Space General Space News, Image and Discussion Thread

[Husky_Khan]

China prepping for mission to bring back material from moon

Chinese technicians were making final preparations Monday for a mission to bring back material from the moon's surface for the first time in more than four decades—an undertaking that could boost human understanding of the moon and of the solar system more generally.

phys.org

China launched the first Lunar Return mission in forty years. The mission is to drill 2 meters beneath the moon's surface and scoop up about 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rocks and other debris to be brought back to Earth. The last time Lunar rocks were recovered was by unmanned Soviet space probes back in the 1970's and prior to that several hundred pounds of moon rocks were recovered by the various manned US Apollo missions to the Moon.

China's moon rock mission was apparently a success.

Docking done, China’s Chang’e moon mission is ready to return to Earth

In a complex manoeuvre, the lunar probe linked up with the orbiter and transferred rock and soil

amp.scmp.com

And across the East Asian pond Japans probe successfully collected some ancient asteroid dust.

Article expired

News on Japan, Business News, Opinion, Sports, Entertainment and More

www.japantimes.co.jp

 

[Husky_Khan]

SpaceX launches classified US spy satellite, sticks rocket landing to cap record year

That's launch number 26 for SpaceX, its most ever in a year.

www.space.com

Space X made their final successful (26th) launch of the year sending a classified NRO satellite into Space! It's the companies most successful year yet.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Some of the Top Space Stories of 2020 according to Popular Science, and it has been a big story for Space Exploration in spite of everything.

The best space stories of 2020

There’s no way to sugarcoat it; 2020 has been rough. But despite the stagnation and turmoil on Earth, some researchers and organizations kept their eyes on the skies.

www.popsci.com

1. Space X launching commercial spaceflight, namely with their manned spaceflight that transported NASA astronauts to the International Space Station and back. The first manned spaceflight in America since the retirement of the Space Shuttle.

2. Astronomers discovering trace amounts of phosphine on Venus while studying its clouds but other scientists failing to make the same readings subsequently.

3. Fast Radio Bursts, including some surprisingly close to us in the Milky Way, might be explained by Magnetars (Super Magnetic Neutron Stars) as opposed to signals from extraterrestrial intelligence.

4. The European Space Agency launched its Solar Orbiter and the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope have joined NASA's Parker Solar Probe in studying the Sun, expanding our knowledge of "heliophysics", studying sunspots and hopefully predicting future solar weather.

5. NASA is continuing its planned of a manned mission to the Moon within the decade via Project Artemis.

6. Japan's Hayabusa-2 Space Probe returned after over a year of studying the asteroid Ryugu and successfully returned milligrams of pristine asteroid space dust for analysis. NASA's Osiris-REx probe did a similar even longer operation.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Japan is planning on building and launching wooden satellites into space by 2023.

World's first wooden satellite to be launched by Japan in 2023

Sumitomo Forestry studies potential for wood materials in extreme environments

asia.nikkei.com

Research is ongoing as the main goal apparently is to help cut down on the sheer amount of space junk in orbit and to allow satellites to safely burn up in the atmosphere when no longer needed.

Wood does not block electromagnetic waves or the Earth's magnetic field. This enables devices such as antennas and attitude control mechanisms to be placed inside a wooden satellite, allowing for simpler structures. In addition, when a wooden satellite de-orbits and plunges back to Earth, it would burn up completely without releasing harmful substances into the atmosphere or raining debris on the ground.

 

[Urabrask Revealed]

Japan is planning on building and launching wooden satellites into space by 2023.

World's first wooden satellite to be launched by Japan in 2023

Sumitomo Forestry studies potential for wood materials in extreme environments

asia.nikkei.com

Research is ongoing as the main goal apparently is to help cut down on the sheer amount of space junk in orbit and to allow satellites to safely burn up in the atmosphere when no longer needed.

That is an interesting way of doing this. How stable is wood in space anyway?

 

[Doomsought]

That is an interesting way of doing this. How stable is wood in space anyway?

There is no chance of rot or burn while in a vacuum, so the primary risks are radiation and micrometer abrasion.

 

[Urabrask Revealed]

There is no chance of rot or burn while in a vacuum, so the primary risks are radiation and micrometer abrasion.

Hmm, I do look forward to learning about how wood behaves in space. Space is rather warm from what I understood.

 

[ATP]

If we only used Orion drive,people would arleady have colonies on Mars.And made war there,too.
So,maybe it is for better,that nobody used it ?

 

[Urabrask Revealed]

And made war there,too.

That's a dumb argument. It's in the same vein as "We should first fix EVERY bad thing on Earth before we try to colonize Space!" and then withdrawing all funding for space-agencies. Just because of a few flaws, we are supposed to stay all on Earth forever?

Fuck that.

 

[JagerIV]

Speaking of Orion, there's a new ToughSF blog post on what he terms a "Moto-Orion", a way to extract energy from the nuclear pulses, as well as some other minor benifits.

Moto-Orion: Mechanized Nuclear Pulse Propulsion

A blog dedicated to helping Science Fiction authors create and discuss worlds where a realistic setting can still serve the fiction.

toughsf.blogspot.com

 

[Husky_Khan]

How to watch the celestial triple conjunction of 2021

It’s an intergalactic ménage à trois that doesn’t involve Uranus. Thought the 2020 “double planet” was impressive? This weekend, stargazers can witness Mercury, Jupiter and …

nypost.com

This Sunday there will be a threesome in space. Jupiter and Saturn already had a lewd pairing one night several weeks ago, now the gas giants have invited Mercury to the party. Or maybe Mercury invited themselves? Who knows.

 

[Husky_Khan]

SpaceX completes first rocket launch of 2021, sending up communications satellite

Following a very busy 2020 that saw it make a number of achievements, SpaceX completed its first rocket launch of 2021 on Thursday.

www.foxnews.com

First successfully completed launch for SpaceX this year.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Strange FM signal discovered coming from one of Jupiter's moons

NASA recently extended the life of two of its planetary discovery missions, including the Juno mission to Jupiter. Now it's come to light Juno has discovered an FM signal emanating from one of the gas giant's moons, Ganymede.

www.foxnews.com

Sadly according to NASA, the FM Signal emanating from Ganymede is just a natural function.

Or so they would have you believe...

 

[ATP]

Strange FM signal discovered coming from one of Jupiter's moons

NASA recently extended the life of two of its planetary discovery missions, including the Juno mission to Jupiter. Now it's come to light Juno has discovered an FM signal emanating from one of the gas giant's moons, Ganymede.

www.foxnews.com

Sadly according to NASA, the FM Signal emanating from Ganymede is just a natural function.

Or so they would have you believe...

Yay! that my chance for harem of alien girlfriends ! or....very painfull death.
Hmmm...maybe both ?

 

[Husky_Khan]

What does the future of the Space Industry look like under a future Biden Presidency after thriving so much under the Trump Administration?

Florida’s space industry thrived under Trump. What does Biden have planned?

As a candidate, the former vice president presented exhaustive plans on dozens of issues, yet he said relatively little about his vision for exploring the final frontier. The Democratic Party platform, approved at the August convention, made only a passing promise to “support NASA’s work to return Americans to the moon and go beyond to Mars.”v

Biden will soon face difficult decisions about the future of American interests in space. Enthusiasm for space exploration has reached levels not seen since the Apollo missions — but Biden also will quickly confront the challenges of a growing military presence by the United States and foreign adversaries from the sky.

 

[ATP]

What does the future of the Space Industry look like under a future Biden Presidency after thriving so much under the Trump Administration?

Florida’s space industry thrived under Trump. What does Biden have planned?

Oh,nothing really...except all astronauts ,NASA workers,and private workers must become black lesbian trans jewish muslim people.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Astronaut William Thornton, who invented space shuttle treadmill, dies at 91

Former NASA astronaut William "Bill" Thornton, who used his own inventions to measure and combat the ill-effects of microgravity while on board two space shuttle missions, has died at the age of 91.

www.space.com

Physician, Physicist and Astronaut William Thornton passed away at the age of 91 in his Texas home. It was during his Air Force career in the sixties that he finished his training as a flight surgeon and started his journey in aerospace medicine. Though selected in NASA's second group of astronauts in 1967, he was known as an 'excess' astronaut because there would be little chance of him going into space in the near future.

During the early seventies he worked in a simulated Skylab environment within a sealed vacuum chamber and it was working as support staff for the Skylab missions that he started to study the physiological effects of space travel. He didn't actually go into space until 1983, fully sixteen years after joining NASA's astronaut program and did so aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. As a mission specialist he studied 'space adaption syndrome' or SAS which had been affecting several astronauts at the time and worked extensively on studying the physiological changes that occurred that contributed to this sort of 'space sickness.'

He spent over thirteen days or three hundred hours in space on two shuttle missions and developed/invented numerous devices to help combat the physiological effects of microgravity environments on the Human body. This led to twenty seven patents related to things he developed such as the semi-famous space treadmill as well as shock and vibration isolation systems, in-flight mass measurement devices and an improved waste collection system. Most of his patents helped improve the health and conditioning of astronauts working and living for prolonged periods of time in space.

He retired from NASA in 1994 and became a Clinical Professor in various Texas State Universities. He was married with two children.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Virgin Orbit reaches orbit for the first time | TechCrunch

Virgin Orbit launched its LauncherOne rocket to orbit for the first time today, with a successful demonstration mission that carried a handful of

techcrunch.com

Richard Bransons Virgin Orbit reaches orbit in SPAAAAAAACE for the first time and pooped out some satellites for NASA in the process. This success comes after earlier failures including a notable fail last Spring.

 

[TomJo]

Virgin Orbit reaches orbit for the first time | TechCrunch

Virgin Orbit launched its LauncherOne rocket to orbit for the first time today, with a successful demonstration mission that carried a handful of

techcrunch.com

Richard Bransons Virgin Orbit reaches orbit in SPAAAAAAACE for the first time and pooped out some satellites for NASA in the process. This success comes after earlier failures including a notable fail last Spring.

Ha! More and more dreamers are reaching their goals. Such news makes you believe that anything is possible if you try hard enough. A self-taught engineer company today launched 1 microsatellite in New Zealand. Now the small satellite market is on the rise. There are a lot of new companies all over the planet.

 

[Doomsought]

I hope they will be able to get a custom designed launch aircraft with an internal Bombay eventually.