The Space Thread

Deep Space Climate Observatory launches tomorrow after 10 yr delay:

http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/DSCOVR/

what is the goal of sending people to mars? these people will discover free energy over there, which will allow them to create vast enclosures that shield them from the deadly radiation, and heat them from the insanely cold temperatures? this does not add up for me. i guess its cool to just send people into space to explore, but sending robots is way cheaper and has tons of other advantages. this smacks of moon landing nostalgia. i guess they will bring a mars car to cruise around on, plant a flag, capture some heart warming video. i'm all for the technology development but sending people there this early seems like putting the wrong foot forward. let elon musk do this shit, he will do it better than nasa, which is at the mercy of congress's and the president's whims. musk created a rocket that's 90% more efficient than nasa's rockets as side project, then he made it do a hover landing. thats what a manned mars mission needs, elon's rocket that lands itself, not nasa's 20 year old design. i guess when trillions of dollars worth of work and decades of nasa's attention goes up in smoke and some brave explorers meet their fate it will be worth it because humans have creative thinking that robots dont have or something. pls can someone explain to me why nasa should be focusing on putting humans on this gravity well? i love nasa, that's why im ranting, i want them to do the cool things they do, not blow people up in expensive new ways. figure out fucking black matter. 70 percent of the universe is this shit and we have no idea what its deal is. design some gear to get to the bottom of that, maybe we can get some free energy out of it, then we can send people to mars to drive around.

i guess this ship will be used to send people to asteroids which is cool, and could end up being useful if we need to do a bruce willis on an asteroid, it's just the sending people to mars thing that bugs me. i'm thinking its tacked on and it wont materialize. maybe if they incorporate musk's landing technology somehow, but the useful aspect of this ship definitely seems to be asteroids.

new Horizon images from Pluto. Possible polar ice cap, didn't we always suspect it was ALL iced?

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-new-horizons-detects-surface-features-possible-polar-cap-on-pluto

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
 
 
 
 Edit: Thread title changed to reflect general space news.  dump all your space junk here.

we can now travel 90,000 mph via the ion thruster

if you love Physics....check out Nima Arkani-Hamed's lectures

deeeeeeeeeepness

  On 4/30/2015 at 2:33 AM, Rubin Farr said:

new Horizon images from Pluto. Possible polar ice cap, didn't we always suspect it was ALL iced?

Pluto's density implies that a good chunk of its mantle will be made from H2O,CO2,CH4 ices. If it has ice caps, they might be nitrogen, as on Triton?

SpaceX Dragon abort test launch

Article on the US Drone Shuttle (X37B) next mission.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/inside-us-air-forces-next-x-37b-space-113228717.html#1mPQ9C4

And we talk about the conquest of space. The conquest of Everest. And the great symbols of our culture are the rocket and the bulldozer. The rocket--you know, compensation for the sexually inadequate male. So we're going to conquer space. You know we're in space already, way out. If anybody cared to be sensitive and let what's outside space come to you, you can, if your eyes are clear enough. Aided by telescopes, aided by radio astronomy, aided by all the kinds of sensitive instruments we can devise. We're as far out in space as we're ever going to get. But, y'know, sensitivity isn't the pitch. Especially in the WASP culture of the United States. We define manliness in terms of aggression, you see, because we're a little bit frightened as to whether or not we're really men. And so we put on this great show of being a tough guy. It's completely unnecessary. If you have what it takes, you don't need to put on that show. You don't need to beat nature into submission. Why be hostile to nature? Because after all, you ARE a symptom of nature. You, as a human being, you grow out of this physical universe in just exactly the same way that an apple grows off an apple tree.

New photos of Pluto's smallest moons

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-spots-pluto-s-faintest-known-moons/

Lightsail solar craft test flight on May 20

http://m.uk.ign.com/articles/2015/05/08/lightsail-to-get-a-test-flight

The United States' drone shuttle, the X-37B, has launched on its 4th secret mission.  How much you wanna bet this thing can somehow intercept a North Korean missile if needed?


 
 http://www.space.com/29423-x37b-space-plane-mystery-mission-otv4.html

Article on NASA's next Mars explorer , dubbed InSight to launch in 2016

http://gizmodo.com/an-inside-look-at-the-construction-of-nasas-next-missio-1707816984

Pretty cool article on NASA's plans to use in-situ resources for Lunar and Mars colonization.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasas-exploration-plans-include-living-off-the-land

Nice fly by video of Ceres by Dawn Spacecraft

http://io9.com/ride-along-with-dawn-spacecraft-as-it-swoops-around-dwa-1709840951

Really cool article on the USAF "secret" space shuttle launch complex that was unrealistically designed & never used.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-space-shuttle-s-military-launch-complex-in-californ-1710303170

Photog article on the decaying corpses of the Soviet era space shuttle program.

http://gizmodo.com/these-are-the-sad-remains-of-the-soviet-space-shuttle-p-1710827956

New Horizons space probe suffers glitch on approach to Pluto

  Quote

NASA scientists were working on Sunday to revive the New Horizons spacecraft after it suffered a computer malfunction just nine days before it was due to fly past Pluto.

what a shitty bug

I have had major fun trolling/talking sense to the flat earth society on facebook

  On 5/12/2015 at 9:41 AM, skibby said:

And we talk about the conquest of space. The conquest of Everest. And the great symbols of our culture are the rocket and the bulldozer. The rocket--you know, compensation for the sexually inadequate male. So we're going to conquer space. You know we're in space already, way out. If anybody cared to be sensitive and let what's outside space come to you, you can, if your eyes are clear enough. Aided by telescopes, aided by radio astronomy, aided by all the kinds of sensitive instruments we can devise. We're as far out in space as we're ever going to get. But, y'know, sensitivity isn't the pitch. Especially in the WASP culture of the United States. We define manliness in terms of aggression, you see, because we're a little bit frightened as to whether or not we're really men. And so we put on this great show of being a tough guy. It's completely unnecessary. If you have what it takes, you don't need to put on that show. You don't need to beat nature into submission. Why be hostile to nature? Because after all, you ARE a symptom of nature. You, as a human being, you grow out of this physical universe in just exactly the same way that an apple grows off an apple tree.

Yes. The greatest human potential with regards to physicality and tech, is harnessing the power of nature and benefitting all of humanity. Too much focus on protecting sacred bullshit in all fields. Too much focus on money. Tesla is sighing with Zeus... And laughing.

Much left on Earth, yet we think outer space matters. Humanity is like a talented bedroom producer without enough discipline-- tooons of great track bits, some good completed tracks, never finished a set of solid albums.

I dont even remember plagiarizing that rant

http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/559f0688eab8ea7a46014807-1041-781/pluto_charon_color_final.jpg

finally pluto comes into focus. not a lot of resolution but still pretty cool. 4 more days until closest approach (6,000 miles). probe's going 31,000 mph

nice. didn't expect it to be kind of red though, weird.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-image-of-pluto-houston-we-have-geology

  On 7/10/2015 at 6:18 PM, caze said:

nice. didn't expect it to be kind of red though, weird.

tholins!