Deep Space and Interplanetary Exploration: Control, we have cleared the tower!

[rebs]

This is the pulsar-map on Voyager;



It shows Earth's exact-position from nearby pulsar-stars; but, the thing is, to read the map, you have to be aligned, on the north or south pole of the pulsars; if you, are say, at Gliese 445, and the Klingons missed, the star map may not be readable because the north/south poles of the pulsars may not be aligned with your position in space; so, in other-words, the star-map is only readable from Earth.

That all fits. 

I've heard it's not really accurate to begin with since the measurements used to produce it were flawed, but it was a nice gesture.  You not only have to be oriented in the correct way, you also have to know what points to ignore but keep the good ones.

Aliens who figure it out may be inclined to not go there thinking it's an ambush.  They've seen it before...  Unless they come in force.

[Prospernia]

The map is only useful, if you're from a nearby star-system, like Proxima Centauri.  And we know there are no aliens there, at all. Except the Grays, but they already know where Earth is.

[Daryk]

Congrats on the 2,000,000th post to the board since the last crash! :)

[SeeM]

The map is only useful, if you're from a nearby star-system, like Proxima Centauri.  And we know there are no aliens there, at all. Except the Grays, but they already know where Earth is.

That map has a long way to go beyond nearby stars, so it will probably be tracked down and retrieved before it goes out of sync.

If not, maybe they could measure its trajectory and adjust the map for every star on its path.

[rebs]

It’s still going to take a lot of trying to make heads or tails of that map with all the flawed distances involved.

They’re better off tracking where we leave our junk and finding our radio signal spew.

[rebs]

Double post

[Prospernia]

That map has a long way to go beyond nearby stars, so it will probably be tracked down and retrieved before it goes out of sync.

If not, maybe they could measure its trajectory and adjust the map for every star on its path.

That's perfect if something finds it in the next few thousand-years.   But chances are (very-slim), that if anything finds it, it will be billions of years from now and all those stars would have drifted apart from each other.

[rebs]

SpaceX awarded another contract from NASA.  This one is to deliver to orbit NASA's fast gamma ray burst space telescope planned for launch in 2027.

Let's hope it all goes as planned.

https://www.space.com/spacex-launch-contract-nasa-cosi-space-telescope

[Prospernia]

Just a thought: How come there's no Olympus-Mons on Mercury?  It's the same mass as Mars, and should have been volcanically-active:  did, at one point, Mercury have plate-tectonics?

[Natasha Kerensky]

Mercury was very volcanically active up to ~3.5B yrs ago.  But it was characterized by large lava flows that filled in and flattened the landscape, rather than the shield dome building seen at Olympus Mons.  A thin crust and certain magma types may be causes.  But I don’t know that planetary science has a good, unifying theory explaining the differences in volcanism among the rocky inner planets.  But they are different.  More here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780123859389000407

[Frabby]

First launch of the Ariane 6 today, and it was a success! We finally got a new rocket.

[worktroll]

Nasa astronauts from Boeing’s Starliner may be stuck in space until August

https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jul/10/nasa-astronauts-boeing-starliner

In more positive news: A 2,600-year wait to see T Coronae Borealis explosion is almost over. The Blaze Star is due to blaze any day now:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jul/01/starwatch-a-2600-year-wait-to-see-t-coronae-borealis-explosion

[rebs]

Above image illustrating large "crack" on the face of Mars, longer than the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Link below is to the article from where it came.  Enjoy.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/new-satellite-images-show-giant-scar-on-mars-surface-longer-than-grand-canyon/ar-BB1pTeK4?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=73894aec99564104a655d5f3f7bc0ec9&ei=18

[worktroll]

When you consider Valles Marineris is roughly as long as CONUS or Australia, the 'Grand' Canyon ain't so grand ;)

[Daryk]

Continuing to prove "space is big"! ;D

[rebs]

Continuing to prove "space is big"! ;D

Indeed, much larger than the state of Arizona!

[ANS Kamas P81]

Indeed, much larger than the state of Arizona!

Space is almost as big as Texas, if you believe them!

[Wrangler]

Caves of the Moon.

A pair of Italian scientists using radars and cross checking with other data determined that one flyby was actually a opening for a cave. 

Reported here on the BBC.

The cave is believe to be 100 meters deep, possible created by ancient lava flows when moon was first formed.  Its located the opening of the pit located in a rocky plain referred to as  Mare Tranquillitatis.  It's near where the Apollo 11 had landed.

[Prospernia]

I've been pessimistic on Earth-like exo-planets recently; either as Mars-like worlds, that had their atmospheres stripped down, which is probably the case for most, "Earth-like", worlds orbiting a red-dwarf, or, they're Venus-like; if Earth never evolved photosynthesis, we'd have a thicker, methane-rich atmosphere that would be on the way to a Venus-like world by now (average temperature: 50°C).