Author Topic: Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration - Houston, we are go for launch! (Read 117513 times)

rebs · « **Reply #210 on:** 20 October 2020, 22:12:44 »

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-osiris-rex-spacecraft-successfully-touches-asteroid

Earlier today, OSIRIS-REx touched down on asteroid Bennu and promptly began collecting samples for return to Earth in 2023.

Let's all hope this mission goes as planned.

Wrangler · « **Reply #211 on:** 21 October 2020, 06:10:10 »

Oh cool. I been meaning to post it here, but been kinda quiet lately. With all been going on, space seems quiet as of late.

I've been mainly following the Starship rocket development, since seems to be built in real time everyone gets to watch it. Current prototype, SN8, looks like it will do the first winged fly up and skydrive like descend this weekend. Odds are it will crash, but hope it will succeed in landing! Either way going be interesting weekend if ship's engines finally test correctly.

kato · « **Reply #212 on:** 21 October 2020, 14:50:01 »

European-Japanese spacecraft BepiColombo passed Venus on its first flyby on Oct. 15th, last week.

Minimum altitude during the crossing was 10,720 km. Image taken by Monitoring Camera 2, as the main scientific camera of BepiColombo is in a position inside the spacecraft from which it can not be deployed until delivery at its destination (see below). The sequence in the GIF actually took 55 minutes during the approach.

Originally it was planned to not conduct any science during Venus flybys, and a science campaign was only implemented in 2017, a year before launch. During the flyby 10 out of 16 instruments onboard the spacecraft surveyed Venus' atmosphere and ionosphere. Japanese orbiter Akatsuki provided further supporting sensor readings from its 300,000 km high orbit around Venus.

A second flyby of Venus will occur on August 10th 2021, at only 552 km altitude.

In addition there are four opportunities planned between 2021 and 2024 during which the dayside will be surveyed at far distance (0.3 AU, it seems) in order to build a standardized spectrum to which exoplanet signatures can be compared.

6 flybys of Mercury are planned before the spacecraft will place its two carried satellites into different orbits around Mercury between December 2025 and March 2026.

Wrangler · « **Reply #213 on:** 22 October 2020, 19:32:06 »

Starship Prototype SN8's now fully assembled, first Starship to receive it's wings and nose cone for operational test. Fly or die maybe in the days to come. Hope it flies.

kato · « **Reply #214 on:** 24 October 2020, 15:05:25 »

Hayabusa 2 is planning its orbital bombardment of Terra on December 6th, exactly 6 weeks from now. Intended target is - of course - Australia.

However, Hayabusa 2 already has an extended mission that it will enter immediately after its bombing run.

Planned journey:

fly by Earth at 200 km on December 6th (capsule release on 5th).
evaluation of interplanetary dust distribution during journey.
fly by asteroid 2001CC21 in July 2026.
gravitational assist flybys of Earth in December 2027 and June 2028 with possible scientific observation of the moon.
rendezvouz with target asteroid 1998KY26 in July 2031.

2001CC21 is a poorly characterized L-Type (rather unusual) asteroid. The planned flyby distance hasn't been revealed, official press material from July calls it possibly "ultra-close" and "highspeed". Due to this pictures up close will likely not be produced - the camera onboard isn't made for that. Observing an L-Type asteroid somewhat up close in general would be a first though - there aren't even any L-Type grains in meteorite collections on Earth.

1998KY26 is a very small 30m-diameter C-Type asteroid that rotates very fast (~10min/rotation); on both account exploration of such an asteroid would be a first, and would also yield valuable data for planetary defense - the asteroid is quite similar to many other near-Earth objects that are potentially hazardous to Earth.

Beyond the rendezvous (i.e. flying close alongside) a possible landing attempt there hasn't been excluded. Hayabusa 2 has about 500 m/s delta-v reserve left after arriving, as well as a single target marker sphere left to possibly drop (Target Marker D). Other uses would also be possible - at Ryugu two of these spheres (Target Marker C and E) that were left over were used as inert satellites placed in equatorial and polar orbits around the asteroid.

Surviving the 10.5-year journey that the spacecraft wasn't built for is also considered a goal in itself.

worktroll · « **Reply #215 on:** 24 October 2020, 15:09:50 »

Quote from: kato on 24 October 2020, 15:05:25

Intended target is - of course - Australia.

We appreciate the help in keeping the drop bears down. The last time the US tried - Skylab - nah. Sorry, but you muffed that one.

kato · « **Reply #216 on:** 24 October 2020, 15:19:43 »

Quote from: worktroll on 24 October 2020, 15:09:50

We appreciate the help in keeping the drop bears down. The last time the US tried - Skylab - nah. Sorry, but you muffed that one.

This is JAXA. As in this.

worktroll · « **Reply #217 on:** 24 October 2020, 17:00:10 »

Don't live in Sydney :thumbsup:

(20 years ago, I did have to do a public speaking course. I did a 10-minute presentation on the effects of a 1km asteroid landing on the Sydney Opera House ...)

rebs · « **Reply #218 on:** 27 October 2020, 16:59:19 »

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2020/10/26/hubble-views-massive-asteroid-called-psyche-that-could-worth-more-than-our-global-economy/amp/

A view into how much a metallic asteroid (Psyche) about 140 miles in diameter is worth compared to the Global Economy.

kato · « **Reply #219 on:** 27 October 2020, 18:05:55 »

Quote from: rebs on 27 October 2020, 16:59:19

A view into how much a metallic asteroid (Psyche) about 140 miles in diameter is worth compared to the Global Economy.

Always a purely academic question.

For scale, in order to "harvest" 16 Psyche at the cited worth, you'd need to - roughly - lower the cost of a mission there by about a factor of 100,000.

rebs · « **Reply #220 on:** 27 October 2020, 18:43:02 »

That's true. We'll have to lower costs beyond dramatically in order to efficiently make use of it. But I still dream of the day we seriously pursue asteroid mining.

rebs · « **Reply #221 on:** 27 October 2020, 23:26:31 »

In BT this would be the site of a killer orbital factory/foundry.

ANS Kamas P81 · « **Reply #222 on:** 28 October 2020, 00:37:25 »

And with dropship engines, a grade-A Blakist planet pasteurizer.

rebs · « **Reply #223 on:** 04 November 2020, 14:55:53 »

https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/nasas-new-nuclear-reactor-could-change-space-exploration?utm_source=dscfb&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dscfb

NASA reveals the future of powered spaceflight with this small sized reactor.

Maingunnery · « **Reply #224 on:** 04 November 2020, 16:38:06 »

Quote from: rebs on 04 November 2020, 14:55:53

https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/nasas-new-nuclear-reactor-could-change-space-exploration?utm_source=dscfb&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dscfb

NASA reveals the future of powered spaceflight with this small sized reactor.

Great news, as described it should be a lot more efficient than RTGs.

Sabelkatten · « **Reply #225 on:** 05 November 2020, 06:32:28 »

Quote from: Maingunnery on 04 November 2020, 16:38:06

Great news, as described it should be a lot more efficient than RTGs.

And presumably it's controllable so the power level stays constant, one of the headaches with RTGs. And probably refuelable as well, if used in a manned station (easier to ship a uranium core in a lead box than the whole reactor).

worktroll · « **Reply #226 on:** 06 November 2020, 01:04:03 »

Can't post from work, so surprised these didn't come up here.

2-way contact with Voyager 2 again!
They upgraded the last dish with the tech to talk to Voyager, and pointed sufficiently south, and Voyager 2 answered!

FRB 200428 is the first FRB for which emissions other than radio waves have been detected, the first to be found in the Milky Way, and the first to be associated with a magnetar.
Science and serendipity in action!

rebs · « **Reply #227 on:** 06 November 2020, 01:36:57 »

We're slippin' a bit. At least you brought us some nice links, though.

worktroll · « **Reply #228 on:** 06 November 2020, 02:05:46 »

Not like there's anything else in the news at the moment

rebs · « **Reply #229 on:** 06 November 2020, 02:34:26 »

Yes, situation normal over here.

But space news happens regardless. And I'm glad places like this exist that we don't talk politics. It's a nice break from the world.

Edit: Ever read a Yahoo news comment section? Aye aye aye...

kato · « **Reply #230 on:** 17 November 2020, 11:03:58 »

Quote from: kato on 24 October 2020, 15:05:25

However, Hayabusa 2 already has an extended mission that it will enter immediately after its bombing run.

http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/galleries/othermovie/pages/ext_mission_en.html

4-minute subtitled video by JAXA explaining the extended mission. Full CG plus the team chiming in. Planetary Defense role of the extended mission is somewhat highlighted.

Other than the target marker Hayabusa 2 also still has one of its three single-shot guns unfired - two shots were fired at Ryugu to kick up ground material for the probe to collect for samples. These space guns fire 77-grain sabotted Tantalum projectiles at 300 m/s using basically flash powder, with the sabot sealing off the muzzle of the projector to prevent contamination of the target by combustion gases.

P.S. During the bombing run on Australia Hayabusa 2 will attempt to take photos of the re-entry capsule over Earth in-flight.

BirdofPrey · « **Reply #231 on:** 19 November 2020, 18:52:36 »

Well this is unfortunate.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/19/21575025/arecibo-observatory-puerto-rico-decommission-structural-collapse-cable-break

Wrangler · « **Reply #232 on:** 19 November 2020, 20:41:45 »

Ahh man. I guess they didn't have resources to save it. :-[

I wonder if they would rebuild.

rebs · « **Reply #233 on:** 19 November 2020, 20:55:17 »

It's a rare geographic feature that it's built in. That it should be rebuilt with the highest grade of construction and technology should be a given.

Sabelkatten · « **Reply #234 on:** 20 November 2020, 05:23:54 »

I'm hardly an expert, but from what I've read about it there seems to have been enough international research done that international financing would be reasonable. I wonder if that's realistic.

kato · « **Reply #235 on:** 20 November 2020, 11:10:38 »

If it's rebuilt it'll be a Rule 4 thing.

China built copy almost twice the size and declared it operational last January after three years testing.

BirdofPrey · « **Reply #236 on:** 20 November 2020, 11:15:05 »

Quote from: Wrangler on 19 November 2020, 20:41:45

Ahh man. I guess they didn't have resources to save it. :-[

From the sound of it, they didn't spend enough on preventative maintenance, so it's not in a good state to be repaired. If the other cables weren't at risk of snapping and killing anyone trying to fix it, they probably would repair it.

Quote

I wonder if they would rebuild.

I hope so, but the way funding for these things go, I wouldn't expect it any time soon. At the very least it does mean they can improve the design a bit.

elf25s · « **Reply #237 on:** 21 November 2020, 10:28:43 »

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/famed-arecibo-telescope-brink-collapse-will-be-dismantled
well it was great while it lasted...

worktroll · « **Reply #238 on:** 21 November 2020, 12:36:55 »

It was a great achievement, in its day. Virtual arrays can now exceed its resolution, and are aimable. So it's very sad, but the cost of maintaining it appears to be something the authorities were unwilling to pay.

My favourite coincidence? The dish blocks 75% of the sunlight shining on it. So under the dish is almost exactly the light levels you'd get if you were standing in the open on Mars.

Sabelkatten · « **Reply #239 on:** 21 November 2020, 14:19:12 »

I thought Mars gets about 40-50% of the light we get here?