the NASA thread and anything related

[JR_Charger]

It was a better deal than Starship on June 29 2023, but Starship will make it obsolete in a few years at most.

 

[Photon440]

It was a better deal than Starship on June 29 2023, but Starship will make it obsolete in a few years at most.

I don't think Starship will make it obsolete, as they're not competing with each other. Starship is a heavy lift ship with the goal of putting massive payloads in orbit for missions beyond, such as another moon landing or a trip to Mars. It is expected to replace the Falcon Heavy booster as the launch vehicle for NASA astronauts going to the ISS.

The Virgin Galactic Spaceship Two class vehicle is intended for tourism operations, as was done on the June flight. People who'd like to make a quick trip into low orbit and experience weightlessness are the planned clients, and Virgin currently has a backlog of around 800 people signed up to make the flight.

Actual competition for Virgin would likely be Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin, which not only develops and sells rocket engines to other companies but has extensive plans for heavy lift rockets, an orbital space station and a lunar lander. But their New Shepard vehicle is developed for space tourism and falls into Virgin's category.

 

[JR_Charger]

Starship will also be doing point to point travel on Earth, replacing long haul commercial airliners. Starship can do the Spaceship 2 mission, except it can go all the way to orbit and tourists can float around in the massive cabin in the nose instead of the little Spaceship 2 cabin. I'm guessing it will be cheaper to fly on too.

 

[Photon440]

Apollo 8 in Dec. 1968. Borman, Lovell and Anders got this close up view of the moon, but they didn't touch down, just orbited and returned to Earth.

 

[Photon440]

Although fully equipped, Apollo 10 was also a fly-by. NASA deliberately made sure there was insufficient fuel on the lunar lander just to ensure that the two astronauts on board (Stafford and Cernan) weren't tempted to make the first landing. If they did that, they wouldn't have been able to lift off again.

It must have been frustrating to be within nine miles of the surface of the moon.

 

[Photon440]

For Apollo 16, Charlie Duke left a family photo on the surface of the moon. I'll bet the sun has bleached it totally white by now.

 

[Photon440]

After December1972 it was all over, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt were the last two to ever walk on the surface of another heavenly body.

 

[khryslerkid]

 

[JR_Charger]

Apollo 8 in Dec. 1968. Borman, Lovell and Anders got this close up view of the moon, but they didn't touch down, just orbited and returned to Earth.
View attachment 1491553

Ever heard the theory that the moon has to be artificial because the craters are all the same depth, no matter how large they are? I hadn't bothered to look into it, but there it is, clear as day. Big craters and little craters, all the same depth (really small crates don't count). The impacting meteors go down so far and no further, no matter how large the space rock is.

 

[Photon440]

Ever heard the theory that the moon has to be artificial because the craters are all the same depth, no matter how large they are? I hadn't bothered to look into it, but there it is, clear as day. Big craters and little craters, all the same depth (really small crates don't count). The impacting meteors go down so far and no further, no matter how large the space rock is.

When I look at that photo, to me it looks as though there are small craters that are clearly not as deep as the largest ones. The deepest crater, at the south pole, is about five miles deep with a three mile high wall of debris around it. Satellites measuring gravity/mass variances and magnetic disturbances estimate that the actual iron/nickel meteor that impacted may be up to 180 miles below the surface and was likely the size of the big island of Hawaii.

It has been long theorized that many of the older impacts occurred when there was still significant magma presence on the moon and rising lava would have partially filled the craters in and given them a flat floor. Basalt rocks, after all, were the first ones brought back from the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.

Although there is no significant atmosphere, there are thought to be dust storms caused by electrical fields which would eventually fill in the craters to some extent. NASA - Leaping Lunar Dust

 

[JR_Charger]

I don't count the tiny impacts that couldn't penetrate down to the "hull."

The biggest impacts are all the same depth, as far as I can tell by looking at a photograph.

Perhaps magma filled them all in, but has this phenomenon been seen anywhere else in the solar system?

I'm not sold on the idea of the artificial moon, but it is a suspiciously unique body.

 

[Photon440]

 

[kiwigtx]

Apollo 8 in Dec. 1968. Borman, Lovell and Anders got this close up view of the moon, but they didn't touch down, just orbited and returned to Earth.
View attachment 1491553

Jim Lovell must be the unluckiest guy to ever fly to the Moon.....or lucky in that he made it home against all the odds.

 

[kiwigtx]

I watched the Netflix show about the James Webb telescope last night.....not bad....more about the successful launch and the lead-up to that.

"Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine"

 

[DeltaV]

NASA Mission Update: Voyager 2 Communications Pause

 

[DeltaV]

NASA Mission Update: Voyager 2 Communications Pause

Update:

NASA Mission Update: Voyager 2 Communications Pause

 

[Photon440]

 

[Photon440]

Meanwhile today, India has made a successful landing of a probe on the moon, the fourth nation to do so.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission has successfully landed on the Moon’s south pole

India is the first nation to touch down in the area, just days after Russia’s failed attempt.

www.theverge.com

 

[Photon440]

This morning's lift-off of a Space-X Falcon 9 rocket. On board were four astronauts; One each from NASA, Denmark, Japan and Russia.

 

[Photon440]

The size of the ISS compared to a football field.