Space... the final frontier...

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...I so love it that SpaceX can re-land their booster rocket first stage so that it can be re-used... so much less Space junk etc... here is the latest event of that happening... on this website below...

http://www.space.com/36676-spacex-spy-satellite-amazing-launch-landing-views.html

...if you go to that page you can watch the actual video of the whole event... it really is remarkable... the website that is reporting it is a good one in itself... I frequent it all the time... on this link below...

http://www.space.com/

...the website of the rocket company 'SpaceX' itself is a fantastic read too if you are interested at all in it all... I go to that one all the time too lol!... here is the link to that too below... cheers.

http://www.spacex.com/news

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Wow! See Epic Views of SpaceX's 1st Spysat Launch and Rocket Landing
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | May 1, 2017 06:26pm ET


SpaceX launched its first-ever mission for the U.S. Department of Defense today (May 1), and a set of videos and photos document the historic flight in spectacular detail.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1115 GMT) today with the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office's NROL-76 satellite aboard.

Less than 3 minutes into flight, the booster's two stages separated. While the second stage continued carrying NROL-76 toward its classified destination in low-Earth orbit, the first stage performed engine burns to prep for a touchdown at SpaceX's "Landing Zone 1," a facility at the Cape.

Tracking cameras stayed on the first stage the entire time, capturing its various maneuvers and its pinpoint landing, which occurred 9 minutes after liftoff.

The successful landing was the 10th overall for a Falcon 9 first stage, and the fourth at Landing Zone 1. The other six landings have occurred on robotic ships at sea; such ocean touchdowns are necessary on missions that burn up so much fuel that the booster can't make it all the way back to the launch site, SpaceX officials have said.

These landings are part of SpaceX's effort to develop fully and rapidly reusable rockets, technology that company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said could revolutionize spaceflight by slashing its cost. SpaceX took a big step toward achieving this overall vision on March 30, when a Falcon 9 with a "pre-flown" first stage launched the SES-10 communications satellite.

That pre-flown Falcon 9 booster had first launched in April 2016. Eventually, SpaceX aims to launch, land and re-launch boosters within 24 hours, the company has said. Each Falcon 9 first stage is designed to fly 10 times with no hardware changes and 100 times with only moderate refurbishment, Musk said after the SES-10 mission.
Today's NROL-76 launch broke a 10-year monopoly on U.S. national-security missions enjoyed by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint effort of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. SpaceX also holds contracts with the U.S. Air Force to launch global positioning satellites in 2018 and 2019.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) operates the United States' fleet of spy satellites. NRO missions tend to be classified, and NROL-76 is no exception; it's unclear what observations the spacecraft will be making from its perch above Earth.

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...speaking of SpaceX above... they are sending tourists for a trip around the moon next year believe it or not... I so wish that I was one of those tourists... I would simply die of ecstasy I imagine... on this link below... cheers.

http://www.spacex.com/news/2017/02/...rewed-dragon-spacecraft-beyond-moon-next-year
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February 27, 2017

SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year



We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the Moon late next year. They have already paid a significant deposit to do a Moon mission. Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration. We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year. Other flight teams have also expressed strong interest and we expect more to follow. Additional information will be released about the flight teams, contingent upon their approval and confirmation of the health and fitness test results.

Most importantly, we would like to thank NASA, without whom this would not be possible. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which provided most of the funding for Dragon 2 development, is a key enabler for this mission. In addition, this will make use of the Falcon Heavy rocket, which was developed with internal SpaceX funding. Falcon Heavy is due to launch its first test flight this summer and, once successful, will be the most powerful vehicle to reach orbit after the Saturn V Moon rocket. At 5 million pounds of liftoff thrust, Falcon Heavy is two-thirds the thrust of Saturn V and more than double the thrust of the next largest launch vehicle currently flying.
Later this year, as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, we will launch our Crew Dragon (Dragon Version 2) spacecraft to the International Space Station. This first demonstration mission will be in automatic mode, without people on board. A subsequent mission with crew is expected to fly in the second quarter of 2018. SpaceX is currently contracted to perform an average of four Dragon 2 missions to the ISS per year, three carrying cargo and one carrying crew. By also flying privately crewed missions, which NASA has encouraged, long-term costs to the government decline and more flight reliability history is gained, benefiting both government and private missions.

Once operational Crew Dragon missions are underway for NASA, SpaceX will launch the private mission on a journey to circumnavigate the Moon and return to Earth. Lift-off will be from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Pad 39A near Cape Canaveral – the same launch pad used by the Apollo program for its lunar missions. This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years and they will travel faster and further into the Solar System than any before them.

Designed from the beginning to carry humans, the Dragon spacecraft already has a long flight heritage. These missions will build upon that heritage, extending it to deep space mission operations, an important milestone as we work towards our ultimate goal of transporting humans to Mars.

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...I had to laugh at these jokes about Space and Astronauts... maybe you'll find some of them to be a tad bit funny too?...







...which reminds me of this... it's Mel Smith from the movie 'Morons From Outer Space'...

...yes I know... they were pretty silly but what the hell eh?... lol!... cheers.

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...how bloody rude of me not to wish the Hubble Space Telescope a Happy 27th Birthday!... it happened on the 25th of April last month... sorry about that Hubble that I missed your Birthday but thanks for all of the brilliant images over the past 27 years regardless our good friend... it was was deployed from the cargo bay of space shuttle Discovery all those many years ago on that day after being launched from Earth the day before...

...sadly... as with Cassini... the Hubble Space Telescope will fall back to Earth and burn up in the 2030's sometime... but!... as will be explained in my next post... there will be a replacement Space Telescope by the name of 'The James Webb Space Telescope' to replace Hubble launched into Space next year apparently... more of that in the next post as I said... meanwhile... bask in the glory of your 27th Birthday Hubble... you well and truly deserve it believe me... on this website below... cheers.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marsha...e-space-telescope-deployed-april-25-1990.html

April 27, 2017

This Week in NASA History: Hubble Space Telescope Deployed -- April 25, 1990




This week in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the cargo bay of space shuttle Discovery as part of STS-31. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center was responsible for the design, development, and construction of the Hubble Space Telescope and has played a significant role in the testing of Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope. Scheduled to launch in October 2018, the Webb telescope will observe the most distant objects in the universe, provide images of the first galaxies formed and see unexplored planets around distant stars. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating, and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological, and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. (NASA)

Last Updated: April 27, 2017
Editor: Lee Mohon

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...speaking of the 'The James Webb Space Telescope' above... here is more info on it... the Space Telescope will not just be in orbit around Earth this time though... it'll be sent to a point more than a million Kilometres out in space, beyond the moon they're saying so once it's there it can't be repaired like the Hubble can at the moment so there's a lot riding on it I guess?... at a price of 10 billion dollars it will be a costly exercise if it develops problems like Hubble did in it's first 2 years of life eh?... on this website below... cheers.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/james-webb-space-telescope-hubble-1.3557887
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New space telescope's giant gold mirror unveiled: Bob McDonald

James Webb Space Telescope must survive stresses of launch and then unfold itself in complicated sequence

By Bob McDonald, CBC News Posted: Apr 29, 2016 9:39 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 29, 2016 10:05 AM ET

The giant gold mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope was unveiled on April 26, 2016, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. (NASA)

The giant successor to the Hubble Space Telescope was seen for the first time in its full glory this week, with its 18-segment, gold-coated mirror unfolded as it will be in space. Due to be launched in 2018, the tennis-court-sized instrument must get it right the first time.

The James Webb Space Telescope is a $10-billion international project involving NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Canada is providing a fine guidance system and two instruments.

Although it will operate in space like the famous Hubble, it is vastly different in every way.

First of all, it's much bigger. The new primary mirror spans 6.5 metres, compared to Hubble's 2.5, giving it seven times more light-gathering power.

That's still small by Earthly standards, where telescopes on the ground are approaching 30 metres across. But as Hubble has shown so dramatically, a smaller telescope in space does not have to peer through the Earth's atmosphere, so it gets a perfectly clear view of the universe.

An artist's impression shows how the James Webb Space Telescope will look in space. (NASA)

The second big difference is how the JWST will see. Rather than capturing visible light like Hubble or our own eyes, the new telescope will look in the infrared part of the spectrum.

These longer wavelengths of light are better at penetrating clouds of gas and dust, where stars are being born — which Hubble cannot see through — and they should give us a view farther back to the beginning of the universe.

From a scientific point of view, the potential of this new telescope is enormous.

Daunting task
While astronomers are anxious to use this new eye in the sky, its sheer size poses a huge challenge for the engineers.

They are faced with the daunting task of folding up the giant structure, origami style, into a package that will fit into the nose cone of a French Ariane-5 rocket.

It must survive the vibrations and stresses of launch, then unfold itself in space in a complicated sequence involving more than a dozen individual steps, which must all be carried out automatically within tolerances less than a human hair.

If anything goes wrong, the entire mission could be lost because the telescope will be well out of reach of astronauts with repair tools.

As we saw immediately after Hubble was launched in 1990, a flaw in the shape of the primary mirror gave the telescope blurry vision.

Astronauts have visited the Hubble Space Telescope to update it with new instruments and solar panels, making it an even better instrument than when it was when it was new. (NASA)

But Hubble was designed to be repaired by space shuttle astronauts, and thanks to brilliant design efforts on the ground, a set of corrective optics was developed and then installed in a dramatic rescue mission that restored Hubble's sight.

Since then, the telescope has been visited five times to be updated with new instruments and solar panels, making it an even better instrument than when it was new.

That can't happen with the JWST.

Since it will be looking in the infrared, which is basically heat, the telescope must be kept away from any heat source, including the Earth and even the moon.

Beyond the moon
So rather than orbiting the Earth at relatively low altitude, where astronauts could get to it, James Webb will be sent to a point more than a million kilometres out in space, beyond the moon, called L2.

This is where the gravity of the Earth and the sun balance out, so a spacecraft parked there will remain there.

At that distance, the telescope will be entirely on its own.

In other words, all the eggs are in this one, very expensive, basket.

Ultra-sensitive instruments are being mounted on the back of the telescope. Then the entire assembly will be shaken and cold-tested inside a gigantic vacuum chamber before it is readied for launch out of French Guiana.

It is vitally important that every component works absolutely perfectly because there is only one chance for success.

Of course, NASA has had remarkable success with big expensive missions in the past, such as the Mars Curiosity Rover — a one-ton vehicle the size of a small car that made the most complicated landing ever on another planet in 2012 and is still running today.

Let's hope the James Webb Space Telescope follows in the little Martian's footsteps.

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...just shifting back to Hubble once again... in the article the headlines say..."Hubble image captures hundreds of galaxies 6 billion light-years away... the photograph illustrates phenomenon of gravitational lensing first predicted by Einstein"... what more can I say... the photograph is just simply amazing... on the website itself you can slide an image from side to side to see a 'before' and 'after' shot of the exact same thing... one taken in 2009 and one just recently... Hubble has come such a long way hasn't it?... on this website below... cheers.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/hubble-galaxy-cluster-abell-370-1.4101204
___________________________________________________
Hubble image captures hundreds of galaxies 6 billion light-years away

Photograph illustrates phenomenon of gravitational lensing first predicted by Einstein

CBC News Posted: May 05, 2017 3:05 PM ET Last Updated: May 05, 2017 3:05 PM ET




Abell 370 is one of the first galaxy clusters in which astronomers observed gravitational lensing, the warping of space-time by the cluster’s gravitational field that distorts the light from galaxies far behind it. Arcs and streaks in the picture are the stretched images of background galaxies. (NASA, ESA/Hubble, HST Frontier F)

In a breathtaking image of hundreds of galaxies, the Hubble Space Telescope provides an incredible display of a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.

The telescope, run jointly by NASA and the European Space Agency, imaged a region six billion light-years away containing the galaxy cluster Abell 370.

Gravitational lensing, first proposed by physicist Albert Einstein in his general theory of relativity, warps space-time, bending light. In the case of this image, galaxies beyond the cluster spread out along multiple paths and appear in a few locations.

The longest streak in the image is the most dramatic display of lensing: there are four separate images of the single galaxy as the stretches and bends in an arc. In fact, all the arcs in this image are galaxies being bent through gravitational lensing.

The region was already imaged in 2009, but this new image contains far more galaxies at a better resolution.

2009

2017

Gravitational lensing allows astronomers to study galaxies that may be farther away, as their light is brought forward. In this photograph there is a galaxy that is more than 13 billion years old, forming shortly after the birth of our universe.

As for the image itself, it took a lot of time to obtain: 630 hours and more than 560 orbits of Earth.

to click on a zoomable image go to this link

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1711a/zoomable/

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...finally... one last thing on the Hubble Space Telescope for the day... something that I find to be amazing at least... what is Hubble looking at right now?... Live?... on this website and an image of the home page below...

http://spacetelescopelive.org/




...there is a link at the bottom of the home page that you can go to for all of the gobbledegook Data on the Telescope and image Data if you so wish but if you're like me and don't understand all of that technical stuff and just enjoy the images like I do then there's no point... but just knowing that we're seeing Hubble's images 'Live' just blows me away big time... cheers.

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...and now for something completely different... from this website below...

http://www.space.com/36703-ridley-scott-warns-against-hostile-aliens.html

...a movie Director that I absolutely love has given his opinion of what would most likely happen if we were visited by extra-terrestrials and the probable outcome of what would most likely happen... the Director's name is Ridley Scott... known mainly for his 'Aliens' string of movies... he has a definite take on what to expect I suppose lol!... but what I like about this article is what 'Seth Shostak... the senior astronomer with the SETI Institute, a research institution dedicated to the search for communication signals produced by intelligent extraterrestrial life' has to say about it lol!... (although... in the end he does tend to agree with Ridley of sorts lol!)... cheers.
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If Aliens Visit, Don't Expect a Hollywood Ending, Ridley Scott Warns

By Mindy Weisberger, Live Science Senior Writer | May 2, 2017 08:21pm ET

Ridley Scott directs a scene from his new film, "Alien: Covenant," opening in the U.S. on May 19.
Credit: 20th Century Fox

Film director Ridley Scott, who delights in terrifying moviegoers with his cinematic blend of horror and science fiction, suggested in a recent interview that the scary prospect of belligerent invading aliens might transcend the realm of sci-fi. According to Scott, hundreds of alien species are "out there" on distant worlds, and Earth's inhabitants should prepare for the worst if they ever decide to visit our planet.

One scientist, though, says that Scott's information about such hostile, and abundant, aliens is off-base and unsupported.

Scott told Agence France-Presse (AFP) about his belief in "superior beings," while fielding questions about his latest movie, "Alien: Covenant," opening in theaters in the U.S. on May 19. He warned that any extraterrestrial travelers who are technologically advanced enough to show up on our doorstep would likely be very intelligent and very hostile. And unlike the scenarios that dominate movies — if we go toe-to-toe with these invaders, we probably won't be the victors, he said.

"If you are stupid enough to challenge them you will be taken out in three seconds," Scott told AFP. [Greetings, Earthlings! 8 Ways Aliens Could Contact Us]

In the interview, Scott explained that "the experts" estimate there are "between 100 and 200 entities" on other planets, following what could be a similar evolutionary path to ours. And if they get here first, our best bet would be to "run for it," AFP reported.

The possibility of intelligent, technologically adept alien life has intrigued science-fiction writers and readers since the French writer Voltaire published his short story "Micromégas" in 1752, describing two extraterrestrial visitors to Earth — one from the planet Saturn and one from a planet orbiting the star Sirius.

Scott has made his own contributions to the genre, most notably with his string of "Alien" movies, which imagine a highly adaptable and morphologically flexible alien species. The so-called xenomorphs breed quickly and are ruthlessly efficient at overpowering humans, either swiftly dismembering them or cultivating them as hosts for their young — luckily, in isolated locations that are far from our home planet.

But though Scott is a skilled sci-fi yarn-spinner, his assessment of real-world alien threats could use a script doctor, according to Seth Shostak, senior astronomer with the SETI Institute, a research institution dedicated to the search for communication signals produced by intelligent extraterrestrial life.

To begin with, Scott's "expert" estimate of 100 to 200 "entities" is entirely unsubstantiated, Shostak told Live Science.

"We have absolutely no data that would tell you what that number might be," he said.

In fact, estimates based on data about known planets and galaxies suggest that the actual number of intelligent extraterrestrial life forms could, in fact, be significantly higher. With approximately 1 trillion planets in our galaxy alone, and about 2 trillion more galaxies, that adds up to…well, it's a lot of planets, Shostak said. [Why Do We Imagine Aliens as 'Little Green Men'?]

To narrow the search a bit, scientists could start by just looking at the trillion planets in our own galaxy, he said. Only a fraction of those planets might be capable of supporting life — perhaps 1 in 10. And maybe only 1 in 1,000 could produce and support life more complex than bacteria, he said.

That gives us about a billion planets in our galaxy that might harbor some type of intelligent life. But over time, life on many of those planets could have already waxed and waned — self-destructed or been wiped out. Perhaps only one planet in a million of those intelligent-life-harboring worlds still support life capable of contacting humans. That adds up to about 1,000 planets that could potentially hold intelligent, extraterrestrial species, Shostak told Live Science.

However, if a planet is more than 70 light-years from Earth, it hasn't yet received any radio signals from us. Its residents, no matter how technologically adept, wouldn't know humans exist yet. Even if long-distance observations of Earth told them we had oxygen in our atmosphere — and thereby some form of life — they'd be very unlikely to travel all this way to look at what might amount to just a lot of bacteria, Shostak added.

Neither would extraterrestrials be likely to invade our solar system merely to steal our resources, he said. If a civilization is advanced enough that they've exhausted all the resources of their entire star system — every planet, moon and asteroid — and are all out of natural materials, they're probably at a stage where they could create what they needed from simpler materials in their own backyard, rather than traveling across the galaxy for a very limited supply, Shostak said.

It's equally unlikely they'd be showing up because they thought humans would make an excellent addition to their diet, he said.

"To do that, they would have to know that we had something interesting within our bodies that they could metabolize, and their body chemistry would probably be very different from ours," Shostak said.

But Scott did get one thing right: If extraterrestrials are capable of building spacecraft that can transport them to our planet, they certainly would be technologically "superior" to people, Shostak said. And if he saw a spaceship suddenly appear, Shostak admitted that he'd probably do as Scott suggested — and just "run for it."

Original article on Live Science.

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...I find this to be an interesting article about the Parkes Radio Telescope here in Australia having been playing an important part of this discovery... it's assisting in the continuing research into a signal that's called a 'fast radio burst' (FRB)... they think that it's caused by a neutron star collapsing into a black hole or a supernova or it's possibly a young highly magnetised neutron star maybe?... either way... it's great to see that our Space Telescope is playing a big part in all of the ongoing research... from this website below... cheers.

http://www.newsweek.com/fast-radio-burst-mystery-space-signal-detected-deep-space-607416

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FRBs: New Mystery Space Signal from Unknown Cosmic Source Leaves Scientists Baffled

By Hannah Osborne On 5/11/17 at 11:23 AM

Tech & Science fast radio bursts space signal parkes telescope Milky Way

A new mystery signal from deep space has been detected, leaving scientists baffled as to where it came from and what caused it.

The signal, known as a fast radio burst (FRB), was detected in 2015 by scientists using the Parkes radio telescope in Australia. It adds to the two dozen other FRBs previously recorded. But this one, known as FRB 150215, is even stranger than those that came before it.

FRBs are radio signals that last just a few milliseconds. They appear to be coming from deep space, but because of their extremely short duration—and because scientists normally only notice them in data after the event has taken place—their origin remains a mystery.

The Parkes radio telescope in Australia. The FRB was detected in 2015 but follow-up observations failed to reveal its cosmic source. Getty Images

The first FRB was detected in 2001. Since then, at least 20 other bursts have been recorded. One of these, FRB 121102, was found to repeat, with 16 bursts coming from the same direction in space. This allowed scientists to hone in on their location, finding that they were emanating from an unassuming small galaxy over three billion light-years away.

But this still did not help scientists pinpoint their source—no known nearby object could have been producing the FRBs.

Scientists have several theories about the source of FRBs. One is that they are caused by a cataclysmic event, such as a neutron star collapsing into a black hole or supernova. Another potential source is a young, highly magnetised neutron star. Neither, however, fully explains the FRBs recorded because a one-off high energy event like a collapsing star would not be able to produce repeating bursts.

Now, researchers led by Emily Petroff from the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, have announced the discovery of another, even stranger FRB. Their study appears on Cornell University’s online server where scientists can share their research before it is formally published. In it, the team describe FRB 150215, which they were able to catch in real time, meaning immediate follow-up observations could be made to try and catch the source in action.

This burst is unusual because scientists should not have been able to detect it at all. The Milky Way’s magnetic field, which the burst travelled through on its way to Earth, should have changed the way the FRB travelled. But this did not happen.

In an interview with Gizmodo, Petroff explained: “It probably traveled through some kind of hole in the Milky Way that makes it easy to find compared to normal searches in the galaxy.”

After the FRB was detected, the team carried out extensive follow-up observations in the hope of spotting the event that caused it. The array of telescopes used effectively means the team were covering as many cosmic bases as they could—different observations would pick up different potential sources.

“We spent a lot of time with a lot of telescopes to find anything associated with it,” Petroff said. “We got new wavelength windows we’ve never gotten before. We looked for high-energy gamma rays and neutrinos...we ruled out some source classes but no detection is a little unhelpful. We’re still trying to figure out where this one came from.”

Commenting on the study, Shami Chatterjee, from the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, told the website: “I have to say this is a fantastic paper but it is a bummer of a paper. They threw every resource that we have at this FRB...and they see nothing. It is incredibly important in the sense that even with relatively prompt follow-up there isn’t an afterglow or counterpart that is obvious.”

Responding to questions about the source potentially being an advanced alien civilisation, Petroff said: “Just to be clear, we don't know what is causing the fast radio bursts we see, but we don't think it's anything to do with aliens!”

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...I just find this Space photo of Berlin and the surrounding cities and countries taken by the Space Station to be just incredible... the explanation below the image is just mind blowing to me... if you go to the link below there are over 70 other Space related images to scroll through too if you wish to follow it on... some that are just out of this World (pardon the pun)... on this link below... cheers.

http://www.space.com/34-image-day.html



Northern Lights Over Europe
Credit: Thomas Pesquet/ESA/NASA/Flickr
Thursday, May 11, 2017: Vivid blue and teal auroras loom over northern Europe in this photo taken from the International Space Station. The large city pictured in the foreground is Berlin. City lights in The Netherlands and Belgium glow brightly in the distance, while Norway and Sweden look relatively dim in comparison. — Hanneke Weitering

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...just as a side-note to the 'Space.com' website quoted in the post above... here is a page that provides every known scheduled Space launch from all Space Agencies around the world... it provides links to be able to watch the launches 'LIVE' as they will happen too if you wish... I just love this website... it's only 2nd to the NASA website to me at most times... the blurb to the website says...

Space Calendar 2017: Launches, Sky Events & More

...and to it's credit... it does... the list is just way too long to put on here so... on this website below... cheers.

http://www.space.com/32286-space-calendar.html

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...it had to happen I guess?... NASA is sending a Spacecraft to the Sun!... no... not to land on it as it sounds of course but to be in the closest orbit ever of an Earth made Spacecraft... from this website below...

http://time.com/4797964/sun-nasa-touch/

_________________________________________________


NASA Is Finally Sending a Mission to Touch the Sun
Jeffrey Kluger
3:02 PM ET
NASA has visited some awfully impressive places in the past 60 years, so it's something of a wonder that the space agency hasn't found its way to the sun by now. The New Horizons probe, which flew by Pluto in the summer of 2015, is now 3.5 billion miles (5.6 billion km) away; Voyager 1, launched in 1977, has left the solar system entirely, cruising through space at a remove of 11.7 billion miles (18.9 billion km) from Earth.

The sun, meantime, is within arms' reach by cosmic standards, just 93 million miles (150 million km) away. And while it takes a lot of triangulating to get to Pluto, the sun is kind of hard to miss. Just point and shoot.

The problem of course, is that the sun is also — no surprise here — exceedingly hot. Temperatures in the corona — the blistering storm of plasma that stretches millions of miles into space and pops into view during a solar eclipse — approach 1 million degrees F (553,000° C). There's a reason that the nearest any spacecraft has gotten to the solar inferno was 27 million miles (43 million km), a comparative close brush achieved by the Helios 2 spacecraft in 1976.

Now, however, NASA plans to get closer — a whole lot closer. At a press conference on May 31, NASA will officially announce the details and the launch date for the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft, a ship that will leave Earth next summer, sometime in a 20-day window from July 31 to Aug. 19, 2018. (Watch the live stream of the press conference on Time.com.)

There is a lot that makes the planned mission extraordinary. Its extremely close approach to the sun, a planned distance of 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km), will take it within the corona and mark the first time a human-built machine has ever technically touched a star. That contact will not just be a one-time thing. The spacecraft will go into an independent orbit of the sun in November of 2018, and will make up to 24 close approaches through June of 2025. Each orbit will take about 88 days to complete — the same as Mercury's orbit of the sun — and at its peak speeds, the ship will be moving at 450,000 mph (724,000 k/h), or fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. in one second.

That could mean a lot of thermal punishment for a spacecraft that will cost $1.5 billion to build, launch and operate and that carries four suites of sensitive instruments to measure electrical fields, magnetic fields, and electrons and heavy ions, plus a camera intended to return first-ever images from within the corona. Solar Probe Plus, however, is built for such off-road flying, with a 4.5-in. (114 mm) thick heat shield made of carbon composites. Behind that barrier, the instruments will operate at a comfortable room temperature.

There are a lot of important reasons to fly a mission so close to the sun, beyond at last planting NASA's flag there — not that you could actually plant a flag on a body that, effectively, has no surface. For starters, scientists may at last get some answers as to why the million-degree coronasphere is up to 100 times hotter than the 10,000° F (5,500° C) surface, a mystery that has long puzzled them.

Much more significant to the taxpayers picking up the tab for the mission — and to everyone else on the planet, for that matter — is what the mission could reveal about the sun's violent temperament. Solar storms — eruptions from the sun that send charged particles outward through the solar system — can disable communications satellites and potentially shut down electrical grids over vast swaths of the planet. One National Academy of Sciences study that NASA cites revealed that a particularly ferocious storm could cause up to $2 trillion in damage in the U.S. alone and black out the eastern seaboard for up to a year. A better understanding of what causes the eruptions might enable us to predict them — and protect ourselves in advance. That could make even a mission with a billion-plus price tag one of NASA's great bargains.

_________________________________________________

...although this does remind me of a joke that I heard back in 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped upon the Moon way back then (yes... I do have a good memory for an old fart don't I?)... lol!... this is how it goes...

...all of the Ambassadors from all of the nations on Earth were at the United Nations having one of their meetings just after the USA had landed men on the moon and the American Ambassador stood up and bragged... "and there you have it!... the mighty USA has been the first nation in the whole world to land men on the Moon...the first!... such is the magnificence of the mighty United States of America!"... he then sat down feeling really smug and proud of his announcement...

...not to be upstaged the Russian Ambassador immediately stood up and proudly boasted "big deal!... we put the first man into Space itself!... such is the might of the Soviet empire!"... he then sat down happy that he had upstaged the American Ambassador...

...fed up with the pair of them the Irish ambassador immediately stood up and declared "ha!... that's NOTHING!... Ireland is sending the first three astronauts to land on the SUN next year!... so try and beat that!"... he then sat down with a victorious smile on his face knowing that he had upstaged the both of them...

...the American Ambassador immediately stood up and declared "but that's impossible you fool!... the Spacecraft would melt from the intense heat of the Sun!... how will you possibly be able to do that?"... he sat down totally disgruntled...

...the Irish Ambassador immediately stood up and proudly declared "because we're going to do it at night time!... that's how!... he gloated as he sat down for the final time.

_________________________________________________

...yes... I know that it's a silly joke but at least I remembered it from all those years ago (as I said before... not bad for an old fart eh?) ...lol!... cheers.

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...hahaha!... about my post above with that joke I told about the Irish sending Astronauts to the Sun... well I've stumbled across this from 2 years ago... it's great to know that a joke I heard back in the 60's is still being revamped all these years later lol!... on this website below... cheers.

http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/20...-man-on-the-sun-confirms-central-news-agency/

_______________________________________________

North Korea Lands First Ever Man On The Sun, Confirms Central News Agency

January 21, 2014 - BREAKING NEWS, WORLD NEWS

THE STATE News Agency of North Korea has confirmed today that the country has become the first in the world to ever land a man on the sun.

It reported that astronaut Hung Il Gong left for the sun on a specially designed rocket ship at approximately 3am this morning.

Hung, who travelled alone, reached his destination some four hours later, landing his craft on the far side of the lonely star.


“We are very delighted to announce a successful mission to put a man on the sun.” a North Korean central news anchor man said on a live broadcast earlier. “North Korea has beaten every other country in the world to the sun. Hung Il Gong is a hero and deserves a hero’s welcome when he returns home later this evening.”

The specially trained astronaut is expected to return back to earth at 9pm tonight, where he will meet his uncle and supreme leader Kim Jong-un.

It is understood that the 17-year-old ‘space explorer’ travelled at night to avoid being engulfed by the suns rays, and that this genius approach has brought the soviet state to the top of the global space rankings.

While on the sun, Mr. Hung collected sun spot samples to bring back to his supreme leader as a present.

The 18 hour mission is already being called the ‘greatest human achievement of our time’ by the North Korean central news agency.

 

[lynn-ann]

This is fantastic, @Mr. Stickyfingers I will be mentally devouring the information you've posted in this thread as I love anything to do with this subject Thank you for posting it all

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

This is fantastic, @Mr. Stickyfingers I will be mentally devouring the information you've posted in this thread as I love anything to do with this subject Thank you for posting it all

...haha!... that's okay lynn-ann... even if it's only yourself/kxk/reepbot and myself that ever visit this thread it is still worth it in my books... it's a way to vent out my 'all things to do with Space' nerdiness lol!... it's great to see fellow 'Astronuts' <---- (like what I did there?) watching and posting in here because threads like this don't appeal to everyone I've noticed... I assumed that it would die a slow death for that reason alone... (it still may lol!)... anyhow... I'm glad that you like lynn-ann... cheers.

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...I sure do hope that I live long enough to witness this mission to Mars in the 2030's... just to know that they actually did it would sure make my day... there is a great video of the proposed mission itself on this website below...

http://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-mars-spacex-martian-city-625994

...and on this link below is the actual Space X website for more information... cheers.

http://www.spacex.com/news

____________________________________________________

Elon Musk Reveals Vision for a SpaceX City on Mars
By Hannah Osborne On 6/15/17 at 8:17 AM


Elon Musk has revealed his vision for what a SpaceX city on Mars would look like, saying he wants people to believe setting up a colony on the Red Planet will be possible within our lifetimes.

The founder of SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) has discussed the possibility of creating a human settlement on Mars for several years. The company is currently planning to send a robotic mission to Mars by 2024, and says that manned missions could begin as early as 2024—long before NASA’s projected timescale of the early 2030s.

In a commentary piece published in the journal New Space, Musk outlines how he plans to build a city on the planet and what the next steps in space exploration could be.

Artist impression of a Mars colonist. SpaceX

“By talking about the SpaceX Mars architecture, I want to make Mars seem possible—make it seem as though it is something that we can do in our lifetime,” he writes. “There really is a way that anyone could go if they wanted to.”

He said there are two fundamental paths for mankind—that we stay on Earth forever, eventually succumbing to an extinction event, or to become a “space bearing-civilization and a multi-planetary species.”

The latter options, Musk says, is the “right way to go,” adding that in our solar system, Mars is really the only option: “We could conceivably go to our moon, and I actually have nothing against going to the moon, but I think it is challenging to become multi-planetary on the moon because it is much smaller than a planet. It does not have any atmosphere. It is not as resource-rich as Mars. It has got a 28-day day, whereas the Mars day is 24.5 hours. In general, Mars is far better-suited ultimately to scale up to be a self-sustaining civilization.”

Artist impression of a ship heading to Mars. SpaceX

In the commentary, Musk discusses what life on Mars would be like: “Mars is about half as far [again] from the sun as Earth is, so it still has decent sunlight. It is a little cold, but we can warm it up. It has a very helpful atmosphere, which, being primarily CO2 with some nitrogen and argon and a few other trace elements, means that we can grow plants on Mars just by compressing the atmosphere.

“It would be quite fun to be on Mars because you would have gravity that is about 37 percent of that of Earth, so you would be able to lift heavy things and bound around. Furthermore, the day is remarkably close to that of Earth. We just need to change the populations because currently we have seven billion people on Earth and none on Mars.”

Outlining how SpaceX will go about setting up a city on Mars, Musk said there will be many obstacles to overcome. Firstly, the cost. He said the price of a trip to Mars must come down so anyone who wants to go (if they save up) will be able to. “You cannot create a self-sustaining civilization if the ticket price is $10 billion per person,” he said.

All materials sent up to the planet will need to be reusable. There would need to be a refueling station orbiting the planet so we can make more frequent, cheaper trips. On top of this, we will need to produce a propellant on the surface that would allow spaceships to make return trips: “It would be pretty absurd to try to build a city on Mars if your spaceships just stayed on Mars and did not go back to Earth. You would have a massive graveyard of ships; you have to do something with them.”

Artist impression of Mars colonists arriving at the Red Planet. SpaceX

On the ships that would transport people to Mars, he said the first Mars Colonial fleet would “depart en masse,” carrying with them the required cargo and the first settlers. “[The ship] needs to fit 100 people or thereabouts in the pressurized section, carry the luggage and all of the unpressurized cargo to build propellant plants, and to build everything from iron foundries to pizza joints to you name it—we need to carry a lot of cargo.”

Musk believes the threshold for a self-sustaining city on Mars would be a million people. Current calculations indicate that it would take between 40 to 100 years “to achieve a fully self-sustaining civilization on Mars.”

While Musk does not explain how the city would be built or what it would look like, he does share his view on where a permanent city on Mars could take us next—pretty much anywhere in the solar system.

With the right technology, he believes a base on Mars would open the door to even greater space exploration. “By establishing a propellant depot, say on Enceladus or Europa, and then establishing another one on Titan, Saturn's moon, and then perhaps another one further out on Pluto or elsewhere in the solar system, this system really gives you the freedom to go anywhere you want in the greater solar system,” Musk said.

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...adding to that post above that I did on Thursday... Elon Musk has elaborated on the long term plans for Mars exploration on this website below... he has published a full length paper on it which I'll supply in the following post after this one... cheers.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacexs-mars-colony-plan-elon-musk-plans-to-build-million-person-city/

____________________________________________________

SpaceX's Mars colony plan: How Elon Musk plans to build a million-person city

By Mike Wall Livescience.com June 16, 2017, 2:37 PM

Artist's illustration of a SpaceX colony ship arriving at Mars. The company aims to help establish a million-person city on the Red Planet.


SpaceX's billionaire founder and CEO just published the plan, which he unveiled at a conference in Mexico in September 2016, in the journal New Space. Musk's commentary, titled "Making Humanity a Multi-Planetary Species," is available for free on New Space's website through July 5.

"In my view, publishing this paper provides not only an opportunity for the spacefaring community to read the SpaceX vision in print with all the charts in context, but also serves as a valuable archival reference for future studies and planning," New Space editor-in-chief (and former NASA "Mars czar") Scott Hubbard wrote in a statement. [SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport for Mars in Images]


Musk's Mars vision centers on a reusable rocket-and-spaceship combo that he's dubbed the Interplanetary Transport System (ITS). Both the booster and the spaceship will be powered by SpaceX's Raptor engine, still in development, which Musk said will be about three times stronger than the Merlin engines that power the company's Falcon 9 rocket.

The booster, with its 42 Raptors, will be the most powerful rocket in history, by far. It will be capable of launching 300 metric tons (330 tons) to low Earth orbit (LEO), or 550 metric tons (600 tons) in an expendable variant, Musk said. For comparison, NASA's famous Saturn V moon rocket, the current record holder, could loft "just" 135 metric tons (150 tons).

ITS rockets will launch the spaceships to Earth orbit, then come back down for a pinpoint landing about 20 minutes later. And "pinpoint" is not hyperbole: "With the addition of maneuvering thrusters, we think we can actually put the booster right back on the launch stand," Musk wrote in his New Space paper, citing SpaceX's increasingly precise Falcon 9 first-stage landings.




Elon Musk unveils video of high-speed underground tunnel
The ITS boosters will launch many spaceships and fuel tankers (which will top up the spaceships' tanks) to orbit over the course of their operational lives; the rockets will be designed to fly about 1,000 times each, Musk wrote. The spaceships, meanwhile, will hang out in orbit, and then depart en masse when Earth and Mars align favorably. This happens once every 26 months.

Eventually, Musk wrote, he envisions 1,000 or more ITS spaceships, each carrying 100 or more people, leaving Earth orbit during each of these Mars windows. The architecture could conceivably get 1 million people to Mars within the next 50 to 100 years, he has said.

The ships would also fly back from Mars, using their nine Raptor engines and methane-based propellant that was manufactured on the Red Planet. Each ITS ship would probably be able to make 12 to 15 deep-space journeys during its operational life, Musk wrote, and each fuel tanker could likely fly to Earth orbit 100 or so times.

The ITS' reusability is key to making Mars colonization affordable. This reusability -- combined with other measures, such as fueling the spaceships in Earth orbit and making propellant on Mars -- could bring the price of a Red Planet trip down to $200,000 or so per person, from an estimated $10 billion using conventional spaceflight systems, Musk said.

ITS spaceships could begin flying to Mars about 10 years from now, if everything goes well, Musk added. But he acknowledged that success is far from guaranteed.

"There is a huge amount of risk. It is going to cost a lot," Musk wrote. "There is a good chance we will not succeed, but we are going to do our best and try to make as much progress as possible."

And SpaceX has a history of overcoming long odds. When Musk founded the company in 2002, he wrote, "I thought we had maybe a 10 percent chance of doing anything — of even getting a rocket to orbit, let alone getting beyond that and taking Mars seriously."

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...and here is the long term plan that Elon Musk has put out... it really is interesting to a Space nerdnick like me at least lol!... it's way too big for me to print here but click on this link below and you can see for yourself...

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/space.2017.29009.emu

...the size of the Spacecraft is even higher than the Apollo Spacecrafts that took Man to the Moon back in the 1960's... it's huge!... as can be seen here...




...also... the size of the actual Spacecraft minus the booster section is nothing to sneeze at either...







...all in all I really do find this stuff to be quite fascinating and as I said somewhere in a post above... I really do hope that I live long enough to witness part of these Historic missions... the times that we live in just blows my mind away with things like this happening... it really does... cheers.

 

[Mr Stickyfingers]

...hahaha!... and... in relation to these posts above I guess... another subject about going to Mars... I won't even bother speaking about it... I'll just let you read it for yourself lol!... on this link below... cheers.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/s...y/news-story/a9c9540dfd0c39ae0aef607bc792126b

_______________________________________________________________________________

Sex in space is a ‘real concern’ and must be studied before we set sights on Mars, experts say

SOMEONE needs to sit down and have a long, hard think about how a condom would work in zero gravity apparently.

Margi MurphyThe Sun
June 16, 201711:46pm

There’s still some very important unanswered questions about our potential future life in space.

ROMPING in space is a “real concern” for astronauts, a top university professor in the US has warned.

It’s something we know little about — but is crucial if we ever want to colonise other planets like Mars.

During a recent Atlantic Live panel, Assistant Professor Kris Lehnhardt, from George Washington University, said that the topic needs to be addressed immediately.

He said: “It’s a real concern … something we really don’t know about is human reproduction in space.”

“If we actually want to go places and stay there, there’s a key component and that’s having babies,” he added.

Kris Lehnhardt (@AerospaceDr ) on how little we actually know about our ability to colonize a new planet #AtlanticSpace pic.twitter.com/fQtaqJj912

— AtlanticLIVE (@AtlanticLIVE) May 16, 2017
It’s hard to imagine cracking on during a rocket mission, considering the lack of gravity. And space suits aren’t the most appealing when it comes to foreplay.

But during the long mission to Mars (something which Elon Musk hopes to make a reality by 2030) it’s likely to happen.

There are many things that humans need to prepare for before attempting long-duration space travel.

Combating the radioactive space rays beaming from the sun, keeping your health in good nick and maintaining your fitness are likely to be prime concerns for astronauts.

Can we have babies outside the Earth's atmosphere?Source:Supplied

But sexual reproduction is probably the most important, according to Lehnhardt.

“If we want to become a spacefaring species and live in space permanently this is a crucial issue we need to address that has not been fully studied yet,” he said.

Earthlings might want to stick to the mile-high club.

A sexpert that midair romps can actually give you better orgasms, as a result of the dip in atmospheric pressure that comes with being 30,000 feet above the ground.

The aeroplane setting is associated with a safe reduction of oxygen levels, which can excite the brain and create feelings of euphoria.

 

[kxk]

That pic of Germany/earth is gorgeous...

China sets new record for quantum entanglement en route to build new communication network
CHINA has scored a victory against hackers and spooks as it surges ahead of other world powers in a new kind of space race.

IN A bid to build an entirely new kind of internet — completely secure and impervious to hackers — China has pulled off a major feat in particle physics.

Chinese scientists have set a new distance record for beaming a pair of entangled particles: photons of light that behave like twins and experience the exact same things simultaneously, even though they’re separated by great distances.

The principle is called quantum entanglement and it’s one of the subatomic world’s weirdest phenomena. And China has smashed the distance record for quantum entanglement.

In a groundbreaking experiment led by Professor Jian-Wei Pan of Hefei University in China, a laser on a satellite orbiting 480 kilometres above the earth produced entangled photons.

They were then transmitted to two different ground-based stations 1200 kilometres apart, without breaking the link between the photons, the researchers said in a report published in the journal Science.

That distance achieved in the experiment is 10 times greater than the previous record for entanglement and is also the first time entangled photons have been generated in space.

“It’s a huge, major achievement,” Thomas Jennewein, physicist at the University of Waterloo in Canada, told Science. “They started with this bold idea and managed to do it.”

China launched its first quantum satellite in August and if all goes according to plan will send up plenty more to create a system of communication which relies on entanglement.

A COMPLETELY NEW INTERNET
By launching a group of quantum-enabled satellites, China hopes to create a super secure network that uses an encryption technique based on the principles of a field known as quantum communication.

“In physics we are trying, and we have demonstrated some encryption techniques that rely on the law of physics rather than the mathematical complexity and we call this quantum key distribution,” professor Ping Koy Lam from the ANU’s Department of Quantum Science told news.com.au last year, before China launched its first quantum satellite.

“For that to work you need to send laser beams that carry certain information, quantum information, and then you need the senders and the receivers to get together to find a protocol to secure the communication.”

The reason it can’t be hacked is because the information carried in the quantum state of a particle cannot be measured or cloned without destroying the information itself.

“We can show that this kind of quantum encryption works in a city radius or at most between two nearby cities,” Prof Lam said.

However China believes the atmosphere in space will allow the photons to travel further without disruption because “in space there’s nothing to attenuate light.”

In the latest experiment, both stations which received the photons were in the mountains of Tibet, at a height that reduced the amount of air the fragile photons had to traverse.

The successful characterisation of quantum features under such conditions is a precondition for a global quantum communication network using satellites that would link metropolitan area quantum networks on the ground.


A NEW SPACE RACE

China’s ongoing progress will no doubt be watched closely by security agencies around the world.

While the spectre of a communication network enabled via quantum satellites is still a long way off, as China edges closer to the goal it has led to predictions of a new space race.

Quantum technology has been a major focus of China’s five-year economic development plan, released in March 2016. While other space agencies have been experimenting with the technology, none have seen the level of financial support provided by Beijing.

China has not disclosed how much money it has spent on Quantum research, but funding for basic research which includes quantum physics was $US101 billion in 2015 — an absolutely massive increase from the $US1.9 billion the country spent in 2005.

Scientists in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan are also rushing to exploit the power of particle physics to create secure communication systems, but China’s latest experiment puts the country well ahead of the pack.