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The Space Thread


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This will get shot down immediately by the planet-wide laser grid and its charred remains sent back to Earth in picoseconds via "Prince Phillip's" lizard wormhole, but still it's a nice try-

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/apr/10/nasa-preparing-to-attempt-first-controlled-flight-on-another-world

 



Nasa preparing to attempt first controlled flight on another world
The Ingenuity helicopter, which arrived on the red planet in February, is expected to take to the skies on Wednesday


Nasa is gearing up to attempt the first controlled flight on another planet next week, with the tiny Ingenuity helicopter on Mars.

The helicopter is expected to take to the skies next week, with Wednesday being the earliest time scheduled.

Ingenuity arrived at the Jezero Crater on the red planet on 18 February after an eight-month journey spanning nearly 300 million miles inside the Perseverance rover.

Take-off had been scheduled for Monday, but Nasa said this was delayed after a technical issue during a rotor test, which means another test is now needed prior to the launch.

The helicopter is 50cm tall and weighs 1.8kg on Earth, but, due to the red planet’s lower gravity, a mere 680g on Mars. It is armed with two rotors that spin in opposite directions to lift the drone off the ground.

“During a high-speed spin test of the rotors on Friday, the command sequence controlling the test ended early due to a ‘watchdog’ timer expiration,” Nasa said.

“This occurred as it was trying to transition the flight computer from ‘Pre-Flight’ to ‘Flight’ mode. The helicopter is safe and healthy and communicated its full telemetry set to Earth.


“The watchdog timer oversees the command sequence and alerts the system to any potential issues. It helps the system stay safe by not proceeding if an issue is observed and worked as planned.”

After the spacecraft landed, it dropped the drone on to the ground so the aircraft could prepare for its maiden flight. It is part of a technology demonstration: a project that aims to test a new capability for the first time. As such, it does not have any scientific instruments onboard.

According to Nasa, one of Ingenuity’s key objectives is to survive the “bone-chilling temperatures” of the planet with “nights as cold as minus 90C”. It also faces the challenge of flying in Mars’s atmosphere, which is about 100 times thinner than Earth’s.

For its first flight, the helicopter will take off from the ground and hover in the air at about 3 metres for 20 to 30 seconds before descending and touching back down on the Martian surface.

If successful, Nasa says it will be a “major milestone” – the very first powered flight in another world.

The aircraft will then attempt additional experimental flights, which will involve travelling further distances and increasing altitudes.

It is designed to be mostly autonomous so Nasa will not be able to control the helicopter remotely due to the distance between Earth and Mars. It takes more than 11 minutes to get a radio signal back to Earth.

Last month the Perseverance rover sent back the first ever sounds of driving on the red planet – a grinding, clanking and banging noise.

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What we're doing in space gives me massive bonk on. Four and a half inches of red hot tungsten carbide steel. 

 

Everything about space is mind boggling and unimaginable. We send bits of metal, plastic and tin foil, a trillion billion miles, land it on a bit of shitty rock, then watch - yes watch ffs - it shit out a helicopter. A helicopter. Mars. As if. 

 

We're still in contact with three of the five probes we sent out like two hundred years ago, all of which have exited the solar system. I love this quote: 

"Pioneer 11 – launched in 1973, flew past Jupiter in 1974 and Saturn in 1979. The spacecraft is headed toward the constellation of Aquila, northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Barring an incident, Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars in the constellation in about 4 million years."

 

That'll be 4 million years then. 

 

And the best of it all? God created every last bit of it. We'd have been fucked without him, I don't mind telling you. 

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2 hours ago, rb14 said:

 

 

And the best of it all? God created every last bit of it. We'd have been fucked without him, I don't mind telling you. 

I often give the old shit some stick for creating the earth and then taking a week off... then doing nothing since then really besides flooding the place and loaning his son to us for work experience 

 

But when you think of the vast distances he has to cover, it's no surprise he's been absent for so long. I hope he cancelled the milk. 

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Just reading about the Hubble successor, the James Webb Space Telescope which is due to launch on the 31st October.

 

Equipped with infrared sensors that will be able to measure light traces from the beginning of the universe and initial formation of celestial objects.

 

NASA will also be using it to take a look at this our ice giants, Pluto, and some exoplanets to see if we can determine if they’re likely to have life or not.

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On 26/04/2021 at 20:53, dockers_strike said:

Dragon space capsule has near miss with piece of space debris. NASA says the debris was about 25km away but it looks a lot closer. it must have been massive to look that size if it was that distance away.

 

 

 

 

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28 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:


Mind yer heads!

 

 

Imagine if a load of it lands in a hugely populated area and causes damages/deaths..... Obviously the chances are small but fuck me what a way to go. "Yeah the virus didn't get him so they twatted him with a spaceship" 

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/06/science/china-rocket-crash-long-march-5b.html

 

No, you are almost certainly not going to be hit by a 10-story, 23-ton piece of a rocket hurtling back to Earth.

That said, the chances are not zero. Part of China’s largest rocket, the Long March 5B, is tumbling out of control in orbit after launching a section of the country’s new space station last week. The rocket is expected to fall to Earth in what is called “an uncontrolled re-entry” sometime on Saturday or Sunday.

Whether it splashes harmlessly in the ocean or impacts land where people live, why China’s space program let this happen — again — remains unclear. And given China’s planned schedule of launches, more such uncontrolled rocket re-entries in the years to come are possible.

The country’s space program has executed a series of major achievements in spaceflight in the past six months, including returning rocks from the moon and putting a spacecraft in orbit around Mars. Yet it continues to create danger, however small, for people all over the planet by failing to control the paths of rockets it launches.

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You can stop ducking now!

 

Remnants of China's biggest rocket landed in the Indian Ocean on Sunday, with most of its components destroyed upon re-entry into the atmosphere, ending days of speculation over where the debris would hit but drawing US criticism over lack of transparency.

The coordinates given by Chinese state media, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office, put the point of impact in the ocean, west of the Maldives archipelago.

Debris from the Long March 5B has had some people looking warily skyward since it blasted off from China's Hainan island on April 29, but the China Manned Space Engineering Office said most of the debris was burnt up in the atmosphere.

State media reported parts of the rocket re-entered the atmosphere at 10.24 am Beijing time (0224 GMT) and landed at a location with the coordinates of longitude 72.47 degrees east and latitude 2.65 degrees north.

The US Space command confirmed the re-entry of the rocket over the Arabian Peninsula, but said it was unknown if the debris impacted land or water.

"The exact location of the impact and the span of debris, both of which are unknown at this time, will not be released by US Space Command," it said in a statement on its website.

The Long March was the second deployment of the 5B variant since its maiden flight in May 2020. Last year, pieces from the first Long March 5B fell on Ivory Coast, damaging several buildings. No injuries were reported.

"Spacefaring nations must minimise the risks to people and property on Earth of re-entries of space objects and maximize transparency regarding those operations," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, a former senator and astronaut who was picked for the role in March, said in a statement after the re-entry.

"It is clear that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris."

With most of the Earth's surface covered by water, the odds of populated area on land being hit had been low, and the likelihood of injuries even lower, according to experts.

But uncertainty over the rocket's orbital decay and China's failure to issue stronger reassurances in the run-up to the re-entry fuelled anxiety.

"It is critical that China and all spacefaring nations and commercial entities act responsibly and transparently in space to ensure the safety, stability, security, and long-term sustainability of outer space activities," Nelson said.

Harvard-based astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Reuters that the potential debris zone could have been as far north as New York, Madrid or Beijing, and as far south as southern Chile and Wellington, New Zealand.

Since large chunks of the NASA space station Skylab fell from orbit in July 1979 and landed in Australia, most countries have sought to avoid such uncontrolled re-entries through their spacecraft design, McDowell said.

"It makes the Chinese rocket designers look lazy that they didn't address this," said McDowell.

The Global Times, a Chinese tabloid, dismissed as "Western hype" concerns the rocket was "out of control" and could cause damage.

"It is common practice across the world for upper stages of rockets to burn up while reentering the atmosphere," Wang Wenbin, a spokesman at China's foreign ministry, said at a regular media briefing on May 7.

"To my knowledge, the upper stage of this rocket has been deactivated, which means most of its parts will burn up upon re-entry, making the likelihood of damage to aviation or ground facilities and activities extremely low," Wang said at the time.

The rocket, which put into orbit an unmanned Tianhe module containing what will become living quarters for three crew on a permanent Chinese space station, will be followed by 10 more missions to complete the station by 2022. 

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/09/chinese-rocket-debris-lands-indian-ocean/

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