Space In General

[Dennisch]

with a nine-hour signal round trip,

Reminding us how tiny we are.

Gawww. I really hope they sort it out. I'll be bummed out for a month.

So close, and for now so far again.

 

[Dotini]

@DK @Downhill Dino @unit-one @Thematic @Brett @Wolfe @fortbo

Thanks for your likes of my post #1283. You may have wondered about the "spermatozoan" object in the noctilucent cloud, image #4 of 6.

The caption provided by the astronaut taking the picture was, "Saw this guy flying up through the #Noctilucentclouds this morning. #YearInSpace" - via Twitter on June 8, 2015

 

[Adamgp]

Well, there are 2 possibilities...

1) The invaders from another solar system have set up a staging base and do not want to be discovered before they come for us.

2) Native Plutonians are pissed about their homeworld losing status as a planet and are like, "Don't be bringing your toys out here and expecting us to play fair!"


Seriously, I hope they can get it worked out, but with a nine-hour signal round trip, it's going to be excrutiating in the control center, waiting to see if things work that they're trying.

Possibility #3: Marvin the martian's Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

 

[PeterJB]

All is well.

http://www.nasa.gov/nh/new-horizons-plans-july-7-return-to-normal-science-operations

 

[Dotini]

Musk stumped.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/7/8905645/elon-musk-falcon-9-explosion-spacex
The SpaceX CEO seemed confounded by the Falcon 9 mishap, and he readily admitted how it's stumped him and his team

 

[CodeRedR51]

Well you can't collect data on everything. Unfortunately this might be one of those times. I just hope this doesn't ground them for good. I think if you tighten up your pre-launch inspection procedure you could probably prevent it from happening again.

 

[Dotini]

Well you can't collect data on everything. Unfortunately this might be one of those times. I just hope this doesn't ground them for good. I think if you tighten up your pre-launch inspection procedure you could probably prevent it from happening again.

Colin Chapman used to make his Lotus race cars too light. When something failed, he would make it stronger.

 

[Thematic]

@Dotini
I suppose it is a functional analogy in that attaining escape velocity, especially for human passengers, is still an extreme venture. Hopefully that will change within a few decades.

 

[Dotini]

@Dotini
I suppose it is a functional analogy in that attaining escape velocity, especially for human passengers, is still an extreme venture. Hopefully that will change within a few decades.

We would like to think that commercializing low earth orbit would automatically make it safe and routine. But, not so fast!

What they are not telling you is that they are cutting expenses - and corners - that are not permissible in government work.

 

[FoolKiller]

What they are not telling you is that they are cutting expenses - and corners - that are not permissible in government work.

Cutting expenses and corners, and legal boundaries is all we do in government work. I once directly challenged an order to do something, saying it would be illegal if we were private, and they said, "yes it would."

I would like to think that NASA scientists are above that, and they probably are, but if it works like every other government institution I have been involved with the issue isn't the people doing the actual work but the administrators and political appointees, who are more focused on politics and how it sounds in a press release.

 

[Danoff]

We would like to think that commercializing low earth orbit would automatically make it safe and routine. But, not so fast!

What they are not telling you is that they are cutting expenses - and corners - that are not permissible in government work.

I don't know about "permissible". The government doesn't have to cut costs to get a customer, you're a customer whether you want to be or not. As a result, the primary goal for NASA's manned missions has been safety. They then develop a culture that is entirely safety oriented, such that any suggestion of cutting expenses at the cost of safety is ridiculous.

Is that "not permissible"? Maybe. But there's no explicit regulation that says NASA shall not risk astronauts. If there were, NASA would not exist.

I would like to think that NASA scientists are above that, and they probably are, but if it works like every other government institution I have been involved with the issue isn't the people doing the actual work but the administrators and political appointees, who are more focused on politics and how it sounds in a press release.

I think there's some of that everywhere. What you describe has been well documented around the Challenger disaster, and NASA tried hard to change its tune after that.

@Dotini
I suppose it is a functional analogy in that attaining escape velocity, especially for human passengers, is still an extreme venture. Hopefully that will change within a few decades.

Not without some sort of breakthrough in propulsion or a space elevator. The energy required is just extreme no matter how you look at it.

 

[FoolKiller]

I need to quit reading Arthur C Clark books. Every time he has a story that uses a space elevator I get excited, then remember that it won't happen in my lifetime.

 

[BobK]

Let's not forget that the Challenger disaster was a managerial decision over the objections of the engineers. This is in line with what @FoolKiller was saying.

 

[Touring Mars]

I need to quit reading Arthur C Clark books. Every time he has a story that uses a space elevator I get excited, then remember that it won't happen in my lifetime.

Space elevators can be uplifting, but they can also bring you down.

 

[Brett]

Space elevators can be uplifting, but they can also bring you down.

 

[wfooshee]

Giving up on waiting for the GIF to load...... 2 minutes so far....

 

[Dennisch]

Giving up on waiting for the GIF to load...... 2 minutes so far....

Click on it.

 

[Dennisch]

The ISS in front of the moon.

From the photographer's website:

International Space Station over Australia
[PUBLIC DOMAIN] 1 JUL 2015 DYLAN O'DONNELL
CATEGORY : ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY, NOTABLE
157,904 OTHERS VIEWED THIS POST.


I was super happy to catch the silhouette of the ISS over the disc of the moon last night! The CalSky website sends me alerts for potential fly overs for which I’ve been waiting a long time – about 12 months. I got one this week and this was adjusted by 15 seconds by the time of the “occultation”.

If you think that it might be a case of sitting there with your camera and a clock, with one hand on the shutter release, you’d be absolutely correct! The ISS only passed over the moon for 0.33 seconds as it shoots by quite quickly. Knowing the second it would pass I fired a “burst” mode of exposures then crossed my fingers and hoped it would show up in review – and it did!

The setup was my Canon 70D attached to the rear cell of my Celestron 9.25″ telescope (2350mm / f10). The shutter speed was a quick 1/1650th of a second and ISO 800 in order to freeze the ISS in motion.

I took about a second of further exposures on either side of the pass to stack the lunar surface detail using AutoStakkert2, and the increased the saturation in post to create this colour enhanced version of the moon. The colours on the moon relate to the chemical composition of moon geology.

Edit.

Getting into detail!

 

[ProjectWHaT]

“We’re close enough now that we’re just starting to see Pluto’s geology,” said New Horizons program scientist Curt Niebur, NASA Headquarters in Washington, who’s keenly interested in the gray area just above the whale’s “tail” feature. “It’s a unique transition region with a lot of dynamic processes interacting, which makes it of particular scientific interest.”

New Horizons’ latest image of Pluto was taken on July 9, 2015 from 3.3 million miles (5.4 million kilometers) away, with a resolution of 17 miles (27 kilometers) per pixel. At this range, Pluto is beginning to reveal the first signs of discrete geologic features. This image views the side of Pluto that always faces its largest moon, Charon, and includes the so-called “tail” of the dark whale-shaped feature along its equator. (The immense, bright feature shaped like a heart had rotated from view when this image was captured.)

 

[ProjectWHaT]

We are getting closer!

 

[Dotini]

The northern hemisphere appears much different than the southern hemisphere. Nearby moon Charon and Pluto's dynamic elliptical orbit may drive a certain amount of atmospheric and geologic activity.

 

[TenEightyOne]

The northern hemisphere appears much different than the southern hemisphere. Nearby moon Charon and Pluto's dynamic elliptical orbit may drive a certain amount of atmospheric and geologic activity.

As I understand it the current shots are the last we'll see of that face from this mission?

 

[Dotini]

As I understand it the current shots are the last we'll see of that face from this mission?

• Only 1% of the science data from the flyby will be returned to Earth during the period around closest approach, including images that the mission has selected for their high science value as well as high public interest. They will be releasing captioned and processed versions as fast as their small team can manage.
• The rest of the image data will be downlinked beginning in September, about 2 months after encounter. It will take 10 weeks to download the full data set.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/06240556-what-to-expect-new-horizons-pluto.html

 

[TenEightyOne]

• Only 1% of the science data from the flyby will be returned to Earth during the period around closest approach, including images that the mission has selected for their high science value as well as high public interest. They will be releasing captioned and processed versions as fast as their small team can manage.
• The rest of the image data will be downlinked beginning in September, about 2 months after encounter. It will take 10 weeks to download the full data set.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/06240556-what-to-expect-new-horizons-pluto.html

That's great info, thank you! 👍

What I was referring to though was Pluto's rotation. I should have said that this is the last sight the probe will have of that face

 

[Dotini]

That's great info, thank you! 👍

What I was referring to though was Pluto's rotation. I should have said that this is the last sight the probe will have of that face

Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, describes this image as "the last, best look that anyone will have of Pluto's farside for decades to come."

Of particular interest on the farside are four dark spots connected to a dark belt that circles Pluto's equatorial region. What continues to pique the interest of scientists is their similar size and even spacing. "It's weird that they're spaced so regularly," says New Horizons program scientist Curt Niebur at NASA Headquarters. Jeff Moore of NASA's Ames Research Center is equally intrigued: "We can't tell whether they're plateaus or plains, or whether they're brightness variations on a completely smooth surface." The spots appear on the side of Pluto that always faces its largest moon, Charon.

No one knows what these spots are, but there is hope for a solution to the mystery: "When we combine images like this of the farside with composition and color data the spacecraft has already acquired but not yet sent to Earth, we expect to be able to read the history of this face of Pluto," says Moore.

 

[CinnamonOD]

Just read an article saying the spacecraft will reach Pluto tomorrow.

My body is ready

 

[Dennisch]

As soon as the heartshape comes into view and we get the high resolution pictures, it might be time for me to change avatar.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Pluto. It's bigger than Eris.

 

[niky]

It will take 10 weeks to download the full data set.

56k warning. Stupid WiFi.

Time to find a new ISP.

 

[Touring Mars]

The rest of the image data will be downlinked beginning in September, about 2 months after encounter. It will take 10 weeks to download the full data set.

ET Broadband is even slower than BT Broadband...

Really beautiful and exciting images coming from New Horizons... Pluto may not be a planet any longer, but its likely to be upgraded from awesome to majestic very soon...