Space and Astronomy in general

In the news footage it looks like they were able to eject the capsule which I would assume held the payload. I wonder if they were able to save it, cause damn that would be super expensive if they didn't.

Gaald wrote:

In the news footage it looks like they were able to eject the capsule which I would assume held the payload. I wonder if they were able to save it, cause damn that would be super expensive if they didn't.

Nope. They went kablooey.

The three GPS satellites were valued at around $200 million and that's about how much the launch vehicle was insured for. The Russian government is going to have to eat the actual cost of the launch vehicle, which they typically sell for about $100 million.

Gaald wrote:

In the news footage it looks like they were able to eject the capsule which I would assume held the payload. I wonder if they were able to save it, cause damn that would be super expensive if they didn't.

That didn't look like an ejection to me, but parts shearing off from force in a direction they were not designed to feel force in. There is no way any of the payload is usable. Pretty much everything on a launch vehicle is insured in the States, I assume Russia is the same.

Yonder wrote:

That didn't look like an ejection to me, but parts shearing off from force in a direction they were not designed to feel force in. There is no way any of the payload is usable. Pretty much everything on a launch vehicle is insured in the States, I assume Russia is the same.

Yeah, that's the case.
Everything launched into space has to be insured by the responsible company, but governments don't normally take out insurance. That means ROSCOSMOS will be eating the cost of it, unless the prime contractor insured them separately.

tanstaafl wrote:
MeatMan wrote:
Haakon7 wrote:

So, it looks like we're going to fund engine development for a spaceplane. Wicked.

[citation needed]

I'm assuming they are referring to this

That's right. Chancellor's announcement on SABRE was the top line number. We'll be putting out more detail week after next at the UK Space Conference in Glasgow.

I love SpaceX so much!

Yeah, that is so effing cool!

Wow. I think I'm going to have to finally delve in to Kerbal Space Program.

Ouch.

by July 9, it is transpired that investigators sifting through the wreckage of the doomed rocket had found critical angular velocity sensors, DUS, installed upside down. Each of those sensors had an arrow that was suppose to point toward the top of the vehicle, however multiple sensors on the failed rocket were pointing downward instead. As a result, the flight control system was receiving wrong information about the position of the rocket and tried to "correct" it, causing the vehicle to swing wildly and, ultimately, crash. The paper trail led to a young technician responsible for the wrong assembly of the hardware, but also raised serious issues of quality control at the Proton's manufacturing plant, at the rocket's testing facility and at the assembly building in Baikonur. It appeared that no visual control of the faulty installation had been conducted, while electrical checks had not detected the problem since all circuits had been working correctly.
OG_slinger wrote:

Ouch.

by July 9, it is transpired that investigators sifting through the wreckage of the doomed rocket had found critical angular velocity sensors, DUS, installed upside down. Each of those sensors had an arrow that was suppose to point toward the top of the vehicle, however multiple sensors on the failed rocket were pointing downward instead. As a result, the flight control system was receiving wrong information about the position of the rocket and tried to "correct" it, causing the vehicle to swing wildly and, ultimately, crash. The paper trail led to a young technician responsible for the wrong assembly of the hardware, but also raised serious issues of quality control at the Proton's manufacturing plant, at the rocket's testing facility and at the assembly building in Baikonur. It appeared that no visual control of the faulty installation had been conducted, while electrical checks had not detected the problem since all circuits had been working correctly.

Yikes.

Still finding stuff in our own system.

It's just Pluto.

Cue NdGT claiming it should be called a "moonoid".

BadKen wrote:

Cue NdGT claiming it should be called a "moonoid".

That's no moon...

It was actually discovered by someone playing Universe Sandbox.

BadKen wrote:

Cue NdGT claiming it should be called a "moonoid".

I believe it's a Cis-Neptunian.

Today is smile at Saturn day (Cassini will be taking pictures of Earth).

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/wave...

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6143/260

We report in situ measurements of the isotopic ratios of D/H and 18O/16O in water and 13C/12C, 18O/16O, 17O/16O, and 13C18O/12C16O in carbon dioxide, made in the martian atmosphere at Gale Crater from the Curiosity rover using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)’s tunable laser spectrometer (TLS). Comparison between our measurements in the modern atmosphere and those of martian meteorites such as ALH 84001 implies that the martian reservoirs of CO2 and H2O were largely established ~4 billion years ago, but that atmospheric loss or surface interaction may be still ongoing.

So very very cool.

IMAGE(http://24.media.tumblr.com/688d227555c9bb0db52b3524f7baae85/tumblr_mqcpp5tRWZ1rw872io1_500.jpg)

Composite Image of the Sun

The four images of the Sun (Dec. 7, 2011), taken by NASA at almost the same time, showing various wavelengths in various temperatures and layers of the Sun. The first section shows the photosphere that displays the various sunspots on the “surface" of the Sun. Then it transitions into the region between the chromosphere and the corona where, in extreme UV light, the active regions appear lighter. Next is a composite of three different wavelengths showing temperatures up to 2 million degrees C. The last image is an overlay of a science-based estimation of the complex magnetic field lines extending from and connecting the active regions before going back to the sunspot image.

Big of a weird question but is there a way of figuring how large objects appear to be in the sky relative to how far away they are? So for instance how much smaller would the moon be if it's orbit was only half the distance, but still appeared to be the same size when viewed from earth? What if it was as close as the ISS?

Tamren wrote:

Big of a weird question but is there a way of figuring how large objects appear to be in the sky relative to how far away they are? So for instance how much smaller would the moon be if it's orbit was only half the distance, but still appeared to be the same size when viewed from earth? What if it was as close as the ISS?

The size of an object in the sky is just its diameter divided by its distance. So if the moon was at half the distance but appeared the same size, it must actually be half its current size.

Divide diameter by distance to get the angular diameter (apparent size) in radians. Multiply by 180/pi to get degrees, multiply that by 60 to get arc minutes, and then by 60 again to get arc seconds. The sun and moon are both about 30 arc minutes (half a degree) across. One arc minute is pretty close to the smallest angular distance that can be distinguished by the human eye.

3476km/384,400km = 0.009 radians = 0.5 degrees.
3.771/419km

So almost 4km wide using the ISS orbit. Smaller than I thought.

Haakon, why is the Sabre engine curved? Is it to prevent compressor stalls or something?

Excerpt from a documentary on the space shuttle -- audio and video from cameras onboard the solid rocket boosters

Published on Mar 15, 2012
From the upcoming Special Edition Ascent: Commemorating Space Shuttle DVD/BluRay by NASA/Glenn a movie from the point of view of the Solid Rocket Booster with sound mixing and enhancement done by the folks at Skywalker Sound. The sound is all from the camera microphones and not fake or replaced with foley artist sound. The Skywalker sound folks just helped bring it out and make it more audible.

(via Robert Krulwich/NPR)

It's pretty hard not to want to play Kerbal after looking at this: 55 Images for NASA's 55th Anniversary