Space Exploration,astronomy & Cosmology

Discussion in 'Taylor's Tittle-Tattle - General Banter' started by StuBoy, May 26, 2020.

  1. nornironhorn

    nornironhorn Administrator Staff Member

    In 2006, this question was asked on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire as a £1 million question:

    Who was the first man to travel into space twice?

    A) Vladimir Titov
    B) Michael Collins
    C) Gus Grissom
    D) Yuri Gagarin

    The 'answer' was Gus Grissom.

    I've been doing a bit of research though and I've no idea whether or not to believe Grissom was the first person to do it twice, or whether Joseph Walker has that accolade. Googling it gives a variety of articles supporting both claimants without explicitly referring to the other.

    Walker seemingly passed the Karman Line on two of his flights so I don't understand why he isn't the answer to the above question. You could argue that he doesn't qualify as both of these flights were sub-orbital, but then again Grissom's first flight was also sub-orbital so that can't be the explanation (and of course he famously never got to make his third journey due to the Apollo 1 disaster).

    Any ideas?
     
  2. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    Images taken from Juno launched back in 2011 and still operating around Jupiter before it ends up being sent into the planet to be crushed. The camera is still operating and was designed to view the cloud formations of the upper atmosphere including the first taken of the North Pole. There are many other instruments measuring the gravitational and magnetic fields, analysing charged particles in the aurorae and identifying the locations of radio emissions from the atmosphere.

    https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing

    NASA plans to send an unmanned Orion to the Moon early next year, Artemis 1. The SLS and Orion have been joined together on a launch platform at KSC.

    https://www.space.com/orion-stacked-sls-rocket-artemis-1-mission
     
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  3. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    How many times this actually flies I don't know. However, the development and construction of the Artemis 2 and 3 Orion vehicles has actually begun. I believe number 3 will be the moon landing attempt.

    In other news, Elon Musk has stated (pending FAA approval), they will do their first orbital Starship test next month. I'm dubious, despite their rapid pace of developing the launch site since the last Starship test flight a few months ago. If I had to guess I'd say Q1 2022 would be a decent bet, maybe March time.
     
  4. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    Thanks for this Smudger. Incredible shots of Jupiter.
     
  5. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    James Webb the successor to Hubble is scheduled to lift off into space on Christmas Eve. With it's enormous 6.5 metre mirror compared to Hubbles 2.4m and other instruments it will be able to peer further into space and back into time to the formation of the first galaxies and answer a number of cosmological questions regarding the development of the early universe. Not to mention looking for exoplanets in more detail.

    https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-sets-coverage-invites-public-to-view-webb-telescope-launch

    The Parker Solar Probe also passed through the Sun's corona this week with this amazing footage. It's mission is to unravel the dynamics of the corona and the way it's electromagnetic fields interact and create the solar wind.



     
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  6. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Isn't this looking in the IR - so the level of data we get should be a, literal, quantum leap?
     
  7. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    [​IMG]
     
  8. Filbert

    Filbert Leicester supporting bloke

    Oh boy.


    That Timelapse is ******* incredible.
     
  9. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member


    It is designed to look primarily into the IR so looking through dust and gas to see the structures of the early galaxies and seeing how they evolve structures. The incident photons are absorbed by a surface semiconductor layer on the mirror then the signal is passed via indium connects to the readout integrated circuits in the bottom layer for each of the four main detectors. The way they have been assembled is also designed to reduce background signal noise and they should last longer in the environment of space than some of Hubble's comparable detectors on it's wide field camera which took the famous deep field shot. More detail here Bwood.

    https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/innovations/infrared.html
     
  10. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    I'm very interested in the NIR of water...

    EDIT: Farking physicists using wavelength to describe spectroscopic measurements - what's wrong with wavenumbers?
     
  11. BigRossLittleRoss

    BigRossLittleRoss First Team

    Lets hope there's no hitches because they wont be able to send anyone up to fix it like they did with Hubble.
     
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  12. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    The instrument and you will know better is designed to look for the vibrational moments in water molecules in deep space with water molecules having three of these. Water has been found throughout the solar system, in comets and in far off galaxies. It's difficult to see these water transitions from the Earth surface due to the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere so observatories in very arid areas and high up have been used to determine this. The JWST will be able to see the distribution and locations of water even further back into time. I think it's generally assumed amino acids and water two of the main building blocks to the development of life are pretty common in space.
     
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  13. Hussar

    Hussar Academy Graduate

    Must give a nod on Christmas Eve to
    Frank Borman
    James Lovell
    Bill Anders

    crew of Apollo 8
     
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  14. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Martin Chaplin at LSBU is basically the world's expert on 'water'. He has a webpage that details (among many other things) the vibrational spectroscopy (MIR, 3800-200 cm-1) of water is 'tricky' due to the bands being so broad and they're also swamped by those of many other things of interest (amino acids). Move to the NIR and the ν2+ν3 band (combination of asymmetric stretch and bend at ~5400 cm-1) is sharp and in a relatively uncluttered region of the EM spectrum. Plus the fact that ν2+ν3 mode 'shifts' its position due to the 'environment' it's in (water bonding to polar, covalent or ionic environments) - this was very cutting edge science when I was involved in it around a decade ago there was a lot of hope that mode could be exploited as a biomarker.
     
  15. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

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  16. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    The Tongan volcanic eruption was captured by a satellite:

    [​IMG]

    Bottom right:

    [​IMG]
     
  17. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    JWST reached Lagrange 2 using less propellant than required which should means it's planned mission life will get doubled. Plans for a successor are no doubt in the works.

    https://gadgets.ndtv.com/science/ne...pe-home-lagrange-point-l2-nasa-update-2728032

    Good thing it was a submarine explosion and only caused a relatively minor tsunami. One can only imagine the impact if it had been on the surface and it's effect on global warming. Volcanoes have such an impact on history from Toba that nearly wiped out the human species to Laki and onwards. This is an excellent book to read covering the subject:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eruptions-...ons+that+shook+the+world,stripbooks,79&sr=1-1
     
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  18. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    As this has just been released (and once I turned into wavelength into wavenumbers):

    Screenshot from 2022-07-14 12-42-13.png

    Back of a fag packet scribbling suggests that data around 1.85 microns (5400 cm-1 in proper money) is strongly indicative of liquid water bonded to something...
     
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  19. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    Here's NASA'd Flickr account with images from JWST. The detail compared to it's illustrious predecessor and the distance they are coming from makes the mind appreciate the cosmos that little bit more.
    NASA's James Webb Space Telescope | Flickr
     
  20. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    NASA’s new moon rocket, SLS is meant to be launching for the first time today, almost 20 years in the making…launch window starts 13:33 our time and will be streamed left, right and centre.

    However, they already have discovered a hydrogen leak when fuelling (something that happened in the dress rehearsal, so strange it’s happening again…). So my confidence they launch today given this factor and the history of delays is pretty minimal. We shall see.
     
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  21. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Just seen on BBC Breakfast. They're filling it slower to see if the leak stops. Hydrogen atoms are notorious for getting bigger when they slow down.
     
  22. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Yes. They have some kind of percentage on how much is leaking. Currently this sits at 1.8%, if it reaches 4% they will need to stop.

    The hydrogen tank is currently 7% full. By now it should have already been fully fuelled. I’d be surprised if they launch today to be honest.
     
  23. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Well fuelling is proceeding and they're filling up the upper stage now as well, so I guess so far so good....
     
  24. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    Interesting thread. I have a bit of an obsession with the planet Neptune. I think it's a beautiful looking planet with the haze blue and the dark spot (which I know are massive wind storms). It's the furthest planet from the Sun so I am guessing it's also the coldest. Repeorts I have read cannot decide on whether gas planets (Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter) have a core. I personally think they must have one, due to the deeper you go into the planet the hotter it gets, with the crushing gravity it liquidates atoms that form diamonds. So, with billions of small diamonds clumped together at the central point, it must have a sort of core?

    I know there has only been one fly-by of a satelite within the last 50 years or so, but it would be interesting to finally know more about such a mysterious planet.
     
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  25. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    The H2 leak(s) explain NASA's warning about lightning.

    Every time I've worked with dihydrogen there have been problems with leaks (either in the pipework or the storage) - seeing my experience is on a benchtop/fume cupboard I dread to think what the issues are when it's scaled up to an interplanetary rocket...
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2022
  26. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Currently an engine temperature issue and they're in an unplanned hold now. Looks like a strong chance of a scrub today. Next shot would be on Friday.
     
  27. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Officially scrubbed the launch for today, back on Friday probably...
     
  28. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    We go again, on Saturday at 19:17, fingers crossed etc etc.. I give it a 30% chance of launching.
     
  29. Maybe if you went to do a poo it'd happen...
     
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  30. bash

    bash Academy Graduate

    I have this obsession too! My Ipad "Home screen" is an image of Neptune, I think its the deep blue colour and the wispy white clouds that I like about it. No doubt it would be hellish to visit of course.

    I also struggle with the concept of the gas giants and cores/surfaces they may or may not have. I get that you can't easily go to Jupiter and the others (or even send probes) because the atmosphere would be so thick it would crush anything, but I struggle with the idea of there not being anything solid to actually land on, were you able to survive that.

    One of the other extraterrestrial bodies that fascinates me is the Saturnian moon Titan, where there are lakes of methane. I think it would be incredible to see these, even via some sort of probe camera. I wonder if these far off places will be explored more in our lifetimes?
     
  31. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    In about 4.9 Billions years when the Sun turns into a red giant humanity (what's left of it) will be forced to leave Earth. By that point, the warmth of a massive star will make Mars and even Titan habitable - if there is (by then) evidence of water and sustainable atmosphere. I do think we will one day (not in our lifetimes) as a race create a probe that can withstand the pressures of Neptune and see deeper inside the planet.
     
  32. BigRossLittleRoss

    BigRossLittleRoss First Team

    Moons of Jupiter and Saturn are considered to be places that may harbour life .
     
  33. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    They sent a probe (Huygens) a few years ago that parachuted down and briefly was on the surface. It took some pictures as it went down and when it rested on the surface. Unfortunately it didn’t land on a methane lake (it was designed to survive that by the way). However, the ‘rocks’ it saw are made of solid ice.

    https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens/Titan_first_images_-_slideshow
     
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  34. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member


    @SkylaRose the data from Juno led planetary scientists to develop a fuzzy core model for Jupiter rather than the former ideas of a metallic hydrogen or small rocky possibly iron rich one.
    Jupiter revealed (knowablemagazine.org)

    Visualization from the Juno data of the Jovian magnetic fields:

     
  35. Lloyd

    Lloyd Squad Player

    Called off again? Why the delay? Its not rocket science
     

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