Space In General

RIP Bruce McCandless, the first astronaut to fly untethered in space. As well as being a pioneer he features in one of the most famous images from space history. BBC.

Bruce.jpg
 
RIP Bruce McCandless, the first astronaut to fly untethered in space.
I heard the words "Bruce McCandless passed away" followed by more that I didn't catch because I was otherwise engaged--I knew that name sounded familiar.
 
I remember that photo well, as will countless others around the world. RIP Bruce.

Cool timelapse video.



Edit: High quality shot.

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As well as the "light echo" from the supernova explosion within the M82 galaxy, that's the most amazing thing I've seen this year.

Wow. :eek:
 
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This composite image of three photos was captured by OSIRIS-REx on October 2, 2017, when it the spacecraft was approximately 3 million miles (5 million km) from Earth, which is roughly 13 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. The three images were combined and color-corrected, and the Moon was brightened to make it more visible (the Moon is actually a bit darker than it appears).

https://gizmodo.com/this-photo-showing-the-earth-and-moon-together-is-total-1821743369
 
Was going to post a reminder for the launch tomorrow but upon checking for the exact time I found that it's been postponed until Sunday. Go figure.
 
The current NASA missions to Mars were not designed to find traces of life. Even so, they stumbled across something that called for the rover to take a 2nd and 3rd look.

https://www.space.com/39294-mars-rover-curiosity-weird-tube-structures.html

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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity captured this image on Jan. 2, 2018, with its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). Using an onboard focusing process, the robot created this product by merging two to eight images previously taken by MAHLI, which is located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Have trace fossils been found on Mars?

"We have a very limited capability overall to understand whether something is biological or not."

Meanwhile, along with new MAHLI imagery, Curiosity's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) are also inspecting the features for clues as to their nature.

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Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo of novel stick-like features, taken on Dec. 31, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

"looks like bioturbation and would likely be as such identified if the image would be from Earth," said Schulze-Makuch, whose latest book, co-authored with MIT researcher William Bains, is "The Cosmic Zoo: Complex Life on Many Worlds" (Springer, 2017).

"But concretions can look quite similar, and, in [the] case of Mars, it's … more likely concretions,"
 
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Ad Astra Per Aspera - to the stars through difficulty

Space fever; probably not good. "We concluded that, within the limits of a spaceflight experiment, these (core body temperature) increases might be related to persistent low-grade pro-inflammatory responses to weightlessness, strenuous exercise protocols, radiation, psychological stress-induced hyperthermia or a combination thereof. Irrespective of its underlying causes, this space fever, as we may call it, has potential implications for long-term spaceflights in terms of astronauts’ health, well-being, and support, including energy, nutrient, and fluid requirements as well as physical and cognitive performance."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-15560-w#Sec6

Increased core body temperature in astronauts during long-duration space missions
Received:
04 September 2017
Accepted:
27 October 2017
Published online:
23 November 2017
Abstract

Humans’ core body temperature (CBT) is strictly controlled within a narrow range. Various studies dealt with the impact of physical activity, clothing, and environmental factors on CBT regulation under terrestrial conditions. However, the effects of weightlessness on human thermoregulation are not well understood. Specifically, studies, investigating the effects of long-duration spaceflight on CBT at rest and during exercise are clearly lacking. We here show that during exercise CBT rises higher and faster in space than on Earth. Moreover, we observed for the first time a sustained increased astronauts’ CBT also under resting conditions. This increase of about 1 °C developed gradually over 2.5 months and was associated with augmented concentrations of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, a key anti-inflammatory protein. Since even minor increases in CBT can impair physical and cognitive performance, both findings have a considerable impact on astronauts’ health and well-being during future long-term spaceflights. Moreover, our findings also pinpoint crucial physiological challenges for spacefaring civilizations, and raise questions about the assumption of a thermoregulatory set point in humans, and our evolutionary ability to adapt to climate changes on Earth.


astronaut-barf-640x395.jpg

Space very well could be one of the worst places to get sick.


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Should we create a genetically-altered race of deep space supermen to carry our flavor throughout the galaxy?
 
Highly classified US spy satellite appears to be a total loss after SpaceX launch
  • Dow Jones reported Monday evening that lawmakers had been briefed about the apparent destruction of the secretive payload — code-named Zuma
  • The payload was suspected to have failed to separate perfectly from the upper part of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
  • The missing satellite may have been worth billions of dollars
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/08/hig...s-to-be-a-total-loss-after-spacex-launch.html

http://www.newsweek.com/spacex-falcon-9-zuma-lost-775069

Elon Musk’s SpaceX finally launched its mysterious Zuma satellite on Sunday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. To viewers of the live stream, the launch seemed like a success. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying Zuma blasted off and appeared to shed “stage one,” as planned.

However, cameras did not follow stage two of the rocket, and reports suggest Zuma may not have reached its final orbit.

19spacex-zuma-launch.jpg
SpaceX launches Zuma from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 7.

Industry and government officials believe the craft failed to reach its goal, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Zuma may not have separated from the upper part of the Falcon 9 rocket and instead plunged back into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Originally planned to launch back in November, Zuma had a secret payload for the U.S. government. Aerospace and defense company Northrup Grumman—which worked on the mission with SpaceX on behalf of the government—told Space.comits function was “restricted” and was being fired into "low-Earth orbit."

Beset by months of delays, the confidential craft was strapped to a Falcon 9 rocket and finally launched on January 7 at 8 p.m. ET. Viewers watched the rocket power up and blast off from its launchpad. As planned, the main engine was cut around two and a half minutes into the launch, and the Falcon 9 split into stage one and stage two.

Boosters sent stage one back to the ground roughly eight minutes after the launch. A second engine was intended to propel stage two—which carried Zuma—into low-Earth orbit.

Brian Mahlstedt, an automation software engineer at SpaceX, told live-stream viewers: “We’re not going to show video coverage of it, but we will confirm that the fairings have separated, meaning that Zuma and second stage are the only vehicles continuing on to their final orbit.”

However, it appears that Zuma did not make it into orbit. Staff from the Senate and House have reportedly been briefed on the failure of the mission. According to The Wall Street Journal, industry officials have estimated Zuma cost billions of dollars.

Both SpaceX and Northrup Grumman have refused to comment on the status of the mission.
 
So apparently the launch was a bust. I wonder where this leaves Musk.
Not his problem really, as I have heard that the problem was the hardware used to release the payload from the 2nd stage, which was not SpaceX's hardware. Northrup Grumman decided to use their own hardware and it failed.

Edit: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spacex-zuma-20180109-story.html

Also, it's normal procedure for SpaceX to cut the video feed for the 2nd stage on top secret missions.
 
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https://www.space.com/39328-spacex-...er03916&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

According to Eric Berger of Ars Technica, Zuma was assigned a number in the satellite catalog Space-Track.org, which implies it was able to make at least one orbit of Earth — but it could have still been attached to the second stage and failed to detach after that point. Berger noted that the payload adapter connecting the stage to the payload and fairing was provided by Northrop Grumman, so a potential separation problem could track back to that company's failure. A Northrop Grumman representative told Space.com the company cannot comment on classified missions.
 
quick question to those who know more than me (basically everyone)

Would they need to confirm the mission fail and where the Satellite burnt up etc. due to possible contaminants released or dangerous materials coming back to earth? Especially over someone else's airspace?
 
Would they need to confirm the mission fail and where the Satellite burnt up etc. due to possible contaminants released or dangerous materials coming back to earth? Especially over someone else's airspace?

I saw that it's been confirmed to have fallen into the Indian Ocean.



@Carbon_6
A few more creepy, paranoia-inducing mission patches from the National Reconnaissance Office.

NROL-66_Patch.0.0.png
NRO



octopus.jpg__600x0_q85_upscale.jpg
NRO



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NRO
 
I saw that it's been confirmed to have fallen into the Indian Ocean.



@Carbon_6
A few more creepy, paranoia-inducing mission patches from the National Reconnaissance Office.

NROL-66_Patch.0.0.png
NRO



octopus.jpg__600x0_q85_upscale.jpg
NRO



10153752_1587683108129744_8152544120415059908_n.jpg
NRO
Not too many years ago there was a book on program/mission patches, for NASA stuff, Area 51, Edwards, and other high end or usually Top secret work. Most of them were creepy, either because the project was mired in deep mystery or to make the project (in a funny way) seem more ominous.
 
Classic message of learning from Jupiter - "Keep working on the theories. Don't believe your professors."

https://www.space.com/39348-juno-jupiter-mission-planet-revelations.html
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Before NASA sent its Juno spacecraft to explore Jupiter, astronomers were "totally wrong" about much of what they thought they knew about the planet, the mission's principal investigator, Scott Bolton, said during a lecture here at the 231st meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Tuesday (Jan. 9).

Bolton ended his lecture with a message to grad students: "Keep working on the theories. Don't believe your professors."




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Cyclones swirl at Jupiter's south pole in this photo from NASA's Juno spacecraft.
Credit: Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles/NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
 
Questions are persisting as to the status of the ZUMA mission.
http://spacenews.com/pentagon-shuts-down-questions-about-zuma-and-raises-more-questions/

Sources contacted by SpaceNews suggested that the Pentagon might be rightfully shutting down questions if it turns out that the Defense Department or the National Reconnaissance Office were not the customers for this mission. And was Zuma a satellite? Even that is not certain. Conceivably it could have been a spaceplane or some experimental vehicle launched by a defense contractor or maybe even the CIA. According to one source, the CIA would be expected to rely on the NRO for space missions “but from what I’ve heard has been known to do its own thing on occasion,” the source said. “My guess is that this was an experimental rather than operational payload. If it were operational, it would have been flown by ULA.”

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The Pleiades - is this the constellation depicted on ZUMA mission patch?
 

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Questions are persisting as to the status of the ZUMA mission.
http://spacenews.com/pentagon-shuts-down-questions-about-zuma-and-raises-more-questions/

Sources contacted by SpaceNews suggested that the Pentagon might be rightfully shutting down questions if it turns out that the Defense Department or the National Reconnaissance Office were not the customers for this mission. And was Zuma a satellite? Even that is not certain. Conceivably it could have been a spaceplane or some experimental vehicle launched by a defense contractor or maybe even the CIA. According to one source, the CIA would be expected to rely on the NRO for space missions “but from what I’ve heard has been known to do its own thing on occasion,” the source said. “My guess is that this was an experimental rather than operational payload. If it were operational, it would have been flown by ULA.”

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The Pleiades - is this the constellation depicted on ZUMA mission patch?
It's up there, from the evidence known so far...I'd be more inclined to believe it was a complete success and not a failure. And by complete I mean that not only did Space X supply the job they said they would and do it with flying colors, but that the payload detached and the leaked info by unknown personnel behind it was part of the cover story for a clandestine operation that the government wants to make sure is never followed.
 
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