astronomy & space stuff

[Lost Cause]

I'm getting a bad feeling about the similarities ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Atlantis has some nicks and scratches, but NASA says they're nothing to worry about.

The damage was probably incurred during liftoff Monday, when some debris came off the shuttle's external fuel tank.

A 21-inch stretch of nicks was found spread over four or five thermal tiles as the shuttle crew looked over the hull with a camera attached to an external boom.

"It doesn't look very serious," Mission Control said. "Those tiles are pretty thick. The nicks look to be pretty small."

The scratches are on the underside of the hull, about where the right wing meets the fuselage.

The commander of the shuttle Columbia wasn't told that a chunk of foam had struck his spacecraft's wing until a week after the launch -- and then apparently only because NASA managers thought it might come up in a news conference, e-mails released Monday show.

"This item is not even worth mentioning other than wanting to make sure that you are not surprised by it in a question from a reporter," flight director Steve Stich wrote Jan. 23 to Columbia commander Rick Husband and pilot William McCool.

Experts had reviewed the photographs taken of the strike and thought there was "no concern" about damage to the thermal tiles that protect the belly of the shuttle or the reinforced carbon-carbon, or RCC, panels that wrap the leading edges of its wings, Stich wrote.

"We have seen this same phenomenon on several other flights and there is absolutely no concern for entry," added Stich, who works at Johnson Space Center.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts125/090512fd2/ascentdebris.jpg

 

[Colonel Hogan]

I'm getting a bad feeling about the similarities ...

Don't. These are not the droids you're looking for.

The type of tile damage being observed on this mission is exactly the same type that had been experienced on shuttle flights prior to Columbia, and because these strikes were and are inconsequential, it resulted in NASA managers (as opposed to certain engineers) assuming that more direct angle strikes to the RCC panels were also of no concern. Wrong, of course. Tragically wrong.

 

[Lost Cause]

Shuttle and Hubble in Solar transit...

http://www.skynyx.fr/legault/atlantis_hst_2009may13_crop.jpg

http://www.skynyx.fr/legault/atlantis_hst_transit.html

 

[Lost Cause]

NEW YORK – Scientists have found new evidence that one of Saturn's moons has an ocean beneath its surface. That's important because liquid water is a key ingredient for life.

The moon is an icy body called Enceladus (en-SELL-uh-duss.) It gives off huge plumes of water vapor and ice grains, and scientists used the Cassini spacecraft to sample material from those jets.

They found particles containing sodium salts, which indicates that the plumes arise from liquid water.

But a second team of scientists found no sign of sodium with a different sampling method. They concluded there could still be a deep ocean on Enceladus, but that there are also other possible explanations for the moon's jets.

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMH0X0P0WF_index_0.html



http://zuserver2.star.ucl.ac.uk/~idh/apod/image/0603/enceladus_cassini_PIA07800c16.jpg

 

[Lost Cause]

WOW!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ano-eruption-International-Space-Station.html

 

[Fagin]

let's Rock It!



I want a small fraction of that APCP.

 

[Lost Cause]

http://www.meteorshowersonline.com/orionids.html

The Orionids generally begin on October 15 and end on October 29, with maximum generally occurring during the morning hours of October 20-22. The Orionids are barely detectable on the beginning and ending dates, but observers in the Northern Hemisphere will see around 20 meteors per hour at maximum, while observers in the Southern Hemisphere will see around 40 meteors per hour. The maximum can last two or three nights, although there is evidence of some fluctuation from year to year.

There are other, weaker meteor showers going on around the same time as the Orionids. The Orionids generally appear to move fast. When you see a meteor, mentally trace it backwards. If you end up at Orion then you have probably seen an Orionid meteor! If you are not sure where Orion is in the sky, the following charts will help you find it from both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere:

http://www.meteorshowersonline.com/images/orionidsnorth.jpg

This represents the view from mid-northern latitudes at about 1:00 a.m. local time around October 21. The graphic does not represent the view at the time of maximum, but is simply meant to help prospective observers to find the radiant location. The red line across the bottom of the image represents the horizon. (Image produced by the Author using SkyChart III and Adobe Photoshop.)

Location of the Orionids
For Southern Hemisphere Observers

http://www.meteorshowersonline.com/images/orionidssouth.jpg

 

[Fagin]

Why We Need Better Rockets
Buzz Aldrin

Well, it looked spectacular.

I'm referring to NASA's recent launch of the Ares 1-X, billed as the prototype of the Ares 1 as a crew launch vehicle, a fancy term for a manned space booster. The rocket is said to have performed as planned, and ushered in the era of the Ares rockets to replace the Space Shuttle next year. Only it won't. In fact, the much-hyped Ares 1-X was much ado about nothing.

Yes, the rocket that thundered aloft from NASA's Launch Pad 39B sure looked like an Ares 1. But that's where the resemblance stops. Turns out the solid booster was - literally - bought from the Space Shuttle program, since a five-segment booster being designed for Ares wasn't ready. So they put a fake can on top of the four-segmented motor to look like the real thing. Since the real Ares' upper stage rocket engine, called the J-2X wasn't ready either, they mounted a fake upper stage. No Orion capsule was ready, so - you guessed it - they mounted a fake capsule with a real-looking but fake escape rocket that wouldn't have worked if the booster had failed. Since the guidance system for Ares wasn't ready either they went and bought a unit from the Atlas rocket program and used it instead. Oh yes, the parachutes to recover the booster were the real thing -- and one of the three failed, causing the booster to slam into the ocean too fast and banging the thing up. So, why you might ask, if the whole machine was a bit of slight-of-hand rocketry did NASA bother to spend almost half a billion dollars (that's billion with a "b") in developing and launching the Ares 1-X?

The answer: politics.

Technical problems, the kind that follow every new rocket's development, have haunted the Ares like leftovers from Halloween. The rocket as currently designed shakes so much during launch that shock absorbers are needed beneath its capsule payload. All of this takes time to fix -- and money, money that NASA really doesn't have. To stave off critics, three years ago the Project Constellation managers conceived of the 1-X flight to supposedly show some progress. They could instrument the rocket with hundreds of sensors gathering information never before obtained during a booster use in a Shuttle mission. It would give the launch team some practice in the assembly of an Ares. And NASA would find out if something as ungainly as the Ares 1 design - a thicker top than the bottom booster - could survive during ascent through the Earth's atmosphere. Of course, all of the changes to the Shuttle launch pad to accommodate the Ares wouldn't be ready in time, so they decided to just leave all of the Shuttle hardware, such as the rotating tower that envelops the Shuttles there. A success might just buy more time for Ares to fix its problems.

And that's just what happened.

Meanwhile, the huge Ares V super booster is just a series of drawings. Unlike the plan used to send Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins and me to the Moon in 1969, whereby we used just one rocket to lift all of the elements of our Apollo spaceships, the current return-to-the-Moon plan requires not one rocket but two-one launch of an Ares 1 carrying the astronauts in the Orion capsule, and an Ares V lifting a big upper stage, a sort of space tug, and the lunar landing craft called Altair. Together, the two ships dock in orbit and then the tug, called the Earth Departure Stage, fires up for the outbound trip to the Moon. Two rockets in development; two launching systems. And two price tags. Two ways for failure to occur. Or delays to develop.

Worse yet, neither rocket alone can accomplish a deep space mission. And deep space, such as Mars is, as our friends in the recent Augustine report stated, our destination in space. These rockets were originally supposed to all be derivatives of the Space Shuttle-using four segment boosters and Shuttle engines - but the designs were changed to save money and development time. Neither of which has proven to be the case today. Our Augustine panel colleagues stated flatly that some new heavy lift rocket would be needed no matter which direction President Barack Obama chose for the space program. But Ares 1 is too small, barely able to lift the crew space capsule. And Ares V is too weak to boost all of the elements together.

What do we need? One rocket for all our deep space missions. Save the taxpayer's money by canceling the Ares 1 and V. And go "back to the future" in designing the big beast. So how do we get to the space station without Ares 1? Let the commercial space firms develop their own crew launchers, and crew vehicles. Why should Uncle Sam be in the people hauling business?

Here's my plan -- and yes, I am a rocket scientist -- cancel Ares 1 now and the version of the Orion capsule that is supposed to fly astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station. Instead, unleash the commercial sector by paying them for transportation services to the station. Could be capsules. Could be winged ships like the Space Shuttle, capable of flying back to a runway with its crews and cargoes, not splashing in the ocean like a cannonball. With the money saved, start developing a true heavy lifter worthy of the Saturn V's successor. Could be a side-mount rocket like the Shuttles, with a tank-and-booster set flanked by a payload pod jammed full of cargo-or a space capsule with astronauts in tow. Or new upper stages capable of deep space missions. Let's open 'er up to a true competition, with designs from inside -- and outside -- NASA. If we bypass a foolish Moon race and let the development of the Moon be an international affair, we will have time to refine the super booster to make sure it is compatible with our deep space goals, like missions flying by comets or asteroids -- or to the moons of Mars. Such a rocket would be ready when the time comes to colonize Mars. No more false starts and dead end rockets.

Maybe use innovative elements like new upper stage engines, or entirely new propulsion systems. Or designs truly evolved from the Shuttle era. The idea is to get the best thinking from rocketeers before we start spending Uncle Sam's space bucks.

I confess I have a design in mind that I and my team have worked on for years. It's called Aquila, and it is a true offspring of the Space Shuttle. It makes maximum use of the existing Shuttle infrastructure -- unlike the real Ares -- and Shuttle boosters, engines and the side-mounted design where today the winged orbiter rides into space. If we need bigger rocket engines, Boeing's RS-68 behemoth is always available, flight proven and flight tested aboard the Delta IV commercial launchers. You see, heavy lifting doesn't need to be heavy spending, if we do the job right.

But let the designers take the field-and may the best booster win. To paraphrase David Letterman, we don't need any stupid rocket tricks. Just good sound engineering. For without good new rockets to carry our payloads and crews, nobody is ever going to follow in Neil, Mike and my footsteps into deep space. And that's where we are destined to go.

Terrible paper, most excellent author.

 

[drown]

Terrible paper, most excellent author.

tyvm, fagin...


a most interesting read.

buzz remains
incredibly down to earth.

what became of dreaming both
big
AND
efficiently?

 

[Fagin]

tyvm, fagin...


a most interesting read.

buzz remains
incredibly down to earth.

what became of dreaming both
big
AND
efficiently?

Buzz Aldrin is down to earth. The people I know that have met him say the same thing.

He brings up many valid, well thought out points. The launch of the Ares rocket launch was a puppet show.

The test of the solid fuel booster was impressive, no reason they weren't used for a "real" test launch.

The test of the capsule recovery was impressive, triple recovery on the parachutes. No reason it wasn't used for for a "real" test launch.

There is no real reason the test wasn't put off to a date when they could run a test of the rocket in a realistic test. The only thing that was really tested was the shape of the rocket.

 

[SkAoUt]

Anyone use this service? http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx

I'm a total novice when it comes to astronomy and this seems a bit intimidating. Any other sites that are better for newbies?

 

[linuxgeek]

wow. A thread of mine which has managed to survive.

 

[Fagin]

Anyone use this service? http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx

I'm a total novice when it comes to astronomy and this seems a bit intimidating. Any other sites that are better for newbies?

What are you looking for?

 

[Lost Cause]

http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3D.html

NASA's latest space telescope will scan the sky in search of never-before-seen asteroids, comets, stars and galaxies, with one of its main tasks to catalog objects posing a danger to Earth. The sky-mapping WISE, or Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, is scheduled to launch no earlier than before dawn Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast aboard a Delta 2 rocket.

If all goes as planned, WISE will orbit some 325 miles above the Earth and produce the most detailed map yet of the cosmos. It is designed to detect objects that give off infrared light or heat. Infrared light is ideal for uncovering dusty, cold and distant objects that often can't be seen by optical telescopes.

The mission is expected to find millions of hard-to-see objects, said principal investigator Edward Wright of the University of California, Los Angeles.

"It's really a mission to survey everything that's out there," Wright said. "What we're trying to do is make a map of the universe."

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=9263284

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ddqtkOiADuo/SwQr1YXo9hI/AAAAAAAAB2E/aCJvR6jFSDE/s1600/Artist%27s+concept+of+WISE+mapping+the+infrared+sky.jpg

 

[Lost Cause]

T- minus 15 + hrs

Full sails to Discovery, crew, and R2!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/153212main_disc-rss.jpg

 

[Balladeer08]

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/153212main_disc-rss.jpg

This is an excellent thread!

Along with the science thread, the one on free books and the ones on smart phone applications, these are my favorite threads.

Well, not counting the porn photos, of course. 8) This is a sex-based board, after all.

I think I'll start a thread about BOINC and the related projects. Just to see if I can find more kindred souls.

I really like this thread. I'm saving some of the pictures to share with friends.

Another thread I'd like to see is one on amateur astronomy. Telescope parties, that kind of thing. I have a small scope, I just go out and star at random stars or the moon.

Anyone expert enough to start such a thread?

 

[Lost Cause]

Another thread I'd like to see is one on amateur astronomy. Telescope parties, that kind of thing. I have a small scope, I just go out and star at random stars or the moon.

A good astronomy related site- great computer wallpapers and such..
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

http://astronomy.meetup.com/
http://twitter.com/SPACEdotcom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOzkEwaMnaE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/chan2large.jpg

 

[1sickbastard]

This is an excellent thread!

Along with the science thread, the one on free books and the ones on smart phone applications, these are my favorite threads.

Well, not counting the porn photos, of course. 8) This is a sex-based board, after all.

I think I'll start a thread about BOINC and the related projects. Just to see if I can find more kindred souls.

I really like this thread. I'm saving some of the pictures to share with friends.

Another thread I'd like to see is one on amateur astronomy. Telescope parties, that kind of thing. I have a small scope, I just go out and star at random stars or the moon.

Anyone expert enough to start such a thread?

Here's another decent site for local skywatching
http://www******.com/skywatching/

 

[drown]

a little side note...

i watch nasa tv...
went to sleep to eva 4 - the final construction eva for the iss...

woke to the guys safeing the eva suits and then...

some ceremony at the astronauts's memorial (on [what used to be called] tape).


saw the name...

ROBERT H. LAWRENCE, JR. (December 8, 1967)

guion bluford didn't fly until august 30, 1983...


this guy would have flown;
could well have gone to the moon.

it is...

even as a chapter ends.

 

[about_average]

Planet found in Goldilocks zone - Kepler-186f

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...s-spot-a-planet-that-looks-like-earths-cousin

... it's the first time anyone has found an Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of a distant star, Barclay adds. "This is a really profound discovery. It's a major milestone."