CodeRedR51
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The last man to walk on the moon, Gene Cernan, has passed.
https://www.nasa.gov/astronautprofiles/cernan
https://www.nasa.gov/astronautprofiles/cernan
Space In General
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BobK
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http://usat.ly/2jVGbZ1
NASA planning mission to an asteroid worth $10,000 quadrillion
That's a pretty expensive chunk of rock/metal
NASA planning mission to an asteroid worth $10,000 quadrillion
That's a pretty expensive chunk of rock/metal
CodeRedR51
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I've been reading a lot about the Apollo missions recently, even had to watch Apollo 13 for about the millionth time of friday.
The Apollo 1 accident was said to be partially caused by the Command Module having a pure oxygen inside. Why was it a pure atmosphere instead of the normal makeup of Earth's atmosphere?
The Apollo 1 accident was said to be partially caused by the Command Module having a pure oxygen inside. Why was it a pure atmosphere instead of the normal makeup of Earth's atmosphere?
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Well boo, erroneously thought it was low pressure.
Ah, they were going to reduce the pressure to in-flight levels.
Last edited:
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The design was to be at 5 psi pure oxygen while in flight. However, to simulate the pressure difference against the capsule's interior and exterior surfaces NASA pumped Apollo 1 one up to a full atmosphere for the ground test. Pure oxygen at 5 psi mimics the amount of oxygen available outside, the atmospheric partial pressure of oxygen, and probably would have made no increase in any fire hazard over similar materials outside the capsule.
Pure oxygen versus nitrogen/oxygen mixture saved the weight of nitrogen storage tanks, weight they could not afford.
They stayed with pure oxygen, but never at full pressure, and they also had some serious redesign of the capsule materials and hatch, reducing flammable materials and making the hatch faster to open. (The original design required over 90 seconds, if memory serves.
I think they actually ended up with a mixed gas atmosphere for launch, which was bled down during launch to a 5 psi pure oxygen atmosphere once in space. The shuttle switched to mixed gases, as weight for nitrogen tanks was not such a severe penalty.
Pure oxygen versus nitrogen/oxygen mixture saved the weight of nitrogen storage tanks, weight they could not afford.
They stayed with pure oxygen, but never at full pressure, and they also had some serious redesign of the capsule materials and hatch, reducing flammable materials and making the hatch faster to open. (The original design required over 90 seconds, if memory serves.
I think they actually ended up with a mixed gas atmosphere for launch, which was bled down during launch to a 5 psi pure oxygen atmosphere once in space. The shuttle switched to mixed gases, as weight for nitrogen tanks was not such a severe penalty.
CodeRedR51
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The Right Stuff is another good early space race movie that I would recommend if you haven't seen it already.
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Just looked it up. Sounds interesting. Noticed Ed Harris is in it, as well. Definitely interested now. 👍
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Forgot about it until now, but today marks the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 1 accident, which astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed when a fire broke out during a test inside the Command Module.
The accident will always serve as an example of how dangerous spaceflight is, but it also shows just how far we've come in the last 50 years. We spent a decade putting a man on the moon, launched numerous shuttle missions, and built the International Space Station, and sent rovers to Mars, yet we still have so much more to discover. If the program would have died with the crew of Apollo 1, there's no telling when, or if, we would have made it to space. Luckily, NASA, and space agencies all over the world continue to inovate to push man's reach farther and farther beyond of out small, blue planet. Remembering the past, and here's to the future!
The accident will always serve as an example of how dangerous spaceflight is, but it also shows just how far we've come in the last 50 years. We spent a decade putting a man on the moon, launched numerous shuttle missions, and built the International Space Station, and sent rovers to Mars, yet we still have so much more to discover. If the program would have died with the crew of Apollo 1, there's no telling when, or if, we would have made it to space. Luckily, NASA, and space agencies all over the world continue to inovate to push man's reach farther and farther beyond of out small, blue planet. Remembering the past, and here's to the future!
Dotini
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Some believe President Trump's remark during his inaugural address, "We will unlock the mysteries of space", was a veiled reference to the hypothesized Planet X, sometimes referred to (feared) as Nibiru on the rumor net. We do have mysterious objects approaching according to NASA, but there is nothing to fear.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6712
An artist's rendition of 2016 WF9 as it passes Jupiter's orbit inbound toward the sun. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Full image and caption
NASA's NEOWISE mission has recently discovered some celestial objects traveling through our neighborhood, including one on the blurry line between asteroid and comet. Another--definitely a comet--might be seen with binoculars through next week.
An object called 2016 WF9 was detected by the NEOWISE project on Nov. 27, 2016. It's in an orbit that takes it on a scenic tour of our solar system. At its farthest distance from the sun, it approaches Jupiter's orbit. Over the course of 4.9 Earth-years, it travels inward, passing under the main asteroid belt and the orbit of Mars until it swings just inside Earth's own orbit. After that, it heads back toward the outer solar system. Objects in these types of orbits have multiple possible origins; it might once have been a comet, or it could have strayed from a population of dark objects in the main asteroid belt.
2016 WF9 will approach Earth's orbit on Feb. 25, 2017. At a distance of nearly 32 million miles (51 million kilometers) from Earth, this pass will not bring it particularly close. The trajectory of 2016 WF9 is well understood, and the object is not a threat to Earth for the foreseeable future.
A different object, discovered by NEOWISE a month earlier, is more clearly a comet, releasing dust as it nears the sun. This comet, C/2016 U1 NEOWISE, "has a good chance of becoming visible through a good pair of binoculars, although we can't be sure because a comet's brightness is notoriously unpredictable," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
As seen from the northern hemisphere during the first week of 2017, comet C/2016 U1 NEOWISE will be in the southeastern sky shortly before dawn. It is moving farther south each day and it will reach its closest point to the sun, inside the orbit of Mercury, on Jan. 14, before heading back out to the outer reaches of the solar system for an orbit lasting thousands of years. While it will be visible to skywatchers at Earth, it is not considered a threat to our planet either.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6712
An artist's rendition of 2016 WF9 as it passes Jupiter's orbit inbound toward the sun. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Full image and caption
NASA's NEOWISE mission has recently discovered some celestial objects traveling through our neighborhood, including one on the blurry line between asteroid and comet. Another--definitely a comet--might be seen with binoculars through next week.
An object called 2016 WF9 was detected by the NEOWISE project on Nov. 27, 2016. It's in an orbit that takes it on a scenic tour of our solar system. At its farthest distance from the sun, it approaches Jupiter's orbit. Over the course of 4.9 Earth-years, it travels inward, passing under the main asteroid belt and the orbit of Mars until it swings just inside Earth's own orbit. After that, it heads back toward the outer solar system. Objects in these types of orbits have multiple possible origins; it might once have been a comet, or it could have strayed from a population of dark objects in the main asteroid belt.
2016 WF9 will approach Earth's orbit on Feb. 25, 2017. At a distance of nearly 32 million miles (51 million kilometers) from Earth, this pass will not bring it particularly close. The trajectory of 2016 WF9 is well understood, and the object is not a threat to Earth for the foreseeable future.
A different object, discovered by NEOWISE a month earlier, is more clearly a comet, releasing dust as it nears the sun. This comet, C/2016 U1 NEOWISE, "has a good chance of becoming visible through a good pair of binoculars, although we can't be sure because a comet's brightness is notoriously unpredictable," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
As seen from the northern hemisphere during the first week of 2017, comet C/2016 U1 NEOWISE will be in the southeastern sky shortly before dawn. It is moving farther south each day and it will reach its closest point to the sun, inside the orbit of Mercury, on Jan. 14, before heading back out to the outer reaches of the solar system for an orbit lasting thousands of years. While it will be visible to skywatchers at Earth, it is not considered a threat to our planet either.
BobK
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Tired Tyres
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Dotini
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A spooky edition from spaceweather.com (NASA)
A HOLE IN THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE: A large, canyon-shaped hole has opened in the sun's atmosphere, and it is spewing a stream of solar wind directly toward Earth. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the structure, which stretches more than halfway across the face of the sun:
This is a "coronal hole" (CH)--a region where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. NASA's STEREO spacecraft recently sampled the stream flowing from this hole and the velocity was unusually high: nearly 750 km/s. Such a fast-moving stream will likely spark Arctic auroras when it arrives on Feb. 1st. Stay tuned! Free: Aurora alerts.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
A VISIT FROM THE ANCESTORS: "Things are getting spooky around the Arctic Circle," reports Markus Varik. Last night, he photographed this apparition over Tromsø, Norway:
"According to the local indigenous Sami people, Northern Lights represent the souls of ancestors. When teased, the spirits descend and pick up the teaser--never to be seen again," says Varik. "Working as a seasoned Northern Lights guide, I have done my fair share of teasing. This time, luckily, I was released after a short inspection."
In addition to teasing, another factor may have played a role in conjuring these auroras: Earth passed through a fold in the heliospheric current sheet. Many people have never heard of the heliospheric current sheet, yet it is one of the biggest things in the solar system--a vast undulating system of electrical currents shaped like the skirt of a ballerina. Earth dips in and out of it all the time. These crossings are called "solar sector boundary crossings," and they have been known to spark bright Arctic lights.
A HOLE IN THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE: A large, canyon-shaped hole has opened in the sun's atmosphere, and it is spewing a stream of solar wind directly toward Earth. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the structure, which stretches more than halfway across the face of the sun:
This is a "coronal hole" (CH)--a region where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. NASA's STEREO spacecraft recently sampled the stream flowing from this hole and the velocity was unusually high: nearly 750 km/s. Such a fast-moving stream will likely spark Arctic auroras when it arrives on Feb. 1st. Stay tuned! Free: Aurora alerts.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
A VISIT FROM THE ANCESTORS: "Things are getting spooky around the Arctic Circle," reports Markus Varik. Last night, he photographed this apparition over Tromsø, Norway:
"According to the local indigenous Sami people, Northern Lights represent the souls of ancestors. When teased, the spirits descend and pick up the teaser--never to be seen again," says Varik. "Working as a seasoned Northern Lights guide, I have done my fair share of teasing. This time, luckily, I was released after a short inspection."
In addition to teasing, another factor may have played a role in conjuring these auroras: Earth passed through a fold in the heliospheric current sheet. Many people have never heard of the heliospheric current sheet, yet it is one of the biggest things in the solar system--a vast undulating system of electrical currents shaped like the skirt of a ballerina. Earth dips in and out of it all the time. These crossings are called "solar sector boundary crossings," and they have been known to spark bright Arctic lights.
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Here's a direct link. It should work like this 100% CLICK
Dotini
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No manned flight to low Earth orbit from either SpaceX or Boeing is expected before mid-2018, at the earliest. Manned trips to the Moon or Mars are fun to dream about, but won't come about for many years, even decades to come, IMO.
Enlarge / A draft of a forthcoming GAO report raises concerns about turbopumps in the Falcon 9's Merlin engines.
SpaceX
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A draft of a US Congressional report into NASA's commercial crew program has found technical problems with both SpaceX's and Boeing's efforts to provide transport to the International Space Station...
https://arstechnica.com/science/201...sts-worry-spacex-engines-are-prone-to-cracks/
Enlarge / A draft of a forthcoming GAO report raises concerns about turbopumps in the Falcon 9's Merlin engines.
SpaceX
124
A draft of a US Congressional report into NASA's commercial crew program has found technical problems with both SpaceX's and Boeing's efforts to provide transport to the International Space Station...
https://arstechnica.com/science/201...sts-worry-spacex-engines-are-prone-to-cracks/
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No manned flight to low Earth orbit from either SpaceX or Boeing is expected before mid-2018, at the earliest. Manned trips to the Moon or Mars are fun to dream about, but won't come about for many years, even decades to come, IMO.
Enlarge / A draft of a forthcoming GAO report raises concerns about turbopumps in the Falcon 9's Merlin engines.
SpaceX
124
A draft of a US Congressional report into NASA's commercial crew program has found technical problems with both SpaceX's and Boeing's efforts to provide transport to the International Space Station...
https://arstechnica.com/science/201...sts-worry-spacex-engines-are-prone-to-cracks/
That's not at all good.
CodeRedR51
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SpaceX Targets Feb. 18 for 1st Launch from Historic NASA Pad
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Venerian (as opposed to generic) hardware for the win:
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...lectronics-for-longer-venus-surface-missions/
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...lectronics-for-longer-venus-surface-missions/
CodeRedR51
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Because of the pressure-change complications in nitrogen mixes. They'd led to serious incidents before as the human body isn't very good at storing/processing the stuff (as with deep-sea divers).
High pressure. It was intended to drive out any nitrogenated air, it also had a function in pushing the hatches shut. The high pressure was one of the reasons that technicians were unable to get into the module during the "rescue".
