The Space Thread -

NotaSuv

FYI Nov. 17-18: One of the most anticipated meteor showers of the year, the Leonid meteor shower peaks overnight. Last few nights have been ok....

verb

Remarkable footage of SLS launch from Everyday Astronaut. Been following these guys, they livestream a lot of the launches in the US. Just a bunch of guys, started out really small, but recently bought a retired NBC field reporting van to travel the country. Some of the high resolution footage is incredible.

https://youtu.be/nUozQWAg0wE

verb

ZLTFUL wrote: »

Watched the livestream. I would happily volunteer to be on the next trip. But that's just me.

I did too! Late night for sure, but just had to watch it live. History in the making!

nooshinjohn

One of those angles revealed what would happen very quickly if they have a slow gantry retract... not sure I would like to find out what happens if it hits the vehicle.

NotaSuv

Discovery has a great special on the Artemis which goes back over a decade as this project isn't new by any means

nooshinjohn

NotaSuv wrote: »

Discovery has a great special on the Artemis which goes back over a decade as this project isn't new by any means

It was 17 years from concept to first flight for the space shuttle, and that was just to test the orbiter on the back of a 747... It took another 5 to get it vertical for a launch.

motorstereo

The little company that I've been working for this year has been involved with the Artemis project from the beginning. It's kind of neat to know some of their products are on the way to the moon

NotaSuv

FYI for a great shower
Dec. 13-14: The annual Geminid meteor shower, one of the best meteor showers of the year, peaks overnight. Find a nice dark place and enjoy the show

NotaSuv

Super Guppy landed at KSC this afternoon. A strange looking craft it is

treitz3

Photo of Earth titled "Pale Blue Dot" taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on February 14, 1990 from a distance of 6 billion kilometers. The Earth appears infinitesimal in size and looks like a grain of dust compared to the vastness of space that surrounds it, while the beams of light that appear are the result of the camera's optics and the light from the Sun.

The photo was taken when Voyager 1 had completed its primary mission and was on its way out of the Solar System when, at Carl Sagan's request, NASA's Earth control center instructed the spacecraft to rotate its camera and capture a last picture of Earth before it moves further away. While the last pictures were ultimately of our sun, the photo above was one of the last Voyager 1 ever saw before its cameras were shut down forever.

Voyager 1 is still moving toward interstellar space, well beyond our solar system. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, identical in every detail, were launched within 15 days of each other in the summer of 1977. After nearly 45 years in space, they are still functioning, sending data back to Earth every day from beyond the solar system's most distant known planets.

According to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Voyager 1 has enough fuel to keep its instruments running until at least 2025 but...

Even if science data won't likely be collected after 2025, engineering data could continue to be returned for several more years. The two Voyager spacecraft could remain in the range of the Deep Space Network through about 2036, depending on how much power the spacecraft still have to transmit a signal back to Earth.

Tom

NotaSuv

Its almost comet time

At the start of 2023 Earth will be visited by a newly discovered comet that may just be bright enough to be spotted with the naked eye.

The comet, named C/2022 E3 (ZTF), is currently passing through the inner solar system. It will make its closest approach to the sun, or perihelion, on Jan. 12, and will then whip past Earth making its closest passage of our planet, its perigee, between Feb. 1 and Feb. 2.

If the comet continues to brighten as it currently is, it could be visible in dark skies with the naked eye. This is difficult to predict for comets, but even if C/2022 E3 (ZTF) does fade it should still be visible with binoculars or a telescope for a number of days around its close approach.

NotaSuv

Had a nice launch at KSC this morning with the booster landing at LZ1which makes for a great sonic boom...

audioluvr

Sprites and an asteroid.

NotaSuv

This Friday at 555pm a Falcon Heavy will liftoff...a great platform to watch launch...7-9 minutes after launch there will be 2 sonic booms as the boosters land back on Earth ..all the Falcon heavy launches are fun to watch

huggies

I found this quite amazing. https://space.com/dark-energy-camera-milky-way-survey

Think of it as a portrait of the Milky Way where over 3 BILLION objects are individually recognizable. Think about that. One galaxy. Sure, we're alone out here.

NotaSuv

10 years ago today, the Chelyabinsk meteor explosion showed why we need better methods of detecting and tracking near-Earth asteroids..

audioluvr

Too bad it was only 20m wide and not 20km

NotaSuv

12:34 am Thursday try number 2 for the manned crew going to the ISS. First try went to the 2 minute mark before the scrub.....1,000's of people in town for the launch and its Daytona Bike Week this weekend.

ZLTFUL

NotaSuv

Relativity Space sets launch of world's 1st 3D-printed rocket for March 8
We will be on the lagoon watching this history making launch.....
The 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket from Relativity Space will fly from Florida's space coast, and will also mark the first natural liquid natural gas booster in space if all goes to plan. Should be a good show....

treitz3

Mars in 45 days, instead of 7 months?



As part of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program for 2023, NASA selected a nuclear concept for Phase I development. This new class of bimodal nuclear propulsion system uses a "wave rotor topping cycle" and could reduce transit times to Mars to just 45 days.

I hope they thought about brakes! Hehe...

More here >>> https://www.sciencealert.com/new-nasa-nuclear-rocket-plan-aims-to-get-to-mars-in-just-45-days



From NASA >>> https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-darpa-will-test-nuclear-engine-for-future-mars-missions

Tom

mhardy6647

brakes is easy. Turn the craft around and blast away.

OleBoot

Elon will be pi**ed he didn't think of this.

audioluvr

They should be more concerned about hitting objects at warp speed. A marble size object at 186,000 fps would take all the fun out of a trip to Mars

mhardy6647

well - given that the mass of that marble sized object would be infinite at the speed of light, yeah... it'd be a bit of a bother.

mhardy6647

PS You know NASA's Mars expedition's gonna sideswipe Elon's Tesla roadster on its way out.



EDIT: I thought I was being (characteristically) absurd. Look where Elon's roadster was on 6 Feb 2023.



https://www.cnet.com/science/space/heres-where-elon-musks-tesla-roadster-is-after-five-years-in-space/

audioluvr

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Only EM would be arrogant enough to purposefully leave space junk for others to hit.

NotaSuv

At the end of March on the 27th we will watch a few planets align in the sky

Twilight time
Interestingly, our first two planets are studies in contrast. One is the smallest planet (Mercury) and the other is the largest (Jupiter).

Once you have found a proper viewing site, and with binoculars in hand, wait until approximately 20 to 25 minutes after the sun has set. And your viewing time is going to be short. Both planets will set beyond the horizon only 25 to 30 minutes later.

Both planets will be shining brilliantly, Mercury will glow at magnitude -1.4, which is just a trifle dimmer than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Jupiter will appear even more dazzling at magnitude -2.1, which is twice as bright as Mercury. But what will make a sighting problematic will be that both may be very difficult to see through the bright evening twilight.

And that's where your binoculars come in.

Your best chance to pick both planets up is initially to slowly sweep low along the western horizon with the binoculars; then after you hopefully have found them, seek them out with your naked eye. Mercury will be to the right of brighter Jupiter. On the evening of March 27, they will be separated by just 1.3 degrees (just over one-finger width at arm's length.)

If you sight them, congratulate yourself. It is no mean feat to catch two planets positioned so close to the setting sun. Within just a day or two, Jupiter will disappear from view into the glare of the sun. Mercury, on the other hand, will be moving away from the sun's vicinity and will become a bit easier to see during the next couple of weeks.

Evening Beacon
In contrast to Mercury and Jupiter, the third planet on our list will be very easy to see: dazzling Venus, the so-called "Evening Star" (although "Evening Beacon might be a better term). It's the first planet to look for when the sun goes down. Venus is becoming increasingly prominent as it slowly gets higher in our western evening sky with each passing night. Right now, it's setting around 10:15 p.m. local daylight time. But two months from now, Venus will be noticeably higher in the west-northwest sky about an hour after sunset, and not setting until close to midnight.

A planet racing away
The fourth planet on our list is Mars. Several months ago, Mars shone brilliantly because it was relatively close to Earth; back on Nov. 30 it was 50.6 million miles away from us and appeared like a very bright fiery hued star, shining with a steady glow. A week later, like two racing cars going around on a track, we passed Mars in our respective orbits — Earth on the inside and Mars on the outside. And ever since then, we've left Mars far behind — in our side view mirror, preverbally speaking.

On March 27, Mars will be 131.4 million miles (211.4 million km) from Earth — more than 2.5 times more distant than it was late last fall. It has correspondingly faded, appearing only 1/13th as bright compared to early in December. Yet it is still fairly conspicuous because it still ranks among the 21 brightest stars in terms of brightness.

And you can make an instant identification of it, by simply looking up at our fifth celestial object of the evening, the moon. On this night, our natural satellite will resemble a fat crescent phase. And if you look off to the moon's upper left, that bright yellow-orange "star" will be Mars.

Have a Life Saver!
Now, use the binoculars again, and look just off to the left of Mars and you'll catch sight of M35, a star cluster in the constellation of Gemini the Twins. It ranked fifth among my list of personal deep-sky favorites in the wintertime sky. Long-time deep-sky columnist for Sky & Telescope, Walter Scott Houston wrote:(opens in new tab) "I feel that M35 is one of the greatest objects in the heavens. Observers with small telescopes will find it a superb object. The cluster appears as big as the moon and fills the eyepiece with a glitter of bright stars from center to edge. With 15x65 binoculars it was like a fat Life Savers candy, all white and glistening."

Seventh planet from the sun
Our fifth and final planet is the next-to-last out from the sun: Uranus.

Barely visible to the unaided eye on very dark, clear nights, use Venus as a benchmark to find it. On Monday it will be just three degrees — roughly equal to one-third of the width of your clenched fist held at arm's length — to the upper left of that dazzling planet. Again, use your binoculars to scan this region of the sky. What you'll be looking for is a faint star, but the tipoff will be its pale greenish tint. That will be the third largest planet and next to the planet Neptune, the most distant planet from the sun.

There you have it: five planets, a famous star cluster and the moon. Think you'll be able to sight all seven? As we've noted, a few will be easy but others will be more difficult. If skies are clear Monday evening, good luck and good hunting!

mrbigbluelight

^^^ Most excellent post 👍

mrbigbluelight

I JUST came across this info:

https://www.youtube.com/live/mua1Lysc_JQ?feature=share

So NASA is going to have a Stream on April 3 with the astronauts who will be heading for the moon on April 5 ?!
Where the heck have I been ?!!
😲