Space In General

[Dennisch]

I can't wait to see that Chrome Dildo take off and explore YO MOMMA space.

 

[wfooshee]

I clicked the play button three times... I gotta go lay down!

 

[CodeRedR51]

I clicked the play button three times... I gotta go lay down!

 

[wfooshee]

I'm not falling for THAT again!!!

Oh, wait... that one's real.

 

[CodeRedR51]

SN5 150m hop may be happening shortly.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Less than 10 minutes until possible hop. Here's another stream.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Scrubbed for today. They got right up to the point of ignition and then aborted. They should try again tomorrow.

Edit:

 

[CodeRedR51]

SpaceX is trying again first thing this morning. Live stream below, roughly 30 minutes to go.

Edit: scrub #2. They have enough time today to figure out the issue and try again.

 

[CodeRedR51]

She flew baby! Silos can fly!

 

[CodeRedR51]

 

[CodeRedR51]

Sorry last post. Official video from SpaceX.

 

[CodeRedR51]

SpaceX Starlink launch for anyone interested that is up late/early.



Edit: 5th landing success for this booster.

 

[Dotini]

Apparently Earth has been struck by a powerful beam of energy from the happily named Vulpecula constellation, the novelty being this is the first FRB from within our own galaxy.

https://www.livescience.com/fast-radio-burst-magnetar-milky-way.html

 

[Dotini]

Dwarf planet Ceres, lurking in the asteroid belt just beyond Mars, has a partially liquid salty ocean possibly harboring alien life. There are other dwarf planets other also possibly with such hidden oceans.
https://www.cnet.com/features/ceres-a-dwarf-planet-in-the-asteroid-belt-hides-an-underground-ocean/

The bright spots in Occator crater (circled).

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

A mosaic of Cerealia Facula highlighting the differences in composition.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI

Pluto is believed to hide an underground ocean, too.

NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

 

[CodeRedR51]

Starship SN5 was moved from the landing pad today after it's 150m hop and taken back to the "shipyard" or assembly area for post hop inspection. Starship SN6 is taking it's place on the launch platform.

Also, some news about upcoming tests:

 

[Dotini]

Unknown meteorological phenomenon appearing over Alabama.

Possibly a fair weather sprite. Electric fields exist inside of clouds, so discharges of various kinds will occur, lightning from thunderstorms being the most notable.

https://strangesounds.org/2020/08/s...liens-dancing-over-cumulonimbus-pictures.html

Mysterious cloud formation appears over Ashville, Alabam on August 9, 2020. Picture: Facebook J. Smith / J. Spann

Nobody knows how such strange tornado-like clouds can form above a cumulonimbus cloud. Picture: Facebook J. Smith / J. Spann

 

[CodeRedR51]

Not enough people posting in this thread. Too much focus on the negative side of 2020. The Space industry is accelerating VERY quickly right now, we are in a new space race. Definitely something to get excited over.

With that said, Starship SN6 may undergo Cryro-proof testing on Sunday. You can follow along here:



Construction on the Superheavy launch pad is moving ahead:



And yet another Starlink mission will take off early Tuesday morning around 10:00am EST. I will post stream links when we get close.

 

[CodeRedR51]

SN6 cryo testing was a success. They removed the thrust simulator and should start prepping it for Raptor engine install and static fire.

Here's the stream link for tomorrow mornings Starlink launch: (first time using a booster 6 times)

 

[CodeRedR51]

 

[CodeRedR51]

Sixth launch and landing successful for this booster.



And they caught one of the fairing halves.

 

[Dotini]

Humans probably won't be going to Mars anytime soon due to the problem of increased cosmic rays sharply limiting travel time allowed for humans in interplanetary space.

Cosmic Rays and the Weakening Solar Cycle
AUGUST 11, 2020 / DR.TONY PHILLIPS


August 18, 2020: Cosmic rays are bad–and they’re going to get worse. That’s the conclusion of a new study entitled “Galactic Cosmic Radiation in Interplanetary Space Through a Modern Secular Minimum” just published in the journal Space Weather.

“During the next solar cycle, we could see cosmic ray dose rates increase by as much as 75%,” says lead author Fatemeh Rahmanifard of the University of New Hampshire’s Space Science Center. “This will limit the amount of time astronauts can work safely in interplanetary space.”

Cosmic rays are the bane of astronauts. They come from deep space, energetic particles hurled in all directions by supernova explosions and other violent events. No amount of spacecraft shielding can stop the most energetic cosmic rays, leaving astronauts exposed whenever they leave the Earth-Moon system.

Back in the 1990s, astronauts could travel through space for as much as 1000 daysbefore they hit NASA safety limits on radiation exposure. Not anymore. According to the new research, cosmic rays could limit trips to as little as 290 days for 45-year old male astronauts, and 204 days for females. (Men and women have different limits because of unequal dangers to reproductive organs.)

Why are cosmic rays growing stronger? Blame the sun. The sun’s magnetic field wraps the entire solar system in a protective bubble, normally shielding us from cosmic rays. In recent decades, however, that shield has been growing weaker–a result of the sputtering solar cycle.

The sunspot cycle has been trending weaker since the 1950s. The red curve is a prediction for upcoming Solar Cycle 25. [More]

Solar activity isn’t what it used to be. In the 1950s through 1990s, the sun routinely produced intense Solar Maxima with lots of sunspots and strong solar magnetic fields. Now look at the plot, above. Since the heyday of the late 20th century, the 11-year solar cycle has weakened, and the sun’s magnetic field has weakened with it.


Rahmanifard and colleagues believe we could be entering a Grand Minimum–a long, slow dampening of the 11-year solar cycle, which can suppress sunspot counts for decades. The most famous example of a Grand Minimum is the Maunder Minimum of the 17th century when sunspots practically vanished for 70 years.

“We are not in a Maunder Minimum,” stresses Rahmanifard. “The current situation more closely resembles the Dalton minimum of 1790-1830 or the Gleissberg minimum of 1890-1920.” During those lesser Grand Minima, the solar cycle became weak, but didn’t completely go away.

In these plots, Rahmanifard et al compare the Dalton and Gleissberg minima (top panels) to recent solar cycles (bottom panels).

For years, researchers have been monitoring cosmic rays using CRaTER, a sensor orbiting the Moon on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Recent data show that cosmic rays are at very high levels–the highest since LRO was launched in 2009. (See Figure 1 in their paper.)

“We took the latest readings from CRaTER and extrapolated them forward into Solar Cycle 25 (the next solar cycle),” says Rahmanifard. “We found that radiation doses will probably exceed already-high values by 34% for a Gleissberg-like minimum to 75% for a Dalton-like minimum.”

Study co-author Nathan Schwadron, also of the University of New Hampshire, wonders if NASA should rethink its safety limits to allow longer voyages. “Or,” he suggests, “maybe we should wait, and only conduct long-duration missions during Solar Maximum when galactic cosmic radiation falls to lower levels.”

For astronauts, it begs the question — How much can you get done in 200 days? Barring improvements in shielding technology, future space missions may be limited to only 6 or 7 months, probably too short for a Mars voyage. Lunar exploration could be safer because the body of the Moon itself blocks radiation. But in interplanetary space, the researchers caution, “the next decade or two may be more dangerous than previously realized.”

Stay tuned for updates as Solar Cycle 25 unfolds.

 

[Danoff]

Humans probably won't be going to Mars anytime soon due to the problem of increased cosmic rays sharply limiting travel time allowed for humans in interplanetary space.

Cosmic Rays and the Weakening Solar Cycle
AUGUST 11, 2020 / DR.TONY PHILLIPS


August 18, 2020: Cosmic rays are bad–and they’re going to get worse. That’s the conclusion of a new study entitled “Galactic Cosmic Radiation in Interplanetary Space Through a Modern Secular Minimum” just published in the journal Space Weather.

“During the next solar cycle, we could see cosmic ray dose rates increase by as much as 75%,” says lead author Fatemeh Rahmanifard of the University of New Hampshire’s Space Science Center. “This will limit the amount of time astronauts can work safely in interplanetary space.”

The sunspot cycle has been trending weaker since the 1950s. The red curve is a prediction for upcoming Solar Cycle 25. [More]

In these plots, Rahmanifard et al compare the Dalton and Gleissberg minima (top panels) to recent solar cycles (bottom panels).

For years, researchers have been monitoring cosmic rays using CRaTER, a sensor orbiting the Moon on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Recent data show that cosmic rays are at very high levels–the highest since LRO was launched in 2009. (See Figure 1 in their paper.)

“We took the latest readings from CRaTER and extrapolated them forward into Solar Cycle 25 (the next solar cycle),” says Rahmanifard. “We found that radiation doses will probably exceed already-high values by 34% for a Gleissberg-like minimum to 75% for a Dalton-like minimum.”

Study co-author Nathan Schwadron, also of the University of New Hampshire, wonders if NASA should rethink its safety limits to allow longer voyages. “Or,” he suggests, “maybe we should wait, and only conduct long-duration missions during Solar Maximum when galactic cosmic radiation falls to lower levels.”

For astronauts, it begs the question — How much can you get done in 200 days? Barring improvements in shielding technology, future space missions may be limited to only 6 or 7 months, probably too short for a Mars voyage. Lunar exploration could be safer because the body of the Moon itself blocks radiation. But in interplanetary space, the researchers caution, “the next decade or two may be more dangerous than previously realized.”

Stay tuned for updates as Solar Cycle 25 unfolds.

The notion of a human voyage to mars being in jeopardy has to be one of the least important aspects of the decreased solar activity and the presence of cosmic rays. In terms of cosmic rays, I'm more interested in the damage they do to spacecraft. A cosmic ray hit at just the right part of the spacecraft has a tendency to screw up the computer memory, which disrupts unmanned space exploration. Get one of those at the right moment, and you could lose a mission. Cosmic rays can put spacecraft into "safe mode", which ultimately can cause a reduction in scientific data gathered and returned.

https://www.theverge.com/2013/3/2/4056682/nasa-curiosity-rover-enters-safe-mode-corrupted-memory
https://astroengine.com/2009/02/27/when-cosmic-rays-attack-the-mro-in-safe-mode/
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/20750430/.../cosmic-ray-hit-puts-cassini-probe-safe-mode/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...ay-delays-spacecraft-headed-for-dwarf-planet/
https://www.universetoday.com/14843...particles-phoenix-science-run-about-to-begin/
https://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/2011/01/07/even-single-events-can-be-very-upsetting/

 

[CodeRedR51]

Booster 1049.6 returned to port this morning.

And we have some road closure news for Starship SN6 testing:

 

[Dotini]

McDonald Observatory specialist Stephen Hummel captured a photo of this red jellyfish sprite from Mt. Locke, Texas, on July 2, 2020.
Stephen Hummel

 

[CodeRedR51]

SN6 static fire was a success.

 

[MaxAttack]

SN6 static fire was a success.

I'm too dumb to post here, but thanks for keeping this thread alive, and know that at least someone is reading

 

[CodeRedR51]

The next few days are going to be VERY busy for spaceflight.

• Thursday (2:16am EDT / 06:16 UTC) - ULA, NROL-44 - Delta IV Heavy
• Friday (7:19pm EDT / 23:19 UTC) - SpaceX, Saocom 1B - First dogleg launch to polar orbit from Florida. Booster returning to dry land.
• Friday (11:05pm EDT / 03:05 UTC) Rocket Lab - "I Can't Believe It's Not Optical" mission for Capella Space.
• Saturday (Anytime between 8am - 8pm) - SpaceX, Starship SN6 - 150m hop attempt.
  
• Sunday (10:08am EDT / 14:08 UTC) - SpaceX, Starlink 11 - Booster landing on drone ship.

I'll update with stream links when available.

Edit: ULA launch scrubbed for 24 hours.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Another update on the ULA launch:



Also, Rocket Lab launch was pushed.

 

[CodeRedR51]

The next few days are going to be VERY busy for spaceflight.

• Saturday (2:16am EDT / 06:16 UTC) - ULA, NROL-44 - Delta IV Heavy
• Sunday (7:19pm EDT / 23:19 UTC) - SpaceX, Saocom 1B - First dogleg launch to polar orbit from Florida. Booster returning to dry land.
• Sunday/Monday (11:05pm EDT / 03:05 UTC) Rocket Lab - "I Can't Believe It's Not Optical" mission for Capella Space.
• Saturday/Sunday (Anytime between 8am - 8pm) - SpaceX, Starship SN6 - 150m hop attempt.
  
• Sunday (10:08am EDT / 14:08 UTC) - SpaceX, Starlink 11 - Booster landing on drone ship.

Updated dates. Everything has slipped a little.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Updated dates. Everything has slipped a little.

Well, the ULA launch aborted on the pad last night at T-0 so they are delayed at least a week. And because it's a national security payload, nobody else is allowed to launch until they do. (which is total BS) So both of the the SpaceX launches are delayed as well while they wait for grandpa to get out of the way.

Starship hop should still take place tomorrow. I will post live stream links when we get close.

Edit: Guess I was wrong.