Space Stuff

SpaceX beginning to tackle some of the big challenges for a Mars journey
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A rendering of what a Super Heavy Starship launch would look like.

Earlier this month, the principal Mars "development engineer" for SpaceX, Paul Wooster, provided an update on the company's vision for getting to the Red Planet. During his presentation at the 2019 Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, DC, Wooster said SpaceX remains on track to send humans to Mars in the "mid-2020s." He was likely referring to launch opportunities for Mars in 2024 and 2026, but he also acknowledged that much work remains to reach that point.
 
Thanks to a webcam installed in Nasa’s Mars Rover clean room – the public can watch this vehicle being painstakingly assembled. Called Seeing 2020, the Stream is live 24/7 and every Monday to Thursday between 11.am and 4pm PDT, the public can pose questions to be answered by the JPL crew or the social media team to answer.
 
Boffins have probed Uranus's cold ring
Cluster of rock and ice a sweltering 77K, we're told
Astronomers have measured the temperature of one of Uranus’s rings, dubbed Epsilon, for the first time. The result: the cluster of ice and rock is a nippy 77 kelvin.

Uranus, our Solar System's far-flung icy electric-blue-colored ball, is circled by 13 rings. They were only recently discovered, as early as 1977, due to their faintness. In 2017, fresh images of the mysterious planet were captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array and Very Large Telescope, both in Chile, that highlighted the thermal energy, or lack thereof, in its rings.

A paper to be published this month in the Astrophysical Journal (here’s the free arXiv version) describes a study of those images, and concludes Epsilon is a chilly 77 kelvin, about the same temperature as the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. Uranus’s rings are split into two sets, for what it's worth: an inner set of eleven, and an the outer pair. Epsilon is the outermost of the inner eleven.

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NASA will fund a revolutionary mission to fly through Titan’s atmosphere
"We want to do something bold and take measured risks."

On Thursday, NASA announced its next medium-class mission to explore the Solar System—a lander named Dragonfly that will fly like a drone over the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest Moon. Titan has a fascinating environment, with a hydrocarbon atmosphere much thicker than Earth's atmosphere. NASA intends to spend a couple of years exploring its complex chemistry.

NASA scientists were deciding between this Titan explorer and another mission that would have flown to a comet named 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The comet had been visited previously by Europe's Rosetta spacecraft, but the new mission would have returned a sample of cometary material to Earth.

Of the two missions, the Titan explorer—with an unprecedented design that would fly a vehicle the size of a larger Mars rover over the moon—carried the higher risk. But, half a century after the Apollo lunar landings, NASA decided to go boldly. "A great nation does great things," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
 
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I love this:
NASA’s restored Apollo Mission Control is a slice of 60s life, frozen in amber
It took two years and cost $5 million—but the results are absolutely spectacular.

HOUSTON—Following the completion of a multi-year, multi-million-dollar restoration, NASA's historic Apollo Mission Operations Control Room 2 ("MOCR 2") is set to reopen to the public next week. The $5 million in funding for the restoration was partially provided by NASA, but the majority of the money was donated by the city of Webster, the Houston suburb where the Johnson Space Center is located. Another half-million in funding came from the general public via a Kickstarter campaign (disclosure: your humble author was a backer).



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ilwrath said:
Yeah, I really do want to visit Space Center Houston one day. It's a bit of a drive, but it's definitely on the list. I just need some damn time off. lol
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A wee bit more than a drive for me but I'd love to visit it too.
Hopefully... one day...
 
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ilwrath said:
Yeah, I really do want to visit Space Center Houston one day. It's a bit of a drive, but it's definitely on the list. I just need some damn time off. lol
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I did the NASA Houston tour about 30 years ago, the Saturn V on the front yard is massive

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Gulf freeway (I-45) to NASA Rd 1, turn left, can't miss it! ;)
 
metalman said:
I did the NASA Houston tour about 30 years ago, the Saturn V on the front yard is massive

517e8a24ab33a05ea151e3bb4d5f9030.jpg


Gulf freeway (I-45) to NASA Rd 1, turn left, can't miss it! ;)
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I assume that's where it is? Looks like they've built a shelter over it.
 
adz said:
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I assume that's where it is? Looks like they've built a shelter over it.
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yes, they built a climate controlled building over it in 2007
there are Mercury and Gemini rockets displayed also
The Saturn rocket displayed was built for ?Apollo 19? one of the cancelled missions

NASA Rocket Park

when you take the tour, they show you all the astronaut training simulators, ect
 
metalman said:
yes, they built a climate controlled building over it in 2007
there are Mercury and Gemini rockets displayed also
The Saturn rocket displayed was built for ?Apollo 19? one of the cancelled missions

NASA Rocket Park

when you take the tour, they show you all the astronaut training simulators, ect
Click to expand...

I could have sworn I've seen a full size mock-up layout for Saturn V. Of course, now I can't any reference to one at the places I've been. My memory is suspect, nowadays.

I know I saw a Titan IV at the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, OH. We went there last year. If any of you folks have a chance to get there, I can't recommend that place enough, either. They have a pretty good selection of space equipment, including a full Shuttle cockpit trainer. But more than their space collection is their airplane collection. Truly amazing. And some really nice displays on WWII, Korea, and the Cold War. Walking into the dark Cold War gallery with the SR-71A sitting there basking in red light was a sight. None of my pictures of it turned out, and I can't find a good picture of it online, either. All the ones online show it in white light, but the day we were there they definitely had red covers on them. And it was impressive. Though it also frightened a couple really little kids who were balking at walking into that gallery from the hallway. lol
 
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ilwrath said:
more than their space collection is their airplane collection. Truly amazing. And some really nice displays on WWII, Korea, and the Cold War. Walking into the dark Cold War gallery with the SR-71A sitting there basking in red light was a sight.
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Pima Air Museum, Tuscon Az

the Museum is on 80 acres and has 350 aircraft, they also offer a tour of the 2600 acre US Airforce boneyard
 
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