Space Stuff

[Robert]

Believe it or not, Ripley has made it safely to the space station
Docking required a number of things to go right, and they did.

Right on schedule, the Crew Dragon spacecraft fired its Draco thrusters early on Sunday morning and docked safely with the International Space Station. A "soft" capture came at 5:51am ET, when the station was 418km above New Zealand. "Hard" capture, when 12 additional latches secured the spacecraft to the station, occurred 10 minutes later.

This marked the completion of a major milestone for SpaceX and NASA—the autonomous docking of a Dragon spacecraft with neither the assistance of crew on board the station nor the robotic arm used to grab and guide the cargo version of the Dragon spacecraft during supply missions.

 

[Robert]

Deep space dial-up: How NASA speeds up its interplanetary communications
“Not much room to improve radio frequency tech... We're running out of low-hanging fruit."

 

[Robert]

Massive asteroids are so difficult to destroy, Bruce Willis wouldn't stand a chance
'Only a matter of time before these questions go from being academic to defining our response to a major threat'

 

[Robert]

Real life sci-fi: Massive exoplanet booted out of home by binary parents – then slipped back inside by passing friendly stars
Cosmic soap operas may explain why weird alien objects end up in our backyard

Stars whizzing by planets can wreak havoc by knocking their orbits out of place or kicking them out of their systems entirely, according to a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.

The conclusion could explain how bizarre objects like the spliff-shaped asteroid ‘Oumuamua ended up being flung into our own Solar System.

First, a pair of astrophysicists from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, in the US, studied a star system, codenamed HD 106906, located a mere 300 light years away from Earth. At just 15 or so million years old, it’s a very young system. It caught the duo’s attention because of one of its planets sticks out like a sore thumb.

And that exoplanet, HD 106906 b, is odd for two reasons. It is ginormous – it has 11 times the mass than our own gas giant Jupiter – and it had a very peculiar orbit tipped at an angle. In fact, it has the widest orbit of any other exoplanet known to date, stretching a whopping 18 times the distance between the Sun and Pluto or 738 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth.

 

[Robert]

SpaceX Dragon demo capsule returns to Earth
America's new commercial astronaut capsule completed its demonstration flight on Friday with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.

The SpaceX Dragon vehicle left the International Space Station (ISS) where it had been docked this past week and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.

It had a heat-shield to protect it from the high temperatures of re-entry.

Four parachutes brought it into soft contact with water about 450km from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

As an aside, I love that they felt the need to point out the diagram is not to scale.

 

[Robert]

Boffins discover new dust clouds in the Solar System - Mercury has a surprisingly filthy ring
Venus also turns up a number of undiscovered orbital partners

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/03/13/solar_system_dust/

Scientists have spotted, for the first time, gigantic dust rings circling the Sun alongside the orbits of Mercury and Venus.

The Solar System is nothing but our star, a few planets, some satellites, lots of little rocks, and a load of dust. As asteroids collide and comets burn up, leftover crumbs are scattered around space, and these particles get sucked into the orbits of planets to form dust clouds – Earth’s even got its own debris zone. Boffins hadn't expected to see one along Mercury's orbital path, though.

 

[Robert]

At Bennu, NASA finds a mysterious, boulder-strewn asteroid
Overall, the asteroid is very dark, but it has some distinctly brighter areas.

Enlarge / These images of the asteroid Bennu’s northern hemisphere show it covered with rocks.

After traveling more than 2 million kilometers through outer space over the course of 27 months, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at the asteroid Bennu in early December of last year. Since arriving, the spacecraft's five scientific instruments have been surveying the 490-meter wide asteroid to better understand its properties and find a safe landing site from which to gather samples for a return to Earth.

On Tuesday, the first results of these scientific inquiries were published in seven papers that appeared in Nature and a handful of its research journals. The seven papers are collated on this website.

In some respects, Bennu is about what scientists expected—a "rubble pile" of stony meteorites that have aggregated under the influence of microgravity. Scientists were able to determine that the density of the asteroid is about 1,190kg per cubic meter. By way of comparison, a potato has a density of about 700kg per cubic meter, and dry gravel about 1,500kg per cubic meter.

With an average albedo of 4.4 percent, this asteroid is one of the darkest objects in the Solar System. What surprised scientists, however, is the overall diversity of the albedo, or reflectivity of Bennu's surface. The albedo ranges from the extremely dark—like freshly poured asphalt, at 3.3 percent—up to nearly 15 percent. In one of the research papers, mission scientists expressed concern that the unexpected variance of Bennu's albedo may confound the spacecraft's lidar guidance system as it approaches the asteroid to gather a sample.

 

[Robert]

Hayabusa2 finds that its destination is also a very dark rubble pile
It's a great day for asteroid fans as two missions report in.

A sense of the phenomenal resolution at which we can explore the asteroid Ryugu.
Asteroids can tell critical stories about the birth of our Solar System and the processes that produced its planets. In some cases, they are time capsules for the planetesimals that went on to form our planets. In others, they've been through multiple rounds of catastrophic collisions and reformation, providing testimony of the violent processes that built our current Solar System. But figuring out what they tell us has been difficult, because their small size and generally large distance from Earth make them difficult to study using telescopes. And the bits and pieces we have been able to study directly have been altered by the process of plunging from space through the Earth's atmosphere.

All that's on the verge of changing in the near future, as we have not one but two missions that will return samples from asteroids over the next couple of years. In the case of JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission, the first sample retrieval has already taken place, while NASA's OSIRIS-REx arrived at its destination more recently. But since arriving, both probes have been studying the mini-worlds they were sent to, and the first results of those studies are now in.

 

[Robert]

Planet Jupiter: Spectacular picture of Jupiter's storms

Image copyrightNASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSSS/KEVIN M. GILL

This beautiful picture of Jupiter was assembled from three separate images acquired by Nasa's Juno spacecraft as it made another of its close passes of the gas giant.

 

[redrumloa]

Craters on Pluto suggest Kuiper Belt ate its smaller bodies
Both Pluto and Charon have a dearth of craters made by small objects.

A view of Vulcan Planitia's craters on Charon.

What did the earliest bodies in our Solar System look like, and what was their fate? It's difficult to tell, because it's not clear that there are any of them left. Lots of the earliest material was swept up into the planets. Many of the smaller bodies that remained are products of multiple collisions and have perhaps formed and re-formed multiple times—some are little more than rubble piles barely held together by gravity.

Without some knowledge of what these bodies looked like, then, it's difficult to determine whether our models of the physics of the early Solar System are right and whether similar processes are likely to be in play in exosolar systems.

Now, some researchers have found a way to infer the sizes of objects present in the early Solar System: looking at the craters they left behind when they smashed into Pluto and Charon. The results suggest a shortage of objects smaller than 2km in diameter and suggest that much of the material in the Kuiper Belt was quickly swept up into larger objects, which somehow avoided smashing into each other and liberating a new generation of smaller fragments.

Yet more proof that Pluto's demotion to Dwarf Planet was completely wrong.

The International Astronomical Union defined a planet as an object that:

• orbits the sun
• has sufficient mass to be round, or nearly round
• is not a satellite (moon) of another object
• has removed debris and small objects from the area around its orbit

Pluto is a planet, even by their own criteria. Yet another example where "Scientists" just make shit up, then don't back down when proven wrong. Reminds me of the AGW fraudsters.

 

[Robert]

There are pictures all over the internet of a big dark spot on Uranu... Oh no, wait, it's Neptune
Astroboffins find and probe a new planetary wonder

Left image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, right image taken by Voyager 2. Image credit: NASA/ESA/GSFC/JPL.

Fresh storms rip through Neptune’s skies every four to six years creating a blemish known as the Great Dark Spot – and scientists have clocked another formation of the planetary wonder using the Hubble space telescope.

Boffins have seen these spots appear six times over the years, ever since Voyager 2 first spied them in 1989. Like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, Neptune’s Great Dark Spot is a storm brewing in the planet’s atmosphere under high pressure conditions. The similarities between storms on both planets end there, however. Jupiter’s storms can rage for hundreds of years. In fact, the Great Red Spot has been seen since 1830 and could be up to 350 years old.

 

[redrumloa]

Will The Liberal Media start claiming going back to the moon is racist?

US to Return Astronauts to the Moon by 2024, VP Pence Says

The United States plans to land astronauts on the moon within the next five years, Vice President Mike Pence announced today (March 26).

The nation had been shooting for a 2028 lunar touchdown, but "that's just not good enough," Pence said during the fifth meeting of the National Space Council (NSC), which he chairs. "We're better than that."

So, it is now the official policy of the United States to return astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2024, the vice president stressed, invoking a 21st-century space race with China and Russia.

 

[Robert]

Kepler may be dead but its data keeps on giving, thanks to AI:
Two alien worlds found in archives

 

[Robert]

US to Return Astronauts to the Moon by 2024, VP Pence Says

Very ambitious timescale and fantastic if it comes off.

Having said that, I remain sceptical.
They haven't agreed any increase in budget, or much of anything else for that matter, so on the face of it this just looks like more of the same space-bluster we get from the Whitehouse every few years, regardless of president.
Hope I'm wrong though. A return to the moon that soon would be tremendous.

 

[redrumloa]

Very ambitious timescale and fantastic if it comes off.

Having said that, I remain sceptical.
They haven't agreed any increase in budget, or much of anything else for that matter, so on the face of it this just looks like more of the same space-bluster we get from the Whitehouse every few years, regardless of president.
Hope I'm wrong though. A return to the moon that soon would be tremendous.

I hate to say, but I pretty much agree with you on every point. I will say it is not a lack of funding, rather a mismanagement of funding and helplessly broken leadership.

 

[ilwrath]

Very ambitious timescale and fantastic if it comes off.

Having said that, I remain sceptical.
They haven't agreed any increase in budget, or much of anything else for that matter, so on the face of it this just looks like more of the same space-bluster we get from the Whitehouse every few years, regardless of president.
Hope I'm wrong though. A return to the moon that soon would be tremendous.

I absolutely agree on all points. It's bluster and no real plan. And even if there is a concrete plan we don't know about, there is no evidence that anyone has the fortitude to execute something that would have to be so highly aggressive as to fit that timeline.

I'm betting Robert has watched Ars Technica's videos on the Apollo project. But if anyone here hasn't it's truly fascinating. And an amazing look into a project that was wrapping up around the time I was born.
https://arstechnica.com/series/apollo-the-greatest-leap/

And after really learning more about Apollo... I was just left with a sense of awe. The sheer audacity of the work back then. Just wow. It was truly a different America a few decades ago. A plan to reach the moon by 2024 would need to be at least that aggressive, and probably more. It makes even SpaceX's progress look measured and paced. Short of an existential crisis, I don't see how it could be done. And even in the face of one of those, I question if we could pull it off.

I hate to say, but I pretty much agree with you on every point. I will say it is not a lack of funding, rather a mismanagement of funding and helplessly broken leadership.

Well, NASA's leadership isn't nearly as broken as Congress is. That is how NASA currently ends up with budget overruns that are all earmarked for a big-ass rocket that we have no idea what we'd even use it to carry in a time when the space station is already built and the technology has come around to making ultra-light satellites more useful and popular than ever.

 

[redrumloa]

Well, NASA's leadership isn't nearly as broken as Congress is. That is how NASA currently ends up with budget overruns that are all earmarked for a big-ass rocket that we have no idea what we'd even use it to carry in a time when the space station is already built and the technology has come around to making ultra-light satellites more useful and popular than ever.

Is there even a single visionary out there with the knowledge and drive of Wernher von Braun? Without getting into how the US got him, I can't imagine us getting to the moon first without him. If the Trump administration is serious about this return to the moon, they need to put someone into place that would be a modern day Wernher von Braun. He could have had us to Mars by the late 70s or early 80s, if there was a will and he lived long enough.

 

[Robert]

Love the "peace and harmony" quote at the end of this snippet:
India shoots down a weather satellite, declares itself a “space power”
"It shows the remarkable dexterity of India’s outstanding scientists."

India announced Wednesday that it successfully fired an anti-satellite weapon and intercepted an unidentified Indian satellite at an altitude of 300km. This test, named “Mission Shakti,” gives India the prestige of becoming only the fourth nation to shoot down a satellite, but it raises serious questions about orbital debris and the ongoing militarization of space.

The country's prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced the anti-satellite test in a televised speech Wednesday, which he characterized as an "important message for our nation." Later, on Twitter and in English, he added that the mission "was a highly complex one, conducted at extremely high speed with remarkable precision. It shows the remarkable dexterity of India’s outstanding scientists and the success of our space programme."

Modi stressed that the technology used to bring down the missile was entirely developed in India, and he said the test was an important demonstration of the country's prowess in space."India stands tall as a space power!" he wrote. "It will make India stronger, even more secure and will further peace and harmony."

 

[redrumloa]

Love the "peace and harmony" quote at the end of this snippet:
India shoots down a weather satellite, declares itself a “space power”
"It shows the remarkable dexterity of India’s outstanding scientists."

India announced Wednesday that it successfully fired an anti-satellite weapon and intercepted an unidentified Indian satellite at an altitude of 300km. This test, named “Mission Shakti,” gives India the prestige of becoming only the fourth nation to shoot down a satellite, but it raises serious questions about orbital debris and the ongoing militarization of space.

The country's prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced the anti-satellite test in a televised speech Wednesday, which he characterized as an "important message for our nation." Later, on Twitter and in English, he added that the mission "was a highly complex one, conducted at extremely high speed with remarkable precision. It shows the remarkable dexterity of India’s outstanding scientists and the success of our space programme."

Modi stressed that the technology used to bring down the missile was entirely developed in India, and he said the test was an important demonstration of the country's prowess in space."India stands tall as a space power!" he wrote. "It will make India stronger, even more secure and will further peace and harmony."

I was fully expecting The Onion to be the source.

 

[cecilia]

Space is one weird place