Space Stuff and Launch Info

Due to the constant never ending supply of "cool stuff" happening in Aerospace these days I'm creating this thread to consolidate posts every time something new comes along. Please feel free to add random information if its relevant. So to start things off here is the SpaceX Dragon launch coming up shortly, I'll be following up afterwards to see how it all goes.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacex/

http://spaceflight101.com/dragon-spx-9-launch-success/

Moving right along, this is a great write up with a lot of potential.
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2016/20160718-horizon-goal-part-1.html
As a side note, the first image of the Columbia crew in the article is taken from a piece of digital tape recovered after the crash. This tape has some interesting footage of the reentry, If anyone knows where (website or whatever) this can be viewed could you please let me know, thanks.
( the footage is of the reentry plasma flashes not the actual crash)
Also along with the other experiments on CRS9
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/more-th...t-bound-for-station-following-blazing-liftoff
This cool device. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36824897

And the K2 mission has had a very good day.
http://phys.org/news/2016-07-kepler-planets-trove.html

1oldman2 said:

This tape has some interesting footage of the reentry...(the footage is of the reentry plasma flashes not the actual crash)

This is probably the best quality one... that I have seen.

Also, click the "SHOW MORE" box for some explanation...

OCR said:

This is probably the best quality one... that I have seen.

Also, click the "SHOW MORE" box for some explanation...

Excellent, that's the one I was thinking of. It's hard not to get a sense of impending doom as that plays.
Here is a pretty cool view of the latest ISS crew arrival, this is the roughest docking I have ever watched.


Thought I'd throw in this one also.

One down...http://spaceflight101.com/progress-ms-03-links-up-with-iss-for-orbital-cargo-delivery/
A cool view,

One to go,
From https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2016/07/19/dragon-prepares-for-wednesday-morning-arrival/
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv.
"The International Space Station and SpaceX Dragon flight control teams are proceeding toward
rendezvous and grapple of the unpiloted Dragon cargo craft Wednesday, July 20, following
Monday’s launch of the spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Sta-
tion in Florida.

Capture of Dragon is scheduled at 7 a.m. EDT. Installation of the Dragon to the Earth-facing
port of the Harmony module will begin several hours later."

From https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/2016/07/20/dragon-arrives-at-station-with-docking-adapter/


From http://spaceflight101.com/worldview-2-earth-imaging-satellite-involved-in-space-debris-event/
The WorldView-2 satellite in operation by
DigitalGlobe was involved in a debris-
causing event on Tuesday liberating at
least eight pieces of unknown size, the
Joint Space Operations Center reported.

This is some interesting "space & stuff", the theory on the cause is great reading, some fascinating physics going on there.
from, http://www.nasa.gov/feature/jupiter-s-great-red-spot-likely-a-massive-heat-source
NASA's Juno spacecraft , which recently arrived at Jupiter, will have several opportunities during its
20-month mission to observe the Great Red Spot and the turbulent region surrounding it. Juno will
peer hundreds of miles downward into the atmosphere with its microwave radiometer, which passively
senses heat coming from within the planet. This capability will enable Juno to reveal the deep
structure of the Great Red Spot, along with other prominent Jovian features, such as the colorful
cloud bands.

The study, in the July 27 issue of the journal Nature, concludes that the storm in the Great Red Spot
produces two kinds of turbulent energy waves that collide and heat the upper atmosphere. Gravity
waves are much like how a guitar string moves when plucked, while acoustic waves are compressions
of the air (sound waves). Heating in the upper atmosphere 500 miles (800 kilometers) above the
Great Red Spot is thought to be caused by a combination of these two wave types crashing, like
ocean waves on a beach.

http://www.space.com/33551-jupiter-heats-up-great-red-spot.html
http://www.space.com/33566-jupiter-s-great-red-spot-blasting-heat-into-upper-atmosphere-video.html

Here is a bit of an anomaly in the "star formation department". A stellar nursery without the nursery.
From, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.p..._campaign=NASAJPL&utm_content=daily20160727-1

"When CX330 was last viewed in August 2015, it was still outbursting.
Astronomers plan to continue studying the object, including with future
telescopes that could view it in other wavelengths of light."

"Most puzzling to astronomers, FU Orionis and the rare objects like it -- there
are only about 10 of them -- are located in star-forming regions. Young stars
usually form and feed from their surrounding gas and dust-rich regions in
star-forming clouds. By contrast, the region of star formation closest to CX330
is over a thousand light-years away."

Also good news for the ExoMars mission, they are on track for an orbital insertion, October 19th.
http://spaceflight101.com/exomars-2016-dsm-1/

Also,

This is very promising, I think the government cooperating with private industries is going to do wonders for advancing science. The "I got mine sorry about yours" mindset is one of the biggest hurdles we face developing in technologies, I'm hoping this trend catches on in an international way.
"From, https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/07/29/nasa-spells-out-support-for-spacexs-red-dragon-mars-mission/

Manning said SpaceX has already shared data from their Falcon 9 booster stages, which fire up their
Merlin engines for a series of re-entry and landing burns. The rocket conducts those maneuvers while
flying at up to 4,000 mph (6,300 kilometers per hour), depending on each launch’s specific profile.

We find out that, indeed, it’s possible to do, to fly your engines backwards, and all the mysteries we
thought about flying your engines backwards have really gone away," Manning said. "One of the things
we thought is, so what are the dynamics? What is the flow? Is the vehicle going to be batted around by
this high-speed flow? Well, it turns out that thrusters actually produce a vacuum bubble around the
vehicle, and it looks terrible on the outside... But it looks great on the inside."

Here is some interesting information on Io's atmosphere.
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-research-reveals-fluctuating-atmosphere-of-jupiter-s-volcanic-moon

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/esa-nasa-s-soho-sees-bright-sungrazer-comet
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/sdo-status


I hadn't heard of this one, should make a nice companion for JWST
From, http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasas-tess-the-next-exoplanet-explorer
Among the stars TESS will observe, small bright dwarf stars are ideal for planet identification,
explained Joshua Pepper, co-chair of the TESS Target Selection Working Group. One of the TESS
science goals is to find Earth- and super-Earth-sized planets. These are difficult to discover
because of their small size compared to their host stars, but focusing TESS on smaller stars makes
finding these small planets much easier. This is because the fraction of the host star's light that a
planet blocks is proportional to the planet’s size.

From, http://www.planetary.org/explore/sp...tunity-nears-end-of-marathon-valley-tour.html

"Along the way, the rover that loves to rove has
broken robot records and established new
milestones, including finishing the first marathon
and becoming the longest-lived robot on another
planet years after surviving a planet encircling dust
storm she wasn’t designed to survive. The MER
ops team in the process has become the tightest,
most experienced Mars rover team on Earth. And
now the mission is getting ready to embark on
what ultimately may be the most exciting
adventure of all."

"The rover planners at JPL will drive Opportunity
down steep, rugged slopes, and over more Martian
hills and dales to places where geological features
beckon the scientists, rousing visions of discovery
that dance in their heads. First, the rover has a
little more work to do to wrap the science
campaign in Marathon Valley."

"We saw some higher than expected currents and out
of an abundance of caution we did some diagnostics,"
said Seibert. "With a 12-and-a-half year old rover,
we don't cowboy it if we see something on the drive
train behaving out of bounds."

Marathon Valley.

This study really surprised me, I never imagined a Venus with these kind of conditions.
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard...deling-suggests-venus-may-have-been-habitable
http://phys.org/news/2016-08-nasa-climate-venus-habitable.html

It appears China's lunar rover is in a sort of "Schrodinger's box, http://spaceflight101.com/chinese-yutu-moon-rover-pronounced-dead/" or http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2016/08100543-yutu-is-not-dead-probably.html We may have to wait for Lunar morning when its wave function may or may not collapse.

I also found this to be an interesting "long term look" at future programs as well as the way they are funded. http://www.space.com/33694-could-commercial-space-solve-the-astronomy-funding-wall.html

Here's some useful info for anyone wanting to watch the jcsat-16 launch landing this evening.
https://spacexstats.com/missions/jcsat-16

1oldman2 said:

Here's some useful info for anyone wanting to watch the jcsat-16 launch landing this evening.
https://spacexstats.com/missions/jcsat-16

Quantum com satellites, this is going to catch on fast.
From, http://spaceflight101.com/qss-launch-success/
China sent a ground breaking
scientific experiment into orbit on
Monday to build the foundation for
secure communications technology of
the future.

The Quantum Science Satellite -
nicknamed Micius - is the first
spacecraft to establish quantum
communications between space and
Earth by creating entangled photon
pairs over great distances and testing
the principles of quantum teleportation.

Very interesting ...

rootone said:

Very interesting ...

Yes, very, I didn't know Quantum networks were to this point.

The install of the IDA-2 is going well at the ISS, http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv
This is video of the removal from the Dragon.


Cool view of Mars in this video link
.

From,http://www.space.com/33792-venus-jupiter-conjunction.html
"On Saturday, Aug. 27, skywatchers will get a chance to see Venus and
Jupiter paired in an extremely close configuration. For viewers in parts of the
United States and Canada, the two planets will almost appear to touch,
caught passing each other like two ships in the twilight."

What am I missing here ? From, http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/hubble-investigates-stellar-shrapnel
Several thousand years ago, a star some 160,000 light-years away from us exploded, scattering
stellar shrapnel across the sky. The aftermath of this energetic detonation is shown here in this
striking image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3.

Shouldn't the light from a star 160,000 light years away take more than several thousand years to reach us ?

From, http://www.space.com/33795-cosmic-voids-fill-in-blanks-universe-mysteries.html

By analyzing the giant voids of the cosmos, scientists now have more precise
maps of matter in the universe, a new study finds.

This strategy of looking at what's not there (as opposed to what's actually
present) might help solve cosmic mysteries such as the nature of dark matter
and dark energy, and whether or not extra forces of the universe exist,
scientists added.

Astronomy mostly focuses on what telescopes can see - everything from
stars to planets to moons to asteroids and comets. However, previous
research discovered that the universe is mostly composed of large, relatively
empty domains known as cosmic voids, while galaxies are mostly scattered
across the boundaries of these voids, forming a vast cosmic web.This sounds very cool.
From, http://www.satellitetoday.com/nexts...l-reality-camera-satellite-locks-2017-launch/

SpaceVR aims to give subscribers the opportunity to experience the universe through virtual reality.
Its debut satellite will use 4K sensors to capture high-resolution, fully immersive, 360-degree video
of Earth, and the content will be viewable on any virtual reality device, including smartphones,
Oculus Rift, and extreme resolution devices such as the StarVR.

1oldman2 said:

Shouldn't the light from a star 160,000 light years away take more than several thousand years to reach us ?

Well the term 'several thousand' is vague alright, but I suppose 160k years does qualify as such.
The image we are seeing is of course the state of things somewhat later in time than the original detonation itself

1oldman2 said:

Quantum com satellites, this is going to catch on fast.
From, http://spaceflight101.com/qss-launch-success/
China sent a ground breaking
scientific experiment into orbit on
Monday to build the foundation for
secure communications technology of
the future.

The Quantum Science Satellite -
nicknamed Micius - is the first
spacecraft to establish quantum
communications between space and
Earth by creating entangled photon
pairs over great distances and testing
the principles of quantum teleportation.

They really don't want to get hacked? :)

Highest angular resolution image ever from space?

http://www.iaa.es/content/highest-angular-resolution-image-astronomy-reveals-insides-galactic-nucleus

“Combining for the first time ground-based radio telescopes with the space radio telescope of the RadioAstron mission, operating at its maximum resolution, has allowed our team to imitate an antenna with a size of eight times the Earth’s diameter, corresponding to about twenty microarcseconds”

I've read this is only good enough to resolve a half-dollar coin on the surface of the Moon... doesn't sound very impressive for someone who dreams of being able to see exoplanets in their full glory. Our resolutions will remain appallingly poor until we come up with some kind of orbital interferometer.

Hoophy said:

They really don't want to get hacked? :)

Hi Hoophy, I'm thinking the quantum comsats are another "brick in the wall" of the militarization of the "ultimate high ground". getting your system hacked could only be useful if one wished to disseminate disinformation or otherwise confuse an opponent, Its been a sad fact for much of history that technology and a lot of scientific development in general have been driven by military goals and quantum communication is just another example. As an example take a look at http://www.space.com/33800-air-force-surveillance-satellites-launch-afspc-6.html and let me know your thoughts on that missions ultimate purpose, In the event of a major conflict I have a feeling its going to be "Open season" on ComSats and related infrastructure.

rollete said:

Highest angular resolution image ever from space?

This is a very impressive project, thanks for post. The virtual VLBI system is intriguing to say the least and I'm curious to see just how far this technology can be pushed, I would also like to say thanks for the link to the site, it was new to me and you can be sure its in my bookmark folder now.
After reading the article I naturally have a lot of new questions and will likely be returning to comment your post in the near future as I get to look into the subject a little more thoroughly, for example the term "Active galactic nuclei" is new to me and the first thought that comes to mind is, is this a new name for a Quasar or what ?

rollete said:

Our resolutions will remain appallingly poor until we come up with some kind of orbital interferometer.

If missions proceed as planned I believe the next 20 to 30 years of next generation space based telescopes along with the projects in the Atacama as well LISA etc. are going to give us resolution to spare, as well as a challenging amount of data to process.

1oldman2 said:

the term "Active galactic nuclei" is new to me and the first thought that comes to mind is, is this a new name for a Quasar or what ?

It's just the center of an active galaxy. Quasars are the most powerful AGNs.

I'm no expert; I just scavenge stuff from Wikipedia.

rollete said:

I'm no expert; I just scavenge stuff from Wikipedia.

Cool, that's pretty much my situation also.

This is an excellent example of the "out of box" thinking going on in Aerospace currently. If it
can be done practically the benefits are obviously going to change the way we look at long term
missions in general.
From,http://www.satellitetoday.com/nexts...-conversion-rocket-upper-stages-leo-habitats/
The Ixion Team proposes demonstrating this low-cost concept via the conversion of a Centaur
rocket upper stage, which will be attached to the International Space Station (ISS). The Ixion Team
will leverage the habitat as a proving ground for a variety of private-sector activities.This is a big improvement in solar power generation from the people who supplied Juno with its solar cells.
From, http://www.satellitetoday.com/publi...-new-high-efficiency- spacecraft -solar-cell/
[Via Satellite 08-02-2016] Boeing
subsidiary Spectrolab has created a new
space solar cell achieving an energy
efficiency of 30.7 percent. This efficiency-
the metric for how much sunlight a cell
can convert into usable energy - is higher
than any other comparable model
currently available, according to the
company.

Spectrolab has started manufacturing the
solar cell, known as XTJ Prime, with first
delivery expected later this year. The cells
are designed to benefit aerospace
customers seeking to produce lower mass
and lower cost satellites.

It appears the market for small satellite launching is about to hit a growth spurt.
From, http://interactive.satellitetoday.c...timistic-about-micro-launchers-possibilities/
https://www.rocketlabusa.com/

A "lost and found" story.
From,http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/saving-nasas-stereo-b-the-189-million-mile-road-to-recovery

December 11, 2015
On Oct. 1, 2014, NASA mission operations lost communication with one of
the two spacecraft of the Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory,
or STEREO, mission, just as the spacecraft was about to orbit around
the other side of the sun. Though they haven’t heard from the Behind
spacecraft , also known as STEREO-B, in over a year, the spacecraft has
finally emerged into a region where it can once again receive radio
signals. Scientists have a plan to get it back-and their chances
only get better with time...

Fast forward

From, http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-establishes-contact-with-stereo-mission

On Aug. 21, 2016, contact was reestablished with
one of NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations
Observatories, known as the STEREO-B spacecraft ,
after communications were lost on Oct. 1, 2014. Over
22 months, the STEREO team has worked to attempt
contact with the spacecraft . Most recently, they have
attempted a monthly recovery operation using
NASA's Deep Space Network, or DSN, which tracks
and communicates with missions throughout space.

The DSN established a lock on the STEREO-B
downlink carrier at 6:27 p.m. EDT. The downlink
signal was monitored by the Mission Operations team
over several hours to characterize the attitude of the
spacecraft and then transmitter high voltage was
powered down to save battery power. The STEREO
Missions Operations team plans further recovery
processes to assess observatory health, re-establish
attitude control, and evaluate all subsystems and
instruments.

Communications with STEREO-B were lost during a test
of the spacecraft ’s command loss timer, a hard reset
that is triggered after the spacecraft goes without
communications from Earth for 72 hours. The STEREO team
was testing this function in preparation for something
known as solar conjunction, when STEREO-B’s line of
sight to Earth-and therefore all communication -
was blocked by the sun.

STEREO-A continues to work normally.

1oldman2 said:

What am I missing here ? From, http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/hubble-investigates-stellar-shrapnel
Several thousand years ago, a star some 160,000 light-years away from us exploded, scattering
stellar shrapnel across the sky. The aftermath of this energetic detonation is shown here in this
striking image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3.
View attachment 104939
Shouldn't the light from a star 160,000 light years away take more than several thousand years to reach us ?

That image shows the remnants of a type IA supernova, several thousand years after the supernova occurred. Another way to put it: The light from the supernova itself reached the Earth several thousand years ago.

D H said:

That image shows the remnants of a type IA supernova, several thousand years after the supernova occurred. Another way to put it: The light from the supernova itself reached the Earth several thousand years ago.

Thanks, my education continues.

A little info on the upcoming OSIRIS mission Due for launch on 9/8/16
From, http://spaceflight101.com/osiris-rex/

The study of an asteroid and the return of sample material was deemed a critical goal for space
exploration because asteroids can be considered time capsules from the birth and early formation
of the Solar System. The ancient Carbon-containing material on Bennu and other early bodies of
the solar system was a key in the formation of organic molecules delivered to Earth by
bombardment of meteorites.

The acronym OSIRIS references the Egyptian mythological god Osiris,
the lord of the dead roaming the underworld. This name was chosen
for the mission as asteroid Bennu is a potential Earth-impactor
capable of bringing vast destruction and death. Rex is the Latin
word for king.

The prime goal of the mission is the collection of a sample by making
contact with the asteroid and acquiring anywhere between 60 grams and
2 kilos of material to be returned to Earth in a Sample Return Capsule.
Prior to sample collection, OSIRIS-REx is tasked with a remote sensing
campaign lasting over a year during which the remaining objectives of
the mission will be assessed.



I though I'd throw this in also.
How does one degauss a spacecraft in orbit?
From,http://www.space.com/33815-probes-spot-radiation-belt-zap.html

A probe swinging around Earth through the Van Allen radiation belts was able
to pick out near-light-speed electrons following a powerful geomagnetic
storm, providing a rare look into the interaction between the belts and the
space weather event. A new NASA video explores the shocking phenomenon.

The probe witnessed the aftermath of what NASA called "the greatest
geomagnetic storm of the preceding decade," when the sun expelled a burst
of charged particles, called a coronal mass ejection, toward Earth in 2015.
The interplanetary zap hit Earth's radiation belts right when a NASA probe
was passing through, offering a rare glimpse of the event's impact.

The spacecraft observed a pulse of electrons energized to near-light speed
as the coronal mass ejection slammed into the Earth's magnetic field. The
initial energy event lasted only a few minutes, but while both probes found an
increased population of high-energy electrons in the belts days later, only one
caught the initial effects of the solar storm.

Eyes on ESO's press conference tomorrow. There's been a lot of talk about a potentially exciting discovery. Hopefully it's true.

Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star

http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1629/

"Astronomers using ESO telescopes and other facilities have found clear evidence of a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri. The long-sought world, designated Proxima b, orbits its cool red parent star every 11 days and has a temperature suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. This rocky world is a little more massive than the Earth and is the closest exoplanet to us — and it may also be the closest possible abode for life outside the Solar System."

Might be tidally locked, though. Breakthrough Starshot may get a new boost, nonetheless.