Space News thread

[Topper]

Thanks TO!!!!!!!!!!!

[Takeovers]

The VIPER landing is presently scheduled for end of 2024. That's likely to slip with the fresh concerns. Since the crew landing near that crater is slipping too, that's not so bad. Much better than losing that valuable rover due to a landing accident.

[Takeovers]

Tonight we had a NASA Crew Dragon launch to the ISS. A nice highlights video of the launch, including booster landing back at the Cape. SpaceX are now at 200 consecutive successful booster landings since the last failure. That's counting 2 booster losses after landing due to bad weather and high waves as a landing success.

[Edmond]

That's some machine.


Love those nice tight suits they wear nowadays.

[Takeovers]

3 years ago they replaced a number of batteries at the ISS. Put them on a pallet and just dropped them into space.

Now,almost exactly 3 years later the batteries are going to drop into the atmosphere. They will mostly burn up, but there is a chance that some fragments will reach the ground. Just 3 years and they deorbit just from drag by the residual atmosphere. Impossible to determine, where it will go down. Somewhere the ISS also flies over.

5800 pounds of batteries tossed off the ISS in 2021 will fall to Earth today | Space

The moment when the batteries got tossed from the ISS.

[DrWilly]

Three years is a long time to deorbit.

[malmomike77]

Three years is a long time to deorbit.

Is it?

[DrWilly]

Perhaps I should say seems like in my limited experience and knowledge of such things.

[Takeovers]

It is a completely passive deorbit by just drag from residual air at 400km ISS altitude. Lower is faster, higher up is more slowly.

SpaceX Starlink satellites at ~550km altitude deorbit in 5-6 years, if passive. They are planning to actively deorbit which would be much faster.

Starlink is planning to place many more satellites even much lower, like 350km altitude. They will deorbit very quickly if at the end of their life. They need very frequent acceleration to stay in orbit at all. Sats that low pose no risk of cluttering space.

The One Web internet constellation is at 1200 km altitude. If a satellite drops dead and can't be actively deorbited it stays up for maybe over 1000 years, which becomes a problem with those constellations because they have many satellites.

[DrWilly]

Appreciate the explanation.

[Takeovers]

China is planning a Mars sample return mission by 2030.

China targets 2030 for Mars sample return mission, potential landing areas revealed - SpaceNews

Long article with pictures. Too big to copy here. The chinese plan is much more straightforward and less complex than the NASA one.

The present Mars sample return mission plan by NASA is at risk because of ballooning cost. It is unclear, if Congress will fund the planned mission. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory has already laid off many who worked on the project because the 2024 budget is not sufficient to continue. It is a highly complex mission plan. Congress is likely to cut the program altogether. Though who knows? The announcement by China may change their mind.

MSR problems illustrative of challenges for NASA flagship missions, audit concludes - SpaceNews

A short comparison of the scopes. NASA Perseverance rover is presently collecting samples for return. The process goes over years and they very carefully select samples for high scientific value from many locations. Those samples would be brought to Mars orbit. From Mars orbit to Earth a European mission would pick them up and bring them back to Earth.

The Chinese mission would select samples over a short period, less carefully selected, probably less scientific value. But they do plan to drill a 2m deep hole and get samples from that depth. Any traces of life would be that deep underground, making that sample very valuable, more so than the NASA samples which are all from the surface or few cm deep. So actually the Chinese samples may be even more valuable than the NASA ones. China plans to send one mission to collect the samples and get them to Mars orbit. A second mission will get them back to Earth.

The need to split the transport into two steps comes from limited capability to land mass to the surface of Mars. NASA is presently limited to 1t, the weight of the Curiosity or Perseverance rover. NASA Ames Research Center calculated that a direct return to Earth mission needs at least a 2t vehicle. Both NASA and China can't do that presently.

[misskit]

Space junk crashes through man’s house and almost hits his son

A man from Florida may have to sue Japan after rubbish from the International Space Station (ISS) crashed through his house.


Well, Japan’s space agency anyway.


That’s a lot to take in, let’s take a beat.


Unsurprisingly, there is limited space for garbage on the ISS, meaning teams on board regularly throw their rubbish out into space, where it falls to Earth and burns up in the atmosphere.

At least that’s the plan.


But last month, they dropped a pallet of used batteries – the heaviest trash dump yet – and it seems some of it survived the fiery re-entry over the Gulf of Mexico.


Alejandro Otero believes part of the pallet plummeted through the roof of his home in Naples, Florida, narrowly missing his son.


Sharing security footage on X, formerly Twitter, which captured the sound of the falling debris, Mr Otero said: ‘Looks like one of those pieces… landed in my house in Naples.


‘Tore through the roof and went through two floors. Almost hit my son.’

Pictures of the damage show broken roof tiles where it punched a hole into the house, a hole in the ceiling, broken floorboards and the debris itself, a small, metal cyclinder roughly 10cm long and 4cm wide.


Speaking to WINK news, Mr Otero said: ‘I was shaken, I was completely in disbelief – what are the chances of something landing on my house with such force, to cause so much damage?


‘Obviously I’m super grateful no one got hurt.’


On X, Mr Otero shared pictures of the incident with astronomer and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell who had been tracking the debris – officially known as the EP-9 equipment pallet – as it fell.

The EP-9 equipment pallet reentered at 1929 UTC [2.29pm Florida time] over the Gulf of Mexico between Cancun and Cuba,’ he said

‘This was within the previous prediction window but a little to the northeast of the “most likely” part of the path. A couple minutes later reentry and it would have reached Ft Myers [Florida].’


Mr Otero added that he had been unable to contact Nasa to discuss repairing the damage to his property, to which Dr McDowell replied: ‘Nasa are not the right people to contact. I have passed [this on] to the experts at the Aerospace Corporation who study this sort of thing.’

However, a Nasa spokesperson told Ars Technica that Nasa will analyse the object ‘as soon as possible to determine its origin. More information will be available once the analysis is complete.’


Here’s where it gets really interesting.


According to Michelle Hanlon, executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi, Nasa may not be liable for the damage.


‘If it is a human-made space object which was launched into space by another country, which caused damage on Earth, that country would be absolutely liable to the homeowner for the damage caused,’ she said, speaking to Ars Technica.

In this case, the batteries were owned by Nasa, but the pallet was made by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa), meaning they Mr Otero may need lodge his claim with Japan.


Luckily, for many reasons, damage from falling space debris is very rare. Most things that crash into Earth do not survive the journey, instead burning up on re-entry.


If they do make it through, luckily the planet is very, very big, so the chances of it colliding with people or property are very slim. The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates the risk of a person being hit by space debris at less than one in 100 billion every year.

Near misses have happened however, including in December when both side boosters from a Chinese Long March 3B rocket fell over Guangxi in the south of the country. One was filmed exploding in a fireball as it fell into woodland, but the other crashed just metres from a house.


In 2022, a huge piece of debris from a SpaceX rocket landed in a farmer’s field in Jindabyne, New South Wales, Australia.


And in 1997, Lottie Williams was struck on the shoulder by a piece of metal while walking in a park in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Although never 100% verified as space debris, Nasa confirmed the timing and location was consistent with the path of a Delta rocket as it broke up over the country, making Ms Williams the only person thought to have been hit by falling space junk.


Luckily it was only a glancing blow, and she lived to tell the tale.

Space junk crashes through man's house and almost hits his son | Tech News | Metro News

[Salsa dancer]

Scientists find galaxy supercluster as massive as 26 quadrillion suns

Scientists find galaxy supercluster as massive as 26 quadrillion suns | Space

[Edmond]

galaxy supercluster as massive as 26 quadrillion suns

Rather an odd comparison. Comparing a galaxy supercluster to one star.

This is probably a better indication of its size.

"This supercluster is so vast, in fact, that it would take a light signal 360 million years to travel from one side of it to the other."

Compared to 100,000 years for the Milky Way galaxy.

[Takeovers]

Unsurprisingly, there is limited space for garbage on the ISS, meaning teams on board regularly throw their rubbish out into space, where it falls to Earth and burns up in the atmosphere.

Most of the garbage from the ISS goes down on the Cygnus cargo ships contracted by NASA. They bring up supplies and are packed with garbage for the way down. Cygnus has a targeted deorbit and ends up in a remote ocean area.
Same function by the russian Progress cargo ship.

The SpaceX Dragon also takes materials down. But they are recovered along with the capsule. Science samples, often in freezers for later analysis. Sometimes materials from the outside of the ISS is placed in the Dragon trunk and also deorbited into the sea.

Just abandon garbage is not the rule. It came up recently with a pallet packed with old batteries. What hit the house, may be part of the batteries or part of the pallet.

[helge]

Just abandon garbage is not the rule.

But..........



It happens

[Takeovers]

It happens

Yes, it happens. Sometimes intentional, like with that pallet of batteries. Sometimes by accident, when an astronaut at EVA activities loses a tool. All the more important to actively deorbit the ISS at end of life into the South Pacific. The largest available area far from people that is frequently used to deorbit large satellites and rocket stages.

[misskit]

Thailand approves 2 MoUs for exploration of Moon, outer space with China

[malmomike77]

^ I just spotted that, beat me to it. more like gathering weak compliant supporters for China's space grab


China, Thailand sign pacts on outer space, lunar outposts

SINGAPORE, April 5 (Reuters) - China and Thailand signed initial pacts on Friday to co-operate on peaceful use of outer space and international lunar research stations, the Chinese space agency said.
The countries aim to form a joint working group on space exploration and applications, encompassing data exchanges and personnel training, according to the memorandums of understanding.
They also agreed to co-operate on plans for appraising, engineering and managing lunar research stations, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said in a statement.

reuters.com

[Salsa dancer]

more like gathering weak compliant supporters for China's space grab

I agree.
Their mode of operation is well known. Get a foot in the door, and slowly, incrementally increase whatever they are doing.

[Salsa dancer]

Latest and best pic of the eclipse :

[Edmond]

Excellent pics and vids about.

Total solar eclipse plunges stretch of North America into darkness - best video and pictures | World News | Sky News

We watched them this morning and the kid loved learning more about solar flares.


They defo got a good one.

[Salsa dancer]

[Edmond]

Hmmm. They've got good some top notch contrast filter there.

[Edmond]

On August 12, 2026, a total solar eclipse will be visible across Greenland, Iceland, and Spain, with plenty of inspiring itineraries.

Just a moment...

A trip to Spain in 2026 would be nice.