between flights will get progressively shorter. Ingenuity could fly four days after the first flight, then three days after the second flight and so on. The latter flights could see the helicopter rising as high as 16 feet (5 meters) and performing lateral movements up to 50 feet (15 meters) out and back.
"Once we get to the fourth and fifth flights, we'll have fun," Aung said. "We really want to push the limits. It's not every day that you get to test a rotorcraft on Mars. So we want to be very adventurous."

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  https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/19/w...rnd/index.html

[Cujo]

That's just mind boggling. Look how far we've come since the wright brothers first flight. Where will we be in a similar time span in the future.

Here's some buck rogers shit.

[Takeovers]

Here's some buck rogers shit.

Shocking how clumsy and inefficient this is and looks. BO need to up their game. They just received another well deserved sound beating by SpaceX for the lunar lander contract.

Edit: Rather they received a well deserved sound beating by NASA evaluation of their moon lander bid.

[Takeovers]

NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity successfully completed its historic first flight

A proud moment for NASA. I got to admit my thoughts were otherwise occupied though I did see the life coverage.

[Topper]

A proud moment for NASA.

A proud moment for all humans.....

[OhOh]

though I did see the life coverage.

Humans have found life on Mars?

[JCooper]

All who are more or less aware of the history of space exploration know it. Soviet government hid this fact from people, but fortunately, now we can find out the truth. Before I found out that Laika suffered so much and finally died, I stopped to think it a Soviet achievement.

[Takeovers]

Next Astronaut launch to the ISS by NASA, SpaceX today. In just less than 4 hours from now. Life coverage is already on, showing preparations.



This is the first launch of astronauts on a rocket that has flown before. Dragon is also a reused capsule.

[Takeovers]

A photo of the astronauts with the preparation team, shortly before they drive to the launch pad. They just said they presently plan to reuse the capsules 5 times but that may be increased in the future, depending on their experience.

The woman astronaut on this team is the wife of one of the astronauts on the previous flight in this capsule.

[Takeovers]

Sigh. Those social media public outreach inserts are probably unavoidable with NASA coverage.

[harrybarracuda]

Ingenuity quietly completed its second flight.

[Takeovers]

Veteran Japanese astronaut to become SpaceX’s first international passenger – Spaceflight Now


Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi has flown first on the Shuttle, then on Soyuz, now on Dragon. His first impression on Dragon, "where are the buttons?" It took some getting used to compared to the older vehicles.

[OhOh]

Rocket to lift space station core moves to launch tower

By Zhao Lei | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-04-23 10:33

"The Long March 5B carrier rocket which will launch the core capsule of China's space station was moved on Friday morning to the launch tower at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southernmost island province of Hainan, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The agency said in a brief statement that the rocket with the core capsule inside will begin pre-launch examinations.

The launch mission, the second flight for Long March 5B, is scheduled to take place in the coming days, sources close to the mission said.

China's most sophisticated space endeavor, the multimodule space station, named Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, will be mainly composed of three components-a core capsule attached to two space laboratories-with a combined weight of more than 90 metric tons.

The station is expected to become fully operational next year and is set to operate for about 15 years, program planners have said.

The core capsule, named Tianhe, or Harmony of Heavens, is 16.6 meters long with a diameter of 4.2 meters. It will be central to the space station's operations, given that astronauts will live there and control the entire station from inside. The module will also be capable of hosting scientific experiments.
The capsule will have three parts-a connecting section, a life-support and control section, and a resources section.

After the capsule is launched, astronauts on the Shenzhou XII and XIII missions and two cargo ships will be launched within a few months to prepare the module for docking with other parts of the station.
Tiangong's two space labs will then be launched in separate Long March 5B missions and two more manned missions and two robotic cargo flights will be made to continue construction of the station.

Long March 5B is the most powerful Chinese rocket when it comes to carrying capacity to the low-Earth orbit. It is essential to the space station program because it is now the only Chinese launch vehicle capable of carrying large space station parts to orbit.

A Long March 5B is 53.7 meters long, with a core-stage diameter of 5 meters. The rocket is propelled by liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen and kerosene and has a liftoff weight of about 849 tons.

It conducted its maiden flight in May 2020 at the Wenchang space complex."

Rocket to lift space station core moves to launch tower - Chinadaily.com.cn

[Takeovers]

Falcon 9 launched with 4 astronauts. Dragon flies free in nominal orbit. The booster has landed on a drone ship, can fly again. About 1 day until they dock with the ISS.

[OhOh]

Maybe they join the chinese station

China launches first section of its massive space station


By Zhao Lei in Wenchang, Hainan | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-04-29 11:20

"China launches the core capsule of its space station at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province on Thursday morning, April 29, 2021. [Photo by Guo Wenbin / Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]


Sixty years after Yuri Gagarin undertook mankind's first space journey, China launched the core capsule of its space station on Thursday morning, formally embarking on the buildup of one of the humanity's largest and most sophisticated space-based facilities.

As the countdown ticked down to zero at 11:23 am at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, 10 engines at the bottom of a Long March 5B heavy-lift carrier rocket roared to life, generating a thrust power of 1,068 metric tons to lift the 18-story-tall vehicle through thick rain clouds covering the coastal city of Wenchang.

On behalf of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission, President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the CMC, extended warm congratulations and sincere greetings to all members who have participated in the mission in a congratulatory message.

Xi said in the message the successful launch of the core module marks that China's space station construction has entered the full implementation stage, which lays a solid foundation for the follow-up tasks.

The launch is tasked with transporting the 22.5 ton capsule, the biggest and heaviest spacecraft China has ever constructed, to a low-Earth orbit about 400 kilometers above the land to place the first piece of the country's space station.

The craft's weight equals that of 15 ordinary-sized cars combined."

China launches first section of its massive space station - Chinadaily.com.cn