The Space Thread

[Lee909]

Thought NASA had ditched all this stuff and everyone in space was gonna be Indian?

I was under the impression that the US government had told NASA they wouldn't fund any return to the moon and they had to look towards Mars. Could be wrong though.

 

I seriously hope they put a man on Mars in my lifetime. I can only imagine the what it was like for the lunar landings and would love to watch a landing on Mars.

[Dougie Do'ins]

By a non light polluted area, do you mean where there's no pollution or where there is?

 

In a non light polluted area (ie no street or urbanisation lighting) it would be excellent. Even with some light pollution about, it would still be very good on a clear night.

Yeah meant light polluted area. 

[ratcatcher]

Yeah meant light polluted area. 

 

It would still be good unless you were in the middle of say a city.

 

Light pollution affects the ability to see objects lower down in the night sky. So, if you're unlucky to live where there is heavy light pollution, you'll only be able to see really bright objects low down in the sky or those higher up ie over head almost. But those higher up above the horizon will still be viewable.

 

Obviously, the less low cloud at night reduces light pollution as there is less fr it to reflect off.

[ratcatcher]

I was under the impression that the US government had told NASA they wouldn't fund any return to the moon and they had to look towards Mars. Could be wrong though.

 

I seriously hope they put a man on Mars in my lifetime. I can only imagine the what it was like for the lunar landings and would love to watch a landing on Mars.

 

Im not sure there's a US committment to return to the Moon directly. I think the proposals are visit an asteroid, maybe capture one and bring it to lunar orbit and return loop to Mars before any landing there.

 

They lost an awful lot of momentum and knowledge when they canned Apollo. Its going to take a hell of a lot of re learning for any flight to Mars.

[Bjornebye]

They are currently painting a small part of the Arizona desert red so you will get your landing broadcast soon enough

 

We know what its like on mars. Birds with 3 tits and no johnny cabs

[Lee909]

I should hopefully have 50 years if I live as long as my grandad so there is hope.

 

My knowledge on the subject is limited but I do not understand why you would not revist the moon. Nobody has stepped foot on the moon in over 40 years so you would think attempting a takeoff, landing and return flight on a closer moon/planet would be a idea before a trip to Mars. Its not like you properly replicate a training program with the same pressure's on earth.

[Dougie Do'ins]

I should hopefully have 50 years if I live as long as my grandad so there is hope.

 

My knowledge on the subject is limited but I do not understand why you would not revist the moon. Nobody has stepped foot on the moon in over 40 years so you would think attempting a takeoff, landing and return flight on a closer moon/planet would be a idea before a trip to Mars. Its not like you properly replicate a training program with the same pressure's on earth.

I find it odd that what with the advances in technology since the last moon landing, nobody has returned. Thought by now there would be some sort of base on there.

[ratcatcher]

I should hopefully have 50 years if I live as long as my grandad so there is hope.

 

My knowledge on the subject is limited but I do not understand why you would not revist the moon. Nobody has stepped foot on the moon in over 40 years so you would think attempting a takeoff, landing and return flight on a closer moon/planet would be a idea before a trip to Mars. Its not like you properly replicate a training program with the same pressure's on earth.

 

I think it tends to be the 'been there, done that, what's new' type thinking plus, getting to the Moon was a political objective rather than an exploratory one at least initially.

 

No doubt one day, some form of commercial mining will take place on the Moon but strange as it may seem, people want to do something different with a whole new budget rather than visit somewhere they've been before.

 

We've missed a massive opportunity sticking to low Earth orbit for decades and like any project, the longer you leave something before you start, the cost is massively inflated when you do get around to doing it.

[Tyler Durden]

I think they have just looked past the moon now, maybe for the cost it's not worth having a base there when they could potentially put one on Mars which is more long term thinking. Actually even thinking about it by the time they set a base up in Mars it will priobably be 100 years from now. Depressing really that we won't see anything like that, our lives really are an insignificant fart when comparing to timescales in space

[General Dryness]

They are currently painting a small part of the Arizona desert red so you will get your landing broadcast soon enough

 

We know what its like on mars. Birds with 3 tits and no johnny cabs

 

See you at the party, Richter.

[BCM]

I think it tends to be the 'been there, done that, what's new' type thinking plus, getting to the Moon was a political objective rather than an exploratory one at least initially.

 

No doubt one day, some form of commercial mining will take place on the Moon but strange as it may seem, people want to do something different with a whole new budget rather than visit somewhere they've been before.

 

We've missed a massive opportunity sticking to low Earth orbit for decades and like any project, the longer you leave something before you start, the cost is massively inflated when you do get around to doing it.

 

I would love to see them go back to the moon. I would love to see proper good footage of the surface for a good few hours. Instead of a couple of grainy pictures of Neil Armstrong.

[ratcatcher]

Martian meteorite contains traces of biological carbon?

 

http://www.cnet.com/news/martian-meteorite-may-contain-evidence-of-extraterrestrial-life/

 

Tissint landed in the desert of Guelmim-Es Semara, Morocco, on July 18, 2011. It was thrown from the surface of Mars by an asteroid collision some 700,000 years ago -- and there is no other meteorite quite like it. The 7-11 kilogram grey rock -- seared glassy black on the outside by the heat of entry, called a fusion crust -- showed evidence of water. It was riddled with tiny fissures, into which water had deposited material.

This material, on analysis, turned out to be an organic carbon compound -- one that was biological in origin. It is not the only meteorite in which organic carbon has been found, but the debate has always centered on whether the carbon was deposited before or after the meteorite in question landed on Earth -- to wit, whether it is terrestrial or extraterrestrial in origin.

A team of researchers studied the organic carbon found in the fissures of Tissint and determined that it is not of this world.

There are several points of evidence put forward by the team. First, there was a relatively short timeframe between when the meteorite was observed falling to Earth and when it was collected.

The second is that the microscopic fissures in the rock would have had to have been produced by a sudden high heat -- such as, for example, the heat of atmospheric entry. This shock, and the temperatures required to open the fissures, could not have come from the Moroccan desert.

Thirdly, some of the carbon grains inside Tissint had hardened into diamond. There are no known conditions under which this could have occurred on the surface of the Moroccan desert -- and certainly not in the time it took between the meteorite's fall and discovery.

A piece of Tissint, showing the glassy fusion crust and grey interior.

[Rico1304]

Check out the video from the test of the launch abort system. You really wouldn't want to be on that ride.

 

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2014/20141020-orions-launch-abort-system.html

[Guest davelfc]

I think they should just fake a trip to Mars, even if they spend billions upon billions getting a man to Mars, there will still be a fair percentage of tards on YouTube spouting about how it was faked.

 

I think spending that money on alternative forms of energy would be a much better way to spend it anyway. Even though I just about remember the moon landings and have seen a few shuttle launches.

 

Let's get our own shit fixed before we spunk money on flights of fancy. We already have a Mars rover, waste of cash is my opinion, at this time.

[ratcatcher]

I think that's probably the worst suggestion Ive ever read.

[Tyler Durden]

I think they should just fake a trip to Mars, even if they spend billions upon billions getting a man to Mars, there will still be a fair percentage of tards on YouTube spouting about how it was faked.

I think spending that money on alternative forms of energy would be a much better way to spend it anyway. Even though I just about remember the moon landings and have seen a few shuttle launches.

Let's get our own shit fixed before we spunk money on flights of fancy. We already have a Mars rover, waste of cash is my opinion, at this time.

If people stood around trying to fix all of mans problems (lots of which are man made anyway) at the expense of exploration we'd probably still be living in caves. Who's to say investigating things like asteroids couldn't lead to the entire species being saved in the event of a (possible) collision?

[Rico1304]

I think they should just fake a trip to Mars, even if they spend billions upon billions getting a man to Mars, there will still be a fair percentage of tards on YouTube spouting about how it was faked.

I think spending that money on alternative forms of energy would be a much better way to spend it anyway. Even though I just about remember the moon landings and have seen a few shuttle launches.

Let's get our own shit fixed before we spunk money on flights of fancy. We already have a Mars rover, waste of cash is my opinion, at this time.

Isnt there something like a 5:1 return on money invested in space exploration?

[ratcatcher]

Isnt there something like a 5:1 return on money invested in space exploration?

 

Kinell, where can I invest!?

[Section_31]

If they found an energy source on Mars, we'd be launching an expedition there inside the next ten years, guaranteed.

[ratcatcher]

If they found an energy source on Mars, we'd be launching an expedition there inside the next ten years, guaranteed.

 

They dont need to. There's one spread all over the Moon's surface. Called Helium 3 or something similar. There's none here on Earth because the ozone or magnetic sphere stops it forming but as the Moon has neither, the stuff is scattered all over the gaff.

[ratcatcher]

Astrophile: The outermost ocean in the solar system

• 17:15 25 May 2012 by Jeff Hecht
• For similar stories, visit the Astrophile and Solar System Topic Guides

Astrophile is our weekly column on curious cosmic objects, from the solar system to the far reaches of the multiverse

Object: Triton's subsurface ocean

Temperature: About -90 °C

A new day dawns on Triton. It's going to be a cold one, much like the last. And the one before that… and every day since the moon settled into its present orbit around Neptune. Even the volcanoes here spew out cold gases and liquid water rather than hot magma. But below the frigid surface, which registers a temperature of -235 °C, there's something more clement: a liquid ocean.

At first glance, Triton seems to be just another icy moon – a featureless, barren world spinning around Neptune, the outermost planet of our solar system. But Triton is different.

For one thing, it orbits Neptune backwards, moving in the opposite direction to Neptune's rotation. It's the only large moon in the solar system to do so. Satellites can't form in these "retrograde" orbits, so Triton must have begun life elsewhere before being captured by the gas giant. It looks a lot like Pluto, and probably came from the same place – the inner edge of the Kuiper Belt, close to Neptune.

The Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past Triton in 1989, sending back images of the moon's frozen surface. They revealed signs of cryovolcanism – the eruption of subsurface liquids which quickly freeze when exposed to the cold of the outer solar system. As such, Triton joins a short list of worlds in the solar system known to be geologically active.

 

 

Its surface ice is unique, too: largely composed of nitrogen, with some cantaloupe-textured terrain, and a polar cap of frozen methane.

 

But with a name like Triton – the messenger of the big sea in Greek mythology – this moon should really carry one more feature: is there an ocean hiding beneath its icy veneer? A new model suggests there could be. Understanding why requires a quick look at Triton's unique history.

We know that Triton was captured by Neptune. Such captured bodies start in highly elongated orbits, but as they interact with their associated planet, Triton-sized worlds are quickly dragged into more circular orbits. The process releases energy, which heats up the moon. The temperature rise would have melted not just the icy outer layers of Triton, but also its 1900-kilometre-wide core. Then it would have cooled to its current frigid state.

Earlier models had suggested an ocean exists on Triton, but they were quite simplistic. Saswata Hier-Majumder of the University of Maryland in College Park, and his student Jodi Gaeman, have now developed a more detailed model that considers both radioactive decay of core minerals and the orbital interactions that would have heated the moon.

Although heating from radioactive decay is orders of magnitude larger than heating from tidal effects, heat from the core alone could not keep the outer layer from freezing over the 4.5 billion-year life of the solar system, they say.

However, Hier-Majumder and Gaeman have found that even a small amount of heating from orbital forces makes a huge difference because it is applied to the base of the ice covering the subsurface ocean. "It puts a warm blanket on top of the cooling ocean," says Hier-Majumder. As long as the orbit is so circular that its 350,000-kilometre-radius varies by only a few kilometres, Triton should still have a substantial ocean beneath its icy surface.

That watery ocean contains a strong dose of ammonia, which keeps the liquid from freezing unless the temperature drops below about -90 °C. So, while it may be the outermost ocean in the solar system, it is not as cold as the

-180 °C hydrocarbon lakes on Saturn's moon Titan.

[ratcatcher]

Live feed from NASA TV of the Orion preparation for launch.

 

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#.VIA4JsnSmls

[Section_31]

Would be class if one of those dogs they shot into space came back with super powers. That's all I have to add.

[Guest davelfc]

If people stood around trying to fix all of mans problems (lots of which are man made anyway) at the expense of exploration we'd probably still be living in caves. Who's to say investigating things like asteroids couldn't lead to the entire species being saved in the event of a (possible) collision?

I think WW2 accelerated our technological development, there would have been no space missions without rockets. Should we have another world war so we can continue to develop?

 

I think we have drained all we can from space for now, time we started getting our shit together on our planet. When we have a Mars rover already there, spending billions sending a human there is just fucking stupid.

 

Oh and living in caves, we are just one meteorite from going back there, never forget that.

[ratcatcher]

5 minutes to launch.