SPACE - random thread about space stuff

[Zaxxon]

Very informative, and well put-together.

[Daehawk]

Hit me when it was said that if stars were grains of sand then one to another would be 19 miles apart for the closest.

If our entire solar system was a grain of sand then the Milky Way galaxy would be 31 miles in diameter.

If ours and Andromeda were grains of sand we'd still be 629 miles apart.

If our solar system was the size of a grain of sand then the entire observable universe would be an astonishing 23,115,008.351 miles in diameter even at those sizes.

[Holman]

[Daehawk]

This Blue Origin flight with William Shatner is worrying me. I mean he can be an ass at times but he IS Captain Kirk among many other roles. He is 90 years old too. Between the fact that I dont know of much success of Blue Origin and the hard ass landing it will take on his 90 year old body it has me worried. I mean ya live to 90 then die to something you didn't have to do.

Makes me worry maybe there is something wrong with him and he has said F it lets do this while we can or he is doing it for the fame and fan pressure.

Just hope it all go great and he and the rest are fine and happy.

[Pyperkub]

This Blue Origin flight with William Shatner is worrying me. I mean he can be an ass at times but he IS Captain Kirk among many other roles. He is 90 years old too. Between the fact that I dont know of much success of Blue Origin and the hard ass landing it will take on his 90 year old body it has me worried. I mean ya live to 90 then die to something you didn't have to do.

Makes me worry maybe there is something wrong with him and he has said F it lets do this while we can or he is doing it for the fame and fan pressure.

Just hope it all go great and he and the rest are fine and happy.

It's probably the Uniforms...

[jztemple2]

Solar storm brings northern lights as far south as New York.

https://www.space.com/solar-storm-north ... s-new-york

[jztemple2]

It's probably the Uniforms...

So what you're saying is that the other three will get taken out before the first commercial break?

[Kraken]

It's probably the Uniforms...

So what you're saying is that the other three will get taken out before the first commercial break?

[Hrdina]

It's probably the Uniforms...

So what you're saying is that the other three will get taken out before the first commercial break?

Yeah, that's the first thing I thought of when I saw that photo.

One of them at least should have insisted on wearing a blue uniform:

Glen de Vries, co-founder of the clinical trial software company Medidata Solutions. He’s also the vice chair of life sciences and healthcare at Dassault Systèmes, a French software company that acquired Medidata in 2019.

[Daehawk]

Shatner probably gave them to them

[Hrdina]

Shatner probably gave them to them

Maybe he plans to send them all on an away mission during the flight.

[Zaxxon]

Shatner made it out and back. Here are his post-flight thoughts:

[Max Peck]

One of them at least should have insisted on wearing a blue uniform:

Glen de Vries, co-founder of the clinical trial software company Medidata Solutions. He’s also the vice chair of life sciences and healthcare at Dassault Systèmes, a French software company that acquired Medidata in 2019.

Well, the good news is that he did wear a blue uniform.



The less awesome news is so did the rest of them.

[Daehawk]

Did he see the Enterprise? Glad he is ok and got to go.

Can imagine someone in the background "He's off script! he's off script! Jeff , he is OFF script!"

[Zarathud]

Wow. The trip flabbergasted Shatner and reduced him to tears.

[Daehawk]

NASA advisor quits after the agency keeps a $10 billion telescope named after James Webb, who was a senior State Department official during the persecution of gay and lesbian government employees

A NASA advisor quit following the agency's decision to keep naming a $10 billion space telescope after a former administrator who was the US undersecretary of state during the dismissal of gay and lesbian federal employees in the 1940s and 1950s.

[Hrdina]

Did he see the Enterprise? Glad he is ok and got to go.

Can imagine someone in the background "He's off script! he's off script! Jeff , he is OFF script!"

Funny, while Shatner was talking I was thinking that Bezos was nodding because he got his money's worth for sending Shatner on the trip.

[jztemple2]

Did he see the Enterprise? Glad he is ok and got to go.

Can imagine someone in the background "He's off script! he's off script! Jeff , he is OFF script!"

Funny, while Shatner was talking I was thinking that Bezos was nodding because he got his money's worth for sending Shatner on the trip.

Absolutely . Meanwhile Virgin Galactic isn't doing any more flights till at least next year.

[Daehawk]

Space shuttle launch

[jztemple2]

NASA targets February launch for Artemis 1 mission on its 1st first moon rocket since Apollo

NASA is now targeting early next year for the maiden launch of its next megarocket: the Space Launch System.

The behemoth moon rocket, the first since the Apollo program, is months behind schedule (it was initially slated to launch in November) but could now potentially fly Feb. 12 if its final tests go well, NASA officials said Friday (Oct. 22). That's when the first launch window opens for its uncrewed Artemis 1 mission around the moon, they said.

[Kraken]

"Months behind schedule." Also, NASA, use better names. Space Launch System doesn't inspire.

That said, I'm ready for a moon rocket launch.

[Daehawk]

"Months behind schedule." Also, NASA, use better names. Space Launch System doesn't inspire.

That said, I'm ready for a moon rocket launch.

Moon Rocket 1. If it fails then they use the backup Moon Rocket 2.

[jztemple2]

"Months behind schedule." Also, NASA, use better names. Space Launch System doesn't inspire.

Every new program always ends up months, if not years, behind schedule. Shuttle was at least a couple of years late. Space isn't easy. All schedules are built without any contingency for the reason that if you went to your funding source and showed them a schedule with built in time periods for contingencies they would throw you out and tell you to come back with a schedule that shows the minimum amount of time required and therefore the least amount of money needed.

Also, SLS was I think an homage to Space Shuttle. And for those wanting mythology we have Artemis and Orion.

[Kraken]

SLS traces its roots to the canceled 2005 Constellation program, although it's only existed in its own right since 2011. I laughed at "months behind schedule" because SLS was originally projected to fly in 2016. That's a lot of months.

Artemis is a good program name, but the rocket itself deserves a moniker comparable to the Saturn V. Hell, even just call it the Saturn VI.

[Daehawk]

Noooo Saturn must remain as a single legendary name. Use Jupiter or something.

[jztemple2]

Elon Musk's SpaceX now valued at $100 billion: report

SpaceX's valuation has topped $100 billion, making the company even more of a rich rarity in a fast-growing industry.

CNBC reported the valuation earlier this month, basing its story on anonymous sources. (SpaceX is not a publicly traded company, so details of its financing are private, the outlet explained). Existing investors sold off enough stock recently, at $560 per share, to push SpaceX's valuation to $100.3 billion, according to CNBC. For perspective, the Biden administration's 2022 budget request allocates $24.7 billion to NASA.

"SpaceX’s new valuation makes it one of the rare private 'centicorn' or 'hectocorn' companies in the world — a $1 billion unicorn 100 times over," CNBC's Michael Sheetz wrote in the report. "SpaceX is now the second-most valuable private company in the world, according to CB Insights, behind only China's Bytedance and jumping past fintech [financial technology] firm Stripe."

[raydude]

NASA has been putting out more social media stuff as we get closer to the DART launch window. Have a gander at some interviews with the Faces behind the Spacecraft

[Daehawk]

[Kraken]

Here's a cool new idea: Use the Starship lander as a moon base.

During the mission, one crewed Starships (SS 501) and the other for supplies (SS Rosas) will fly to the Moon and deploy a series of remotely operated robots – known as MOdular RObotic Construction Autonomous System (MOROCAS) – that will transition the two Starships into a horizontal position. The astronauts will then convert the interior into habitable volumes, add multi-layer insulation (MLI), and deploy all the essential operations equipment. At the same time, the robots will cover the base in a protective layer of regolith.

It's just a think-tank proposal with no practical backing, but it's a clever way to build a roomy moonbase fairly quickly, using hardware that's already in development...if you can figure out how to clean those fuel tanks of all harmful contaminants.

[jztemple2]

It's just a think-tank proposal with no practical backing, but it's a clever way to build a roomy moonbase fairly quickly, using hardware that's already in development...if you can figure out how to clean those fuel tanks of all harmful contaminants.

Sounds very good. Obviously the oxygen tank won't be a problem. Regarding the fuel, methane is non-toxic and if you just expose the interior of the fuel and oxidizer tanks to the vacuum of the moon that ought to take care of any residue. I don't remember what the Starship uses for reaction control system gases.

Back in the eighties I worked on a team developing ideas of how the Space Shuttle External Tank could be used on orbit rather than just dumping them into the Indian Ocean. As usual, the problem was funding. Nobody had a need for that volume of space since it would have to be modified in orbit to add interior fixtures, tanks, etc.

[Formix]

So we've given up on lava tubes, then?

[jztemple2]

So we've given up on lava tubes, then?

Probably at some future time, but I imagine putting habitats into lava tubes would require a lot more construction equipment. And until you could reinforce the tubes there would always be the issue of possible collapses due to existing faults or moonquakes.

[Daehawk]

Active Sun Unleashes Powerful X-Class Solar Flare

[jztemple2]

A little light reading , Inside Artemis 1’s complex launch windows and constraints

When the flight hardware and ground systems are finally ready for the inaugural Artemis 1 launch to the Moon, NASA will also have to synchronize the timing of the flight with unique celestial mechanics. The Orion and Space Launch System (SLS) Programs in the Exploration Systems Development (ESD) division are working together to calculate when the Earth, Moon, and sometimes the Sun are all in the right positions to support the agency’s requirements for this first joint Orion-SLS test flight.

In general, NASA will have daily opportunities to launch this first Artemis mission to the Moon in an approximately “two weeks on, two weeks off” pattern. On a particular day that has a launch opportunity, the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS), Orion, and SLS programs will have a launch window that will vary from a few minutes to a few hours.

And by the way, they included a nice image of my old workplace, or at least one of them, the LH2 facility on Pad B of Launch Complex 39.

[Daehawk]

Would have loved just being a janitor there. NASA and coco beach and such are dream places to me as a space kid.

[jztemple2]

Would have loved just being a janitor there. NASA and coco beach and such are dream places to me as a space kid.

Cocoa Beach, actually. I went to high school there

[Daehawk]

Oops forgot my A lol. You'd think all the I Dream of Jeanine I watched Id get it right.

[dbt1949]

I was a janitor for a k-8 school while I was in high school. Not sure I would want that job as a career move tho.

[Daehawk]

[Daehawk]