Space In General

[wfooshee]

Meh. By the time that gets built we'll have multi-gigapixel dSLRs at Best Buy. Put on a 500mm lens with a teleconverter......

(Kidding. Probably.)

 

[Dotini]

RED SPRITES OVER EUROPE: As September begins, solar activity is low. Nevertheless, space weather continues. High above thunderstorms in Europe, red sprites are dancing across the cloudtops, reaching up to the edge of space itself. Martin Popek photographed these specimens on Sept. 1st from Nýdek, the Czech republic:



"I used a zoom lens for a close-up view of these sprites, which could just be seen over the treetops as they jumped upward from a distant storm," says Popek.

 

[CodeRedR51]

SpaceX is nearly ready to fly again, this time with some upgrades and they are determined to land a first stage booster before the year is out.

http://www.space.com/30431-spacex-f...=10153040839896466&adbpl=fb&adbpr=17610706465

 

[GTsail]

Alright, who left their soup spoon on Mars?

floating spoon on Mars

Please go back and dispose all utensils properly or you won't keep your seat for the upcoming trip to Saturn

 

[Dennisch]

 

[BobK]

According to the travelers' wristwatches, however, the time would be much less.

 

[Dennisch]

According to the travelers' wristwatches, however, the time would be much less.

To add this this:

The case of the travelling twins

 

[ProjectWHaT]

https://www.kth.se/en/aktuellt/nyheter/hawking-offers-new-solution-to-black-hole-mystery-1.586546

But Hawking's new idea is that the information doesn't make it inside the black hole at all. Instead, it's permanently encoded in a 2D hologram at the surface of the black hole's event horizon, or the field surrounding each black hole which represents its point of no return.

"The existence of alternative histories with black holes suggests this might be possible," Hawking said. "The hole would need to be large and if it was rotating it might have a passage to another universe. But you couldn't come back to our universe.

"So although I'm keen on space flight, I'm not going to try that."

--

 

[DCP]

That's crazy massive. Amazing.
How long to the nearest star based on current technology?

 

[PeterJB]

Probably several million years.

 

[Exorcet]

I think it's more in the thousands of years range. We're pretty terrible when it comes to human lifetime travel, but over cosmic scales, it's actually possible to get somewhere now.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Probably several million years.

I think it's more in the thousands of years range. We're pretty terrible when it comes to human lifetime travel, but over cosmic scales, it's actually possible to get somewhere now.

In between the two. Voyager will be halfway to a star in 40,000 years time. The Shuttle at max speed would take about 165,000 years to reach system Alpha Centauri.

 

[PeterJB]

Having completely ran out of power about 0.1% of the way into the journey.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Having completely ran out of power about 0.1% of the way into the journey.

That shouldn't be a problem, there's very little to deaccelerate it once it's reached the desired speed. Obviously it's going to sail right by its destination, but with cobweb-skull-people on board that shouldn't matter too much, it's the thought that counts.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

 

[Dotini]

SOLARSAURUS: An enormous cloud of plasma is rotating into view over the sun's eastern limb. Astrophotographer Alan Friedman calls it "solarsaurus." He took this picture from his backyard in Buffalo, NY, on Sept. 16th:



The dino-shaped cloud is held above the surface of the sun by solar magnetic fields. Stretching more than 600,000 km from end to end, it is truly enormous, by far the largest structure on the sun today.

Astronomers call this kind of magnetized cloud a "hedgerow prominence." NASA and Japanese space telescopes have taken high resolution images of of similar prominences and seen some amazing things such as (1) tadpole-shaped plumes that float up from the base of the prominence; (2) narrow streams of plasma that descend from the top like waterfalls; and (3) swirls and vortices that resemble van Gogh's Starry Night.

Got a solar telescope? Take a look!

 

[Touring Mars]

Got a solar telescope? Take a look!

I did get a chance to look at the Sun (and see some solar prominences) a couple of weeks ago when I was at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles...

Spectacular sight, though a solar telescope in Scotland is about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

 

[CodeRedR51]

More Pluto.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-wows-in-spectacular-new-backlit-panorama

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

That shouldn't be a problem, there's very little to deaccelerate it once it's reached the desired speed. Obviously it's going to sail right by its destination, but with cobweb-skull-people on board that shouldn't matter too much, it's the thought that counts.

You sir are sick sometimes...those power souls all but bones and dust now.

 

[Touring Mars]

You sir are sick sometimes...those power souls all but bones and dust now.

It is most likely the other way around. Depending on the rate of acceleration, a relativistic spaceship could reach near light speed in a relatively short time for the people on board, meaning that they could travel vast distances within a human lifetime, meanwhile millions of years would have passed for the rest of us back here on Earth. So while the travelers would still be quite happily exploring the universe in all its glory, the entire human race back on Earth would most likely have become extinct long ago. Have a nice day.

 

[TenEightyOne]

It is most likely the other way around. Depending on the rate of acceleration, a relativistic spaceship could reach near light speed in a relatively short time for the people on board, meaning that they could travel vast distances within a human lifetime, meanwhile millions of years would have passed for the rest of us back here on Earth. So while the travelers would still be quite happily exploring the universe in all its glory, the entire human race back on Earth would most likely have become extinct long ago. Have a nice day.

True, about 4.5 years at near light speed. While we're discussing it as a practical solution... it would have to be an exodus to work as an endeavour for humankind.

 

[Dennisch]

We need to master super mega ultra warp drive.

Edit.

Pluto.

I want to walk on that surface.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

True, about 4.5 years at near light speed. While we're discussing it as a practical solution... it would have to be an exodus to work as an endeavour for humankind.

Wrong sir, we just need help from the higher dimensional beings. Interstellar taught us this! (though I'm making fun I really do love that movie).

 

[Thematic]

I guess we'll see in under two weeks if this is an actual development: "Mars and back on a tank of fuel."

http://www.sciencealert.com/an-australian-student-has-smashed-nasa-s-fuel-efficiency-record

 

[TenEightyOne]

I guess we'll see in under two weeks if this is an actual development: "Mars and back on a tank of fuel."

http://www.sciencealert.com/an-australian-student-has-smashed-nasa-s-fuel-efficiency-record

Interesting! Not a one-size-fits-all solution, apparently, it would need to be paired with another initial propulsion system... but if the findings can be replicated in peer review then it's a real breakthrough.

Still, the future probably isn't in planet-launched starcraft but in orbiting "space docks" like ISS.

But while the Neumann Drive outperforms NASA’s HiPEP system when it comes to fuel efficiency, it falls short when it comes to acceleration, which means it probably wouldn't be ideal to power a spacecraft off a planet. But it could easily be paired with other propulsion systems to transport cargo and passengers over long distances without having to stop and refuel.

 

[CodeRedR51]

Anyone feel like landing a SpaceX first stage?

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/76...l&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

[wfooshee]

Interesting! Not a one-size-fits-all solution, apparently, it would need to be paired with another initial propulsion system....

Well, that's true of any ion thrust system. Not just a ground launch, but an injection out of planetary orbit, would need conventional rockets. We're talking accelerations of thousandths of a g for ion propulsion. Astronauts in an ion-thrusted spacecraft would not even feel that they were accelerating, they'd still feel weightless. OTOH, those few thousandths for a very long time, which is what ion engines are capable of, gets you where you need to be.

 

[CodeRedR51]

 

[Dotini]

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

 

[CodeRedR51]

NASA will announce a "major science finding" about Mars on Monday at 11:30am EDT.

http://go.nasa.gov/1LTWvji