Space Stuff

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a gargantuan black fissure has opened on the Sun shaped like a question mark.

The images that make up the animation were acquired by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft between Dec. 18 and 22, 2017.

 
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From the Earth, Moon and Beyond

"The purpose of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft—Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer—is to map and return samples from asteroid Bennu, a carbon-rich hunk of rock that might contain organic materials or molecular precursors to life. It is also an asteroid that could someday make a close pass or even a collision with Earth, though not for several centuries. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is expected to reach its asteroid destination, Bennu, in December 2018, with approach operations starting in August."

I think I just found my new desktop background!
 
Really looking forward to this one. There's a good chance of a rapid, unscheduled disassembly but if they pull it off it'll be quite the milestone:

Falcon Heavy preps for maiden voyage
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SpaceX fans this morning celebrated their favorite rocketry upstart's latest boringly successful launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA.

Amid that depressingly uneventful blastoff, a visitor to the launch site spotted evidence of a Falcon Heavy being set up for test firing, signaling the hardware may finally be ready to take to the skies.

If all goes to plan, the Falcon Heavy will, during launch, fire all three rockets simultaneously, generating 22,819 kilonewtons (5.13 million pounds-force) of thrust from all 27 motors. This will boost the first payload – Elon Musk's personal cherry-red Tesla Roadster, no kidding – up into orbit, and on a nominal course to Mars.

The two side rockets will peel off before this, and land back at the spaceport for reuse. The central rocket will carry on firing, and then return for landing on the Atlantic-based SpaceX drone barge, dubbed "Of course I still love you."

Here's a simulation of the Falcon Heavy launch:

Of course, this assumes the thing doesn't explode mid-launch. The stresses on the airframe from air friction and pressure could be too much for the beefy spacecraft to handle. Musk said maximum Q – the point at which air friction and pressure are at their highest mid-flight – will be a "major pucker factor."

And if the Falcon Heavy blows up on the pad, the damage would be immense, and it could set back the program for years.
 
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Robert said:
Really looking forward to this one. There's a good chance of a rapid, unscheduled disassembly but if they pull it off it'll be quite the milestone:

Falcon Heavy preps for maiden voyage
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A big problem for these multi engine systems is keeping the thrust even so the whole thing goes straight instead of corkscrewing off to oblivion. It seems that the team has thrust control down pretty good for a single engine but three working together is still an interesting control problem.
 
FluffyMcDeath said:
A big problem for these multi engine systems is keeping the thrust even so the whole thing goes straight instead of corkscrewing off to oblivion. It seems that the team has thrust control down pretty good for a single engine but three working together is still an interesting control problem.
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Indeed, lots of potential for problems and Musk admitted as much himself:

“real good chance that that vehicle does not make it to orbit. I want to make sure to set expectations accordingly. I hope it makes it far enough away from the pad that it does not cause pad damage – I would consider even that a win, to be honest.”
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Looking forward to seeing them try. If they pull it off, it's another important rung on the space ladder.
 
'Totally Wrong' on Jupiter: What Scientists Gleaned from NASA's Juno Mission

Before NASA sent its Juno spacecraft to explore Jupiter, astronomers were "totally wrong" about much of what they thought they knew about the planet, the mission's principal investigator, Scott Bolton, said during a lecture here at the 231st meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Tuesday (Jan. 9).

Juno, which launched in 2011 and is currently orbiting Jupiter, is not the first spacecraft to study the gas giant up close. NASA's Pioneer and Voyager missions flew by Jupiter in the 1970s, and the Galileo spacecraft later spent eight years orbiting the planet. Even before that, humans had been studying Jupiter with telescopes for hundreds of years.

By the time Juno launched, astronomers had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the new images and data it would collect at Jupiter — or so they thought.
 
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Rocket Lab makes it into orbit, nears commercial operations
"We’re thrilled to reach this milestone so quickly after our first test launch."

Last Sunday afternoon in New Zealand, Rocket Lab successfully made it into orbit on just the company's second flight attempt. Launching from a new spaceport that juts into the South Pacific Ocean, the Electron rocket climbed into orbit and deployed its customer payloads at 8 minutes and 31 seconds after lifting off.

“Today marks the beginning of a new era in commercial access to space. We’re thrilled to reach this milestone so quickly after our first test launch,” Rocket Lab CEO and founder Peter Beck said in a statement. “Our incredibly dedicated and talented team have worked tirelessly to develop, build and launch Electron. I’m immensely proud of what they have achieved today.”
 
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NASA rethinking InSight probe mission after dust storm predicted for Mars
Could be the end of the road for Opportunity, too
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Global storms can blank out the entire planet's surface - bad news for a lander
It's highly likely that Mars is going to suffer one of its periodical planet-wide dust storms this year – and NASA is concerned the event could disrupt its operations on the Red Planet.

When the American agency's Mariner 9 spacecraft became the first probe to orbit another world – specifically, Mars – in November 1971, scientists were surprised to see that the entire Red Planet was in the throes of massive dust storms. We have since learned that such phenomena aren't unusual, and occurred in 1977, 1982, 1994, 2001, and 2007 – and are due again this summer.

NASA boffins have warned that the solar-powered Opportunity rover, which will begin its 14th year on Mars on Thursday, will have to "hunker down to save energy." More concerning is the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission to land on the planet, due to launch in May – and reach the unforgiving alien world later this year.
 
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I'll have to take their word on that :p
 
Last edited:
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Robert said:
They did it. Side boosters landed simultaneously. Just waiting on confirmation of the centre core. Hat's off.

-EDIT-
Given the extended delay, I think it's safe to assume the centre core probably didn't land as softly as planned. Still a tremendous first run for this configuration.
https://twitter.com/x/status/960992715579125760
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The "DON'T PANIC" is a nice touch.
 
Planets of TRAPPIST-1: Complex atmospheres, probably lots of water
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We've now developed a healthy-sized catalog of planets orbiting in the habitable zone of distant stars. But we don't have the slightest idea whether any of them are actually habitable. That's largely because, at these distances, it's extremely difficult to get any sense of what the planets are made of and what their atmospheres are like. And the greenhouse potential of the atmosphere can make the difference between a frozen world like Mars and an out-of-control hothouse like Venus.

But at least in the case of one nearby star, scientists are slowly narrowing down the options. TRAPPIST-1 has at least seven planets, all small enough to be Earth-like, with several inside the star's habitable zone. In two papers released this week, teams of scientists have narrowed down what their atmospheres might look like and provided a greater sense of their composition. The results suggest that at least one planet has the potential to be a watery world.
 
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