SpaceX and all the good space stuff

mca47

HesCalledDyer said:

PJ_Soul said:

The Event Horizon Telescope Is Trying to Take the First-Ever Photo of a Black Hole

https://www.space.com/event-horizon-telescope-is-trying-to-photograph-black-holes.html?utm_source=sdc-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190408-sdc

I am looking forward to this photo.

Without further ado:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/black-hole-image-makes-history

Been reading about this all morning.  So fn cool!

eeriepadave

PJ_Soul

HughFreakingDillon

the moon is shrinking:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/13/world/moon-shrinking-quakes-scn/index.html

PJ_Soul

HughFreakingDillon said:

the moon is shrinking:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/13/world/moon-shrinking-quakes-scn/index.html

That is interesting!

oftenreading

The possibility of successfully terraforming other planets is one step closer.

A fairly simple sheet of aerogel could make farming on Mars possible.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/15/scientists-work-out-way-to-make-mars-surface-fit-for-farming

eeriepadave

Super Pink Wolf Moon

https://www.space.com/biggest-supermoon-2020-super-pink-moon-guide.html

oftenreading

Somehow, in all the material written about Musk and SpaceX, I somehow missed that he has been naming his ships and other equipment after ships in Iain M Banks' Culture novels. 

Okay, that's actually the first thing I've ever heard that's made me like Musk a little bit. 

(also looks like the planned series based on the novels has been shelved). 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/26/amazon-tv-adaptation-of-iain-banks-culture-series-is-cancelled

HughFreakingDillon

oftenreading said:

The possibility of successfully terraforming other planets is one step closer.

A fairly simple sheet of aerogel could make farming on Mars possible.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/15/scientists-work-out-way-to-make-mars-surface-fit-for-farming

i just personally don't see any point in trying to live on other planets unless we find one already suitable. who wants to live on a desolate wasteland you can't breathe in?

PJ_Soul

The new Challenger limited series doc on Netflox is really really good.... and shocking. What an unbelievable tragic failure by some of NASA's admin. I don't know how the ones responsible for their irresponsibility can live with it.

I remember the Challenger disaster like it was yesterday. We were watching it live in the library at school - grade 3. It was eqrly and a spur of the moment thing, right when class started. When it blew up, I recall my lovely teacher, Miss Beck, jumping up to turn off the TV after the explosion, and then she started crying. And watching it now still brings me to tears. Especially when they show the family members who were watching. Heartbreaking.

HughFreakingDillon

i don't recall watching it, and don't remember it at all, really, and i was about the same age i think. 

i was reading up on it today. i had no idea the sheer amount of incompetence that was found out. it's staggering that part wasn't a bigger deal (or at least it didn't seem to be)

Zod

I remember the Challenger day.  I can't remember if I heard about it at school, but the babysitter we had, had it going on her TV when we went there after school.   Still leaves an imprint to this day.   All I really remember that went wrong was incompetence and a failed O-Ring.    Looking forward to watching the netflix doc.

Zod

HughFreakingDillon said:

oftenreading said:

The possibility of successfully terraforming other planets is one step closer.

A fairly simple sheet of aerogel could make farming on Mars possible.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/15/scientists-work-out-way-to-make-mars-surface-fit-for-farming

i just personally don't see any point in trying to live on other planets unless we find one already suitable. who wants to live on a desolate wasteland you can't breathe in?

I find it weird we want to terraform other planets when we can't fix this one.  On the otherwise I'm not against it.  It wouldn't hurt to have a 2nd planet on standby in case something happened to this one.

HughFreakingDillon

Venus is a Russian planet, according to Russia. 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/world/venus-russian-planet-scn-scli-intl/index.html

HughFreakingDillon

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/29/business/elon-musk-nyt-podcast-covid-vaccine/index.html

i legitimately think that elon musk is a fucking idiot. 

eeriepadave

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jupiter-saturn-double-planet-great-conjunction-december-21/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&utm_content=algorithm&fbclid=IwAR2pZc7EVyMFVkYrvSVQLtfyrcCl4WyDxR0L73F2smPLMFS6pvAtS_EHse0

F Me In The Brain

I read that - and set a reminder.
Really cool recently that we can see so many planets, easily.

rgambs

I really, really hate that the Great Conjunction is being called "the Christmas Star".
It's fucking childish and stupid fodder for the masses who couldn't be bothered to get off their asses to go outside if the moon was dropping hundred dollar bills into the atmosphere.

F Me In The Brain

Marketing, man, marketing.
I am anti all of that as well....but stupid fodder for the masses is a pretty accurate label.  (For all of that type of shit.)

HughFreakingDillon

time to bust out the ol' telescope

tbergs

I've really been trying to get my kids involved with astronomy and stargazing the last few years. They love it. Hoping for a clear night on the 13th when the geminids hit their peak and of course for the great conjunction. Pretty amazing that they haven't been seen that close for hundreds of years. We also recently listened to a cool book on CD about black holes.

tempo_n_groove

Gotta work on that landing yo!
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacex-starship-rocket-prototype-explodes-landing/

eeriepadave

eeriepadave said:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jupiter-saturn-double-planet-great-conjunction-december-21/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab&utm_content=algorithm&fbclid=IwAR2pZc7EVyMFVkYrvSVQLtfyrcCl4WyDxR0L73F2smPLMFS6pvAtS_EHse0

bump for tonight

gonna try and see if i can see them

F Me In The Brain

Too cloudy here.  We have been checking them out for a while and then read about the 21st....shitty weather for it tonight though, even the moon is hit or miss through the clouds.

eeriepadave

F Me In The Brain said:

Too cloudy here.  We have been checking them out for a while and then read about the 21st....shitty weather for it tonight though, even the moon is hit or miss through the clouds.

yeah just peaked outside and could only see the moon

a5pj

Saw 7 shooting stars on the 13th, very cool with a blue fireball. Been looking all summer and never saw any until that night during the major shower.
Too cloudy here in PA to see the "great conjunction"...
My daughter is into star gazing a little, I try to go out and look every night for a bit unless it's freezing. Very calming as well as interesting.
Need to get a good, easy to use telescope , not super $$, if anyone has any good ideas. 

tbergs

Bummed the weather didn't cooperate. Watched those 2 close in on each other for weeks and then, bam, cloud-a-palooza. Same with the meteor shower last week. Been an 0-fer December.

rgambs

a5pj said:

Saw 7 shooting stars on the 13th, very cool with a blue fireball. Been looking all summer and never saw any until that night during the major shower.
Too cloudy here in PA to see the "great conjunction"...
My daughter is into star gazing a little, I try to go out and look every night for a bit unless it's freezing. Very calming as well as interesting.
Need to get a good, easy to use telescope , not super $$, if anyone has any good ideas. 

The key is to just set your price range and get one in that ballpark, and learn it's tricks. 
On inexpensive telescopes, the weakest point is usually the tripod and mount.  I can be really hard to get them pointed at anything but the moon, the finder scope is almost never properly aligned.  So you just have to be very patient, and understand that there is always a trade-off...if you magnify it to be large in your field of view, it will be dim and hazy, but if you want clarity it will be very small.  You can't expect NASA photo quality images, even from a telescope in that sets you back a grand...but you can see some pretty cool stuff out there if you are patient. 

Really sucks we missed this one, there aren't any particularly interesting astronomical events in 2021.

oftenreading

The era of civilian space travel has apparently arrived.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/civilian-space-crew-1.5970871

Here's who got the last 2 seats for the 1st all-civilian space flight

Billionnaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is paying SpaceX to fly him and 3 others in September

Thomson Reuters · Posted: Mar 31, 2021 8:05 AM ET | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

A college science professor and an aerospace data analyst were named on Tuesday to round out a four-member crew for a SpaceX launch into orbit that's planned for later this year and billed as the first all-civilian space flight in history.

The two latest citizen astronauts were introduced at a news briefing live streamed from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida by SpaceX human space flight chief Benji Reed and billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who conceived the mission in part as a charity drive.

Isaacman, founder and CEO of e-commerce firm Shift4 Payments, is forking over an unspecified but presumably exorbitant sum to fellow billionaire and SpaceX owner Elon Musk to fly himself and three others into orbit aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

The flight, scheduled for no earlier than Sept. 15, is expected to last three to four days from launch to splashdown.

"When this mission is complete, people are going to look at it and say this was the first time that everyday people could go to space," Isaacman, 38, told reporters.

Dubbed Inspiration4, the mission is designed primarily to raise awareness and support for one of Isaacman's favourite causes, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, a leading pediatric cancer centre. He has pledged $100 million US personally to the institute.

Assuming the role of mission "commander," Isaacman in February designated St. Jude physician's assistant Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a bone cancer survivor and one-time patient at the Tennessee-based hospital, as his first crewmate.

Sweepstakes, online business contest winners

Announced on Tuesday, Chris Sembroski, 41, a Seattle-area aerospace industry employee and U.S. Air Force veteran, was selected through a sweepstakes that drew 72,000 applicants and has raised $113 million US in St. Jude donations.

Sian Proctor, 51, a geoscience professor at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, Ariz., and entrepreneur who was once a NASA astronaut candidate, was chosen separately through an online business contest run by Shift4 Payments.

All four will undergo extensive training modelled after the curriculum NASA astronauts use to prepare for SpaceX missions.

The Inspiration4 mission may mark a new era in space flight, but it is not the only all-civilian crewed rocket launch in the works.

British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic enterprise is developing a spaceplane to carry paying customers on suborbital excursions.

SpaceX plans a separate launch, possibly next year, of a retired NASA astronaut, a former Israeli fighter pilot and two other people in conjunction with Houston-based private space flight company Axiom Space.

Musk also intends to fly Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa around the moon in 2023. Fees charged for those flights will help finance the development of Musk's new, heavy-lift Starship rocket for missions to the moon and Mars.

Inspiration4 is about more than a billionaire's joyride through space, organizers say, promising the crew will conduct a number of as-yet undetermined science experiments during its brief voyage.

tempo_n_groove

Bezos went up and came back down safely today.