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Showing posts with the label space exploration

Any Landing You Can Radio Back From: IM-1 Odyssey

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"Any landing you can walk away from is a good one." (Gerald R. Massie, photographer, following the crash-landing of his B-17 (1944) ( from " Stayin alive — 16 favorite aviation quotes ", Dan Littmann, Air Facts (August 25, 2016) ) So far, this has been a good year for Lunar exploration. Both JAXA's SLIM and Intuitive Machines' Odysseus made good landings. Not perfect: and that's what I'll be talking about this week. Tipped, Tilted and Maybe Tripped: But Successful! The IM-1 Odysseus Mission: a "Spicy" Experience and Serendipity Odysseus: On Target and "Still Kicking" First Successful Commercial Flight, Farthest South Landing SLIM: Another Good Lunar Landing NASA News Conference: In Case You're Interested More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Two successful Lunar landings: SLIM and Odyssey. First successful commercial flight to the Moon, scouting for south polar Lunar base.)

India: Fourth on the Moon, First near Lunar South Pole

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India became the fourth nation to land on Earth's Moon this week. And the first to land near the Lunar south pole. This is a very big deal. So, in a different way, was the "abnormal situation" that turned Russia's Luna-25 lander into an impactor. Humanity is returning to the Moon. I think this is a good thing. I woke up in time to watch ISRO's coverage of Wednesday's historic touchdown near Manzinus crater. Folks in mission control showed more enthusiasm than I did, here in central Minnesota. But they're all younger than I am: so that's no surprise. I was and am delighted at ISRO's successful Lunar landing. And even more pleased about the Indian Prime Minister's upbeat words. Roscosmos, Luna-25, and Russia; Briefly "...The Sky is Not the Limit" "...This Success Belongs to All of Humanity" "... 'The Moon is Only a Tour Away'" Robert Goddard, Opel-RAK, and Missed Opportunities: Another Digress

Fusion Rocket Engines, SETI and Science: Seriously

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Nerd alert! This week I used words like deuterium and magnetohydrodynamics. And I may have gone into more detail that necessary about why we didn’t have fusion power generators in the 1960s. A British company's plans for test-firing a fusion rocket engine got my attention last week. I'd planned on writing about it then, but a dental procedure and household matters got in the way. So I researched and made more notes over the weekend, and when my town's power came back online late Monday afternoon: the notes weren't there any more. That's something I may talk about, sometime next week. Anyway, I re-researched, got stuck and/or distracted a couple times — I'll talk about tralphium and mindsets in a bit — and ended up with this post. Which, as it turned out, included a bit about NASA's interest in UAPs and the serious search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Sunshine, Energy and Mass: Fusion Basics Thermonuclear Weapons, History and Ideas: Ver

International Space Station: Seven More Years

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Nations and organizations running the International Space Station agreed to keep supporting it until 2030. That's what I'll be talking about this week. Along with why the ISS won't last forever, plans for either ditching it in the South Pacific or starting an orbiting salvage yard, commercial space stations and something my oldest daughter and I thought of. The (Comparatively) International Space Station Cooperation, Complications, and Doing Science Anyway ISS Support Promised Through 2030 Best Structural Engineering of the 20th century Slow and Careful Docking at the ISS Looking Ahead: Commercial Space Stations Point Nemo, the Spaceship Cemetery and “The Call of Cthulhu” Concerns, Reasonable and Otherwise More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Complications and doing science anyway: ISS support promised through 2030. Commercial space stations, dealing with defunct spacecraft, and a Cthulhu connection.)

Commercial Space Services and Changing Times

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This week I’ll talk about the SpaceX Starship and ispace test flights. Whether or not they were successful depends on who’s talking. I’ll also look at the usual hand-wringing over threats to the status quo. News and Views “We Will Keep Moving Forward” Fireball After Four Minutes: Starship’s Orbital Test Flight Starship Planned Mission Timelines: April 17 and 20, 2023 Changing the Game, and Why That’s a Good Thing Neocolonization, Environmental Racism and Gentrification: EEK! Villainy Runs Rampant as Chaos Stalks the Streets! Defending the Status Quo: A Cautionary Tale “My End of the Boat”, Obligations and Being Catholic More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (The SpaceX Starship and ispace test flights, how SpaceX is changing the game, and hand-wringing over threats to the status quo.)

Active Volcano on Venus: Before and After Images

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Venus is dead as a doornail as far as life is concerned. Life as we know it, at any rate, and already I'm drifting off-topic. Geologically, though, we've know that there's still metaphorical life in Venus. Or was, until very recently. Orbiters have sent back evidence of geologically-recent volcanic activity, including images of shield volcanoes and lava flows. But we had no direct evidence of a volcano that's active now. Until scientists sifted through data recorded and stored in the early 1990s. Observing Venus: Five Millennia in About 700 Words Telescopic Views Pulp Fiction and the Radar Astronomers Missions to Venus SAR, Science and Magellan Active(?) Volcano on Venus: Maat Mons From the Magellan Archives: a Changing Volcanic Vent — — And New Lava Flows, Maybe Hot Spots, Sulfur Dioxide, Venusian Volcanoes and Acronyms Missions, Maps, Maat Mons and Mor e "Greater Admiration" More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Views of Ven

Snow Cruiser, Moon Buggies, Mars Tractors

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I started writing about the Antarctic Snow Cruiser, "one of the colossal engineering flops of history". Or, my opinion, a basically good design that was rushed into service. The Snow Cruiser and Little America III reminded me of imperial ambitions and a massive attitude adjustment, the Collier's "Man Will Conquer Space Soon!" series, Moon buggies and Elon Musk. Make that Moon buggies and looking ahead to permanent bases on the Moon and Mars. And why I think living in Minnesota is okay, even if humans aren't "perfectly adapted" to my home state's environment.... ...Loving God and neighbors was important two millennia back, it’s important now, and will be important when Sargon of Akkad, Julius Caesar and Dag Hammarskjöld seem like contemporaries.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (What went wrong with the Antarctic Snow Cruiser, why Antarctica mattered. Mars tractors of 1954, Moon buggies of 1971-1972, Living on Mars: opinion

Mars, MOXIE and More

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Humanity is one step closer to exploring Mars, in person. With people living and working on the surface. And eventually, I think, living there permanently That's going to take time. But like I said, we're one step closer. This week I'll be talking about In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), the NASA-ESA Sample Return Mission, and why we're keeping our spaceships clean. Until they land, at any rate. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Oxygen production on Mars test succeeds. MOXIE broke its old record. ISRU, living off the land on other worlds; and plans for Mars sample return.)

Single Stage to Orbit, Eventually

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A tip of the hat to Anthony Stevens, whose recent op-ed started me thinking about this week's topics. " NoMoNASA " Anthony Stevens, Anthony Stevens' Weblog (November 25, 2022) I'll be talking about ideas that didn't work out, or haven't yet; three cool single-stage-to-orbit vehicles, including one that flew; and, finally, looking back and ahead. Or, rather, the other way around. Plus, I've included short videos showing Skylon, the VentureStar, and a test flight of the McDonnell Douglas DC-X Delta Clipper prototype. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . Spaceplanes, from Max Valier to Skylon. DC-X: a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle that was canceled. Historical perspective and the Kardashians.

DART: Trick Shot by OpNav, and a Successful Test

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Asteroid Dimorphos and comet-like dust trail, 28 hours after DART spacecraft impact on September 26, 2022. (Image taken October 8. 2022) Image from NASA/ESA/STScI/Hubble, used w/o permission On September 26, 2022, the NASA/APL DART mission changed the orbit of an asteroid: Dimorphos, a satellite of 65803 Didymos.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Meanwhile, Back on Mars, New Dust Storm Data

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It's been a year since I wrote about the Mars 2020 mission. This seemed like a good time to catch up on what the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter have been up to in Jezero Crater. The Ingenuity helicopter has been scouting ahead, giving folks back on Earth up-close aerial views of places the Perseverance rover will be visiting. It was a test vehicle for powered flight on Mars, so it wasn't loaded with a great many sensors.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . Studying Mars: Ancient Egypt, Schiaparelli and Lowell. Perseverance in Jezero Crater. Martian weather and climate: and maybe ice ages.

Robots on Mars, an Empty Sample Tube and a Laser

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Several days ago, a robot on Mars selected a hollow coring bit from its tool kit, drilled into a rock, withdrew the tool and placed the core into a sample tube. At least, that's what should have happened. But just to be sure, Perseverance felt inside the tube and took a look before sealing it. Oops. The sample tube was empty. NASA's discussion of the robot's first try at collecting samples is more detailed and less anthropomorphic.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Perseverance Landing: Pictures From JPL and Mars

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Picking up where I left off yesterday, Perseverance is on Mars. The UAE's Hope (Misabar Al Amal) and China's Tianwen-1 had already arrived. Misabar Al Amal is historically important. It's the UAE's first Mars orbiter. But today I'll be talking about Perseverance, JPL, NASA — but mostly how I feel about yesterday's and today's events. Which reminds me. NASA released a couple more images today. They're at the end of this journal entry.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Perseverance on Mars: February 18, 2021

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(Mars 2020 getting ready for launch last year.) I'll be looking at NASA's Mars 2020 Ingenuity helicopter, the spacecraft, and an experimental oxygen generator. With a quick look at news of the mission's landing this afternoon. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Exploring Mars, Looking for Life: and Still Learning

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Mars is and will be in the news this month. The UAE Hope spacecraft settled into orbit around Mars Tuesday, February 9. Then, a day later, China's Tianwen-1 arrived.... ...The UAE's successful orbiter is historically significant. And China's Tianwen-1 may collect useful data. But I'll be focusing on the NASA mission. And Mars.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Christmas in Space: Celebrating on the ISS

As the song says, "I'll be home for Christmas...." Here's a 74-second video I enjoyed this Sunday morning. Maybe you will, too..... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

"One Small Step" in a Long Journey

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"A journey of a thousand li starts with a single step." (Tao Te Ching," Laozi) "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." (Neil Armstrong) I figure the journey to Earth's moon began when someone looked up and wondered what this world's "lesser light" might be. Uncounted ages, most likely, before folks like Laozi and Thales of Miletus added their thoughts to humanity's storehouse of knowledge. Thales of Miletus gets credit for figuring out that Earth's moon is roughly spherical. So does Anaximander, depending on who's talking. Those two lived about two and a half millennia back. A century later, Anaxagoras said Earth's moon was earthy, made of the same sort of stuff we stand on. He was right about that. Other details in his cosmology, not so much.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Apollo 11, 50 Years Later

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Apollo 11's Lunar Module reached Mare Tranquillitatis fifty years ago this month. I remember hearing Neil A. Armstrong announce the landing site's name: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." A few hours later, Armstrong opened the Lunar Module's MESA — a storage locker built into the lander's side. A television camera in the MESA showed us Armstrong's, and humanity's, first step onto another world. Back on Earth, one out of every five people were watching: at home, in pubs, at cafes, in New York's Central Park and at shop windows. Pope St. Paul VI watched at the Castle Gandolfo observatory.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Commercial Spaceflight: Another Step

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The SpaceX Crew Dragon demonstration and test flight has gone well. The spacecraft returns to Earth Friday morning. Folks may be riding Crew Dragon to and from the ISS later this year. I found quite a bit about space stations, docking technology and other more-or-less-related topics. But if this is going to be done in time, that must wait until another day. (More at A Catholic Citizen in America .)

Space 'Firsts:' New Horizons, Chang'e-4

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It's been a month for space exploration 'firsts,' and a 'farthest.' Ultima Thule became the most distant object visited by a probe on January 1, with the New Horizons flyby. A few days later, China's Chang'e-4 mission landed in the von Kármán crater, part of the moon that's not visible from Earth. It's the first lunar farside landing, and the first time plants sprouted on the moon...." (More on A Catholic Citizen in America .)