NASA/Space thread

[cartman]

Less than 15 minutes to the Falcon Heavy launch

Falcon Heavy Test Flight | SpaceX

[miked]

Wow.

[cartman]

Those two stages landing back in tandem was really impressive.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by cartman

Those two stages landing back in tandem was really impressive.

This.

Still trying to find word if the main booster made it.

[PilotMan]

That was so freaking cool I got goose bumps watching it.

[Edward64]

How in the world do they do that? Wow.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Still trying to find word if the main booster made it.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16...failed-landing

[Edward64]

Beats me as to real implications but thought it was a neat story.

Scott Kelly: NASA Twins Study Confirms Astronaut's DNA Actually Changed in Space

Astronaut Scott Kelly’s DNA was altered by a year in space, results from NASA’s Twins Study have confirmed. Seven percent of his genes did not return to normal after he landed, researchers found.

Scott Kelly and his twin brother, Mark Kelly—also an astronaut—were the subjects of the study that sought to find out exactly what happens to the body after a year in space.
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In 2017, researchers discovered that the endcaps of Scott Kelly’s chromosomes—his telomeres—had become longer while he was in space. Further testing confirmed this change, and revealed that most of the telomeres had shortened again within just two days of his return.

After landing, 93 percent of Scott Kelly’s genes returned to normal, the researchers found. The altered 7 percent, however, could indicate long-term changes in genes connected to the immune system, DNA repair, bone formation networks, oxygen deprivation and elevated carbon dioxide levels.

[Thomkal]

wow - being a twin, I was more than a little curious as to the results of this experiment. Hope his altered genes don't cause him major problems down the road. Wonder how they can protect this from happening to other astronauts now.

[Edward64]

I wonder if this means evolution/adaptation may occur quicker in space than on earth (I guess that makes sense). It would be neat if they can definitively identify what the chromosome changes impact.

[Edward64]

Pretty interesting.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/21/world...tem/index.html

For billions of years, it lived in our solar system without us even knowing it was there. But this object couldn't remain hidden around Jupiter forever. It was just peculiar enough to be noticed by researchers.

In 2017, the first observed interstellar visitor, an asteroid named 'Oumuamua, was found traveling through our solar system. Now, for the first time, astronomers have discovered a permanent resident that moved in during the early stages of our solar system's development, about 4.5 billion years ago.

The researchers call this exo-asteroid, known as 2015 BZ509, an "interstellar immigrant." It's known as an exo-asteroid because it originated outside our solar system.
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At first glance, 2015 BZ509 is just one of many objects orbiting the gas giant Jupiter in a stable configuration called a resonance. Though all of the planets and most of the objects in our solar system orbit the sun by moving in the same direction, the exo-asteroid is going its own way. 2015 BZ509 moves in the opposite direction in a retrograde orbit.

"The asteroid and Jupiter take the same amount of time to complete one orbit around the Sun but one moves clockwise and the other counter-clockwise so they pass by each other twice per each full orbit," Morais wrote.

"This pattern is repeated forever -- it is a stable configuration -- in a simplified model with only the Sun, Jupiter and the asteroid. We saw that when we include the other planets it is still very stable, over the solar system's age."

That orbit is the same path the object has always followed, meaning it could not have formed in our solar system. If it were "native" to our solar system, it would have inherited the direction from the gas and dust that formed all of the other planets and objects.

[Thomkal]

Just shows again how little we really know about the science of space.

[Edward64]

Interesting I guess but somewhat underwhelming.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/07/us/na...ngs/index.html

Organic matter has been found on Mars in soil samples taken from 3 billion-year-old mudstone in the Gale crater by the Curiosity rover, NASA announced Thursday. The rover has also detected methane in the Martian atmosphere.

The search for life outside Earth focuses on the building blocks of life as we know it, which includes organic compounds and molecules -- although these can exist without life. Organic matter can be one of several things: a record detailing ancient life, a food source for life or something that exists in the place of life.

No matter its purpose, these work as "chemical clues" for researchers about Mars.

[NobodyHere]

Israel to launch its first spacecraft to the moon | Fox News

JEWS IN SPACE!

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Israel to launch its first spacecraft to the moon | Fox News

JEWS IN SPACE!

It would be pretty impressive accomplishment. More symbolic than practical I guess, more of a middle finger.

[Edward64]

Pretty cool.

Now we need to get Bruce Willis and his drill team to bring up some of that water to see if there are life forms.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/25/world...nce/index.html

A lake of liquid water has been detected by radar beneath the southern polar ice cap of Mars, according to a new study by Italian researchers from the Italian Space Agency, published Wednesday in the journal Science.
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It sent radar pulses through the surface and polar ice caps and measured how the radio waves reflected back to Mars Express.

Those pulses reflected 29 sets of radar samples that created a map of drastic change in signal almost a mile below the surface. It stretched about 12.5 miles across and looked very similar to lakes that are found beneath Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets on Earth. The radar reflected the feature's brightness, signaling that it's water.

[Thomkal]

Neat!

[Edward64]

Nice job Japan.

It would be kinda "bad" if the Japanese found the first extraterrestrial amoeba/fossil though, the US would never live it down. But it's all science ...

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/22/asia/...oid/index.html

The Japanese space agency JAXA said it made history Saturday by successfully landing two unmanned rovers on an asteroid.

"The two rovers are in good condition and are transmitting images and data," a JAXA statement said after the rovers separated from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft and landed on the asteroid Ryugu.

The rovers are collectively known as MINERVA-II1. The space agency reported that MINERVA-II1 is the world's first mobile exploration robot to land on the surface of an asteroid.
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The 1 kilometer-wide space rock, which is shaped like a diamond, is expected to be "rich in water and organic materials," allowing scientists to "clarify interactions between the building blocks of Earth and the evolution of its oceans and life, thereby developing solar system science," JAXA said in a statement.

A series of specially designed cameras -- four on the first rover and three on the second -- will take stereo images of the asteroid's surface. The rovers are also equipped with temperature gauges and optical sensors as well as an accelerometer and a set of gyroscopes.
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A third rover called MASCOT will be launched from Hayabusa2 in early October.

Later in the mission, scheduled for the end of October, the spacecraft will land on the asteroid after blowing a small crater in it using explosives, so samples that haven't been exposed to space can be gathered from below the object's surface.

After examining the far distant object and taking samples, Hayabusa2 will depart Ryugu in December 2019 before returning to Earth by the end of 2020 with its cargo of samples.

If successful, JAXA has said it will be the "world's first sample return mission to a C-type asteroid."

Japanese scientists are racing NASA for that achievement, with the US agency's sample retrieval mission due to arrive back on Earth in 2023.

[Edward64]

Some nice pics.

I'd say Bruce Willis got it right in Armageddon.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/28/asia/...ntl/index.html

[Edward64]

This should be cool. Hope its as successful as its predecessors.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science...ead-ncna939076

When its Curiosity rover landed on Mars in 2012, NASA called the last, most perilous phase of the rover's descent "seven minutes of terror."

Now the space agency's Mars InSight lander is a day away from its own slightly more compressed touchdown on the red planet. This time, NASA says the final phase of the spacecraft's landing will last about six and a half minutes — and members of the InSight team are trying to contain their rising anxiety.

"It’s a little less terror," jokes Rob Grover, who leads the team in charge of InSight's landing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

InSight, which is designed to study the red planet's deep interior, is scheduled to plunk down on the Martian surface on Monday at around 3 p.m. EST, after traveling more than 300 million miles since its launch in May from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

[Thomkal]

Lander arrives on Mars around 2 pm-hope it makes it!

[Edward64]

Congrats NASA.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/world...day/index.html

After seven months of traveling through space, the NASA InSight mission has landed on Mars. A few minutes after landing, InSight sent the official "beep" to NASA to signal that it was alive and well, including a photo of the Martian surface where it landed.

Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory exploded into celebratory applause and cheers after the touchdown was confirmed. The landing was watched around the world and even broadcast live on the Nasdaq Stock Market tower in New York City's Times Square.

[Thomkal]

Welcome to Mars (again)


InSight Is Catching Rays on Mars | NASA

[Thomkal]

I give you the sounds of Mars:


NASA InSight Lander 'Hears' Martian Winds – NASA's InSight Mars Lander

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

I give you the sounds of Mars:


NASA InSight Lander 'Hears' Martian Winds – NASA's InSight Mars Lander

That's pretty cool

[Edward64]

That is pretty cool (but it sounds like regular wind to me).

[Edward64]

Okay, its cool we were able to do this, human ingenuity and all.

But com'on, its just a rock. Can we start more serious exploration of Saturn/Jupiter/moons with water.

Nasa's New Horizons: 'Snowman' shape of distant Ultima Thule revealed - BBC News

The ice world known as Ultima Thule has finally been revealed.

A new picture returned from Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft shows the little world to be two objects joined together - to give a look like a "snowman".

The US probe's images acquired as it approached Ultima hinted at the possibility of a double body, but the first detailed picture from Tuesday's close flyby confirms it.

New Horizons encountered Ultima 6.5 billion km from Earth.

The event set a record for the most distant ever exploration of a Solar System object. The previous mark was also set by New Horizons when it flew past the dwarf planet Pluto in 2015.

But Ultima is a further 1.5 billion km further out.

The mission team has decided to call the larger lobe "Ultima" and the smaller lobe "Thule". The volume ratio is three to one.

Jeff Moore, a New Horizons co-investigator from Nasa's Ames Research Center, said the pair would have come together at very low speed, at maybe 2-3km/h. He joked that if they were cars, "you probably wouldn't fill out the insurance form.

Ultima orbits the Sun in a region of the Solar System known as the Kuiper belt.

There are hundreds of thousands of Kuiper members like Ultima, and their frigid state almost certainly holds clues to how all planetary bodies came into being some 4.6 billion years ago.
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The hope is that the course of the spacecraft can be altered slightly to visit at least one more Kuiper belt object sometime in the next decade.

New Horizons should have just enough fuel reserves to be able to do this. Critically, it should also have sufficient electrical reserves to keep operating its instruments into the 2030s.

[Thomkal]

yeah seems pretty insignificant as far as planetary objects go, but still an accomplishment for further distance away from Earth. Just wish we'd get the tech for clearer pictures of stuff that far out.

[whomario]

This is the first-ever picture of a black hole. Thank the Event Horizon Telescope. - Vox


goes way over my head as far as 'understanding', but definitely qualifies as amazing.

[Thomkal]

wow

[PilotMan]

This is some pretty cool shit right here. In case you wanted a reason to ponder your place in the galaxy.

Astronomers have put together the largest and most comprehensive "history book" of galaxies into one single image, using 16 years' worth of observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The deep-sky mosaic, created from nearly 7,500 individual exposures, provides a wide portrait of the distant universe, containing 265,000 galaxies that stretch back through 13.3 billion years of time to just 500 million years after the big bang. The faintest and farthest galaxies are just one ten-billionth the brightness of what the human eye can see. The universe's evolutionary history is also chronicled in this one sweeping view. The portrait shows how galaxies change over time, building themselves up to become the giant galaxies seen in the nearby universe. This ambitious endeavor, called the Hubble Legacy Field, also combines observations taken by several Hubble deep-field surveys, including the eXtreme Deep Field (XDF), the deepest view of the universe. The wavelength range stretches from ultraviolet to near-infrared light, capturing the key features of galaxy assembly over time. The video begins with a view of the thousands of galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and slowly zooms out to reveal the larger Hubble Legacy Field, containing 265,000 galaxies.

[Coffee Warlord]

Space. Is. Big.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Space. Is. Big.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of space,

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."

[Edward64]

I was one that thought going back to the moon was a waste of funds and would have preferred to focus on Mars. But this is a stepping stone, to learn from it and apply it to future (Mars) missions which makes perfect sense (e.g. prototyping before a build).

China has already reached the moon and have said they want to send rover to Mars. Sooner or later, there's going to be a first manned mission to Mars and I prefer it to be the US.

However, unlike the 60's to 90's, there are now viable private sector companies that can help or augment NASA, and it would be great if they can be leveraged.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/13/tech/...mis/index.html

NASA has touted its bold plan to return American astronauts to the moon by 2024 for months. Now we're starting to get an idea of how much it will cost.

The space agency will need an estimated $20 billion to $30 billion over the next five years for its moon project, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told CNN Business on Thursday. That would mean adding another $4 billion to $6 billion per year, on average, to the agency's budget, which is already expected to be about $20 billion annually.
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NASA wants that mission to include two astronauts: A man and the first-ever woman to walk on the moon.
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The overall goal of the Artemis program is to establish a "sustainable" presence on the moon, paving the way for astronauts to return to the surface again and again. Learning to live and work on another world, Bridenstine said, will prepare them for NASA's long-term mission: to put people on Mars for the first time in human history.

[PilotMan]

Yes the race to monetize the moon as a supply point for Mars will be big. Speaking of the moon, this is a fantastic story about it and the challenges it presents.



https://www.wired.com/story/moondust...nar-ambitions/

[Thomkal]

Today NASA announced its next space science mission, codenamed Dragonfly. Its a probe/quadcopter? to the moon of Saturn, Titan.

[CrimsonFox]

When people talk about that huge space exploration company, am I the only one that hears "Space Sex"?

[Brian Swartz]

Question about the Mars stuff. I know there's like ten thousand things we have to learn before going there; Edward64 and PilotMan made good points that I totally agree with about the moon staging first concept. But I keep hearing a lot of stuff about it's really just a matter of how long it takes to figure out those things and whether or not we want to fund it all along the way.

I think that's an accurate statement when it comes to going there the way we've gone to the moon, or even staying weeks/a few months for experimentation etc. What I don't understand is all the 'we're going to colonize Mars eventually' stuff. I'm not at all sure that's even possible. The fine, everpresent dust could be a major obstacle to the required sensitive equipment, airlocks, etc. And assuming we can get over that hurdle, the far bigger one is gravity. We know microgravity is a problem due to the health issues that have come from astronauts at the space station, etc. But assuming we don't invent Star-Trek level space magic gravity plating, I've never seen any data that indicates we have any good idea that permanent Mars settlements wouldn't have the same issues. Maybe 0.38G is enough, maybe it isn't … but certainly we don't KNOW that it is, and the very limited information I've been able to find indicates it is theoretically more likely than not going to be an obstacle. You can have a ship spin en route for artificial gravity, and you can do that with a station in orbit. But that's not working when you're on the ground.

So how about it, fellow space nerds - what say you on the feasibility of a long-term settlement in Martian gravity?

[Edward64]

I'm sure the Mars colony (or really any other planet/moon we hope to colonize in this solar system) will have the same problem. We'll need to solve for creating some sort of artificial gravity if we are to live long-term in Mars.

Googling, there are options (but don't know the quality or practicality of those links). The one I like the most is creating an underground environment where the chambers can "spin" (which also helps protect from the harsh environment). They all sound fantastical but I'm sure there are a bunch of scientists trying to figure it out.

Unfortunately, we'll be long dead before there is colonization but still hopeful for exploration of Mars and other places where we may find "life" while I'm still around.

From what I've read, it does seem as if Mars is the most "friendly" planet to colonize in this solar system. Many other objects may have ice/water, but they have less gravity than Mars, we can grow things on Mars surface, it is relatively close to Earth etc.

There is a cost benefit analysis we have to go through, I'm not sure the benefits really outweigh the costs right now (I think it does especially when you factor in what it would mean if China does it first) but I'm all for starting the process of colonization knowing it'll take decades.

[Edward64]

NASA has let me down before on their announcements. Let's hope this time is different.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/nasa...s-life-on-mars

In a startling interview, NASA's Planetary Science Division director Jim Green, Ph.D., has said the space agency is close to "making some announcements" about finding life on Mars — but that we're not ready for it.

“It will be revolutionary,” Green said in an interview with The Telegraph. “It’s like when Copernicus stated ‘no we go around the Sun.' Completely revolutionary. It will start a whole new line of thinking. I don’t think we’re prepared for the results. We’re not."

He added that he's worried because he believes NASA is close to finding life and making an announcement about it but wonders what will happen afterward.

[Warhammer]

Last night I was watching Ancient Aliens, I find it hysterical and better than watching a Hallmark movie. They were talking about the Panspermia hypothesis and how life started on Mars. They bring on a scientist from NASA who said that Earth is too insignificant on a cosmic scale and the possibility that life started here is ridiculous, it had to come from someplace else, Mars...

Let me get this straight, the largest rocky body in our solar system is cosmically insignificant, so life could't start here, it had to start on an even MORE insignificant rocky body. A bolide impact then launches matter from that body into space where life survives somehow for millions, maybe billions, of years, lands on Earth, survives the impact, and that is how life started on Earth.

Give me my primordial soup and black smokers any day of the week over that...

EDIT: With regards to life elsewhere, I do not think that primitive life is necessarily rare, single cell organisms, etc. I do think making the leap to multicellular organisms is a huge leap that does not happen often.

[Edward64]

Ancient Aliens ... I like how shows like that always say "could it be ..."

TBH, I'll be happy if we found alien single cell organisms, doesn't need to be Vulcans or like (would be nice though). Hope there is confirmation of alien life in my lifetime.

[Edward64]

More details and context below. New rover will land Feb 2021 so we'll know something in 2021.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/30/us/na...reen-scn-trnd/

The Mars 2020 rover, along with the European Space Agency's ExoMars rover, will drill into the Martian crust. The surface of the Red Planet is believed to be radioactive, so if there is life on Mars, it likely lives below ground.

"We've never drilled that deep," he told the Telegraph. "When environments get extreme, life moves into the rocks."

The principle's been proven on our home planet: After drilling miles into the Earth, researchers found more life in the Earth's crust than on its surface, he said.

"The bottom line is, where there is water there is life."

And if the agencies' new rovers find proof that water once flowed on Mars, he said, the confirmation could come weeks or months of landing -- so buckle up, space lovers. The realm of possibility might get much wider very soon.

[Warhammer]

So the big hubbub was they are sending a new rover to search for life under the crust. That was it?

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

So the big hubbub was they are sending a new rover to search for life under the crust. That was it?

Pretty much.

1) Water under crust on Mars
2) Where there is water there is life
3) Rover will dig deep
4) Therefore Rover will find life

Another one of those NASA over-hyping something that is 1.5 years away.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Another one of those NASA over-hyping something that is 1.5 years away.

You know what's funny? This has probably been in development for at least 3 years, and they've been sitting on it. You don't just go from 0 to 1.5 years with something like this. So from their perspective, it's pretty freaking exciting and something they can finally share.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

You know what's funny? This has probably been in development for at least 3 years, and they've been sitting on it. You don't just go from 0 to 1.5 years with something like this. So from their perspective, it's pretty freaking exciting and something they can finally share.

I get that but a couple days ago (see prior post), the announcement was

In a startling interview, NASA's Planetary Science Division director Jim Green, Ph.D., has said the space agency is close to "making some announcements" about finding life on Mars — but that we're not ready for it.

When I read "close" I thought within a couple weeks.

[Edward64]

I still believe there is some sort of coverup. It only makes sense that alien info/news/technology would be kept only in Area 51 servers.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/23/us/ed...rnd/index.html

"In case you were wondering: Yes, man really did land on the moon. Climate change is real. Chemtrails are not a thing," he adds.

The NSA whistleblower addressed the conspiracies again on an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, released Wednesday, saying "there's no evidence" of aliens and chemtrails and the like.

"I know, Joe, I know you want there to be aliens," Snowden joked to Rogan, the podcast's host. "I know Neil deGrasse Tyson badly wants there to be aliens. And there probably are, right?

"But the idea that we're hiding them -- if we are hiding them -- I had ridiculous access to the networks of the NSA, the CIA, the military, all these groups. I couldn't find anything," he continued. "So if it's hidden, and it could be hidden, it's hidden really damn well, even from people who are on the inside."

Sigh.

[JediKooter]

I'm 100% there is life on other planets, moons, asteroids, etc...I'm just not 100% sure any of it or how much of it is actually intelligent life that is capable of interstellar travel, unless they have very long life spans. I think it would be cool if there were and as my first act as President, I would release info if it proves we have been visited by aliens and or have any alien tech.

[Kodos]

There's probably other intelligent life out there, but the space between us makes it hard/impossible for them to come to us.