The Space and Astronomy Thread

SpaceX are sending two paying people to the moon and back next year. Next year! Of course it's not a landing mission, and from what I can see there will be no lunar orbiting either, so I guess the closest comparison will be the flight of Apollo 13.
 
So as far as exploring the galaxy goes, what are current thoughts on how it will be done in the future. The speed of light is essentially meaningless. Distances involved are still too large to make travelling at that speed pointless. So how do they play to do it.
 
AshleyC said:
So as far as exploring the galaxy goes, what are current thoughts on how it will be done in the future. The speed of light is essentially meaningless. Distances involved are still too large to make travelling at that speed pointless. So how do they play to do it.
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There is so much of our solar system to explore yet, though the Breakthrough Starshot mission to Alpha Centauri was recently proposed by billionaire Yuri Milner.
 
Yes, I saw that on the news late last night. Enceladus has been interesting from the earliest observations.

Unfortunately less chance of going there than to Mars.

Dave

Odd coincidence, given Enceladus's "volcano-like" plumes is that the mythological giant Enceladus is said to be the cause of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
 
The US Airforce's X-37b landed a few days ago, after nearly 2 years in orbit.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWDU-5vL9Hc


After several flights since 2012, it makes me wonder what it's really for & I can see in the not too distant future a number of these (or variations of) armed & permanently deployed watching over us all, especially over `rogue` countries.
 
Aye, one glare from him and the clouds wouldn't dare!
 
NASA can go in flight suits/overalls, SpaceX are sending the Stig.
 
The sun has just (12:02 UTC) let loose a X9 class solar flare, that is a huge one and it's almost certainly Earth directed due to the position of the sun spot it came from. Could be some good aurora displays in the coming days if we get clear nights.
 
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Sad to read that another Apollo astronaut died today. Dick Gordon (Gemini XI and Apollo XII) was 88.
 
Leonids tonight.
That pretty much guarantees heavy cloud. :(
 
viv1969 said:
That pretty much guarantees heavy cloud
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Yep. I don't think I'll ever see a meteor shower. In many years of sky watching I've seen all the naked eye planets, conjunctions of some of the planets, had telescope views of some of the planets, and some DSOs, seen a few partial eclipses of the sun, eclipses of the moon, three comets, unusual cloud formations, sun pillars and the northern lights, but I have never seem a meteor shower.

Dave
 
November 19th, Pete Conrad became the 3rd person to step on the moon, saying "Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me."
 
Tringa said:
Yep. I don't think I'll ever see a meteor shower. In many years of sky watching I've seen all the naked eye planets, conjunctions of some of the planets, had telescope views of some of the planets, and some DSOs, seen a few partial eclipses of the sun, eclipses of the moon, three comets, unusual cloud formations, sun pillars and the northern lights, but I have never seem a meteor shower.

Dave
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Take a read of this, should cheer you up.

https://princetonastronomy.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/the-ordeal-of-guillaume-le-gentil/
 
Hehe that is a brilliant story, Phil :)

Dave
 
Tringa said:
Hehe that is a brilliant story, Phil :)

Dave
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Certainly a candidate for the unluckiest man ever! (And should also make any car drive or walk that fails to give any pictures some perspective.)
 
Ricardodaforce said:
I see Fox News are now peddling lunar landing conspiracy theories.
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That's the kind of post which would really benefit from a link, don't you think?

Here it is:
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/11/20/wild-conspiracy-theory-claims-that-apollo-moon-landing-was-faked-touts-new-photo-evidence.html

FWIW, the image that this deranged person has been poring over is not Photoshopped. It's frame number 21608 from the Apollo 17 image library. But of course, as usual, the idiot / attention grabber (deleted as appropriate) who posted it:
- doesn't know anything about optics, or conditions on the moon, or anything like that;
- ignores the mountain of evidence that the Apollo landings really did happen;
- has never heard of Occam's razor.
 
Sad to see that astronaut Bruce McCandless died today, aged 80. He was the subject of what is probably the second most famous photograph from NASA's manned space programme.

576200main_s84-27017_full.jpg
 
StewartR said:
Sad to see that astronaut Bruce McCandless died today, aged 80. He was the subject of what is probably the second most famous photograph from NASA's manned space programme.

576200main_s84-27017_full.jpg
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Oh I didn’t know that.

Sad news.
 
Big Andy said:
Sad but inevitable, and think of the life he had that's what to remember.
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Well yeah. That photo. There are probably about seven billion people who would have wanted to be in his shoes. What an incredible experience.
 
Seven billion and one. RIP
 
They were very special people and true heroes. I still have all the books , newspaper cuttings etc from as far back in the day! Special times but so is the ISS!
 
Ricardodaforce said:
My next 3 audiobooks all relate to that era.
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Great times and sadly a real POTUS led the way but was murdered 14 months after his Houston speech

View: https://youtu.be/ouRbkBAOGEw


I still remember JFK’s words from many speeches and followed everything I could find, listen to (radio), film (cinema/school) about the race into space. I mourned the loss of 3 astronauts who died preparing/training for the first Apollo mission in the capsule they were to launch in. Designated after the disaster as Apollo 1, the full board of enquiry report makes very sober reading but the causes identified meant that they were likely to have died during the flight. The other 2 capsules were never used and the reworking produced an evolving improvement programme proved it’s worth with Apollo 13.

My den was lined with masses of books, manuals etc. All now in storage but my new house has a den for me, when I get there around Easter.

Enjoy your audiobooks

Steve
 
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