1516 posts tagged with space.
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Yes, they wood build a satellite out of that material
Magnolia wood is great for building, as it resists splitting and glues well. It's so good that Japan built the LignoSat probe out of the wood, which will be better for Earth when the satellite inevitably reenters the atmosphere.
“National Geographic’s Picture Atlas of Our Universe”
Nerd John Siracusa reminisced about a certain National Geographic book from his childhood and the reactions flooded in. Siracusa says the cover image is “burned in his brain,” more than 40 years later. Nearly everyone who responded also had fond memories of the book. One respondent said he had written a blog post about in 2009. [more inside]
“spaghettification is just 12.8 seconds away”
360 Video: NASA Simulation Plunges into a Black Hole answers the question of what it would look like to fall into a black hole. If you’d rather not, NASA also released 360 Video: NASA Simulation Shows a Flight Around a Black Hole. They also released videos explaining what is going on in the visualizations for the dive into the black hole as well as the flight around it. The press release has more information.
A compendium of Signs and Portents
The Book of Miracles unfolds in chronological order divine wonders and horrors, from Noah’s Ark and the Flood at the beginning to the fall of Babylon the Great Harlot at the end; in between this grand narrative of providence lavish pages illustrate meteorological events of the sixteenth century. In 123 folios with 23 inserts, each page fully illuminated, one astonishing, delicious, supersaturated picture follows another. Vivid with cobalt, aquamarine, verdigris, orpiment, and scarlet pigment, they depict numerous phantasmagoria: clouds of warriors and angels, showers of giant locusts, cities toppling in earthquakes, thunder and lightning. Against dense, richly painted backgrounds, the artist or artists’ delicate brushwork touches in fleecy clouds and the fiery streaming tails of comets. There are monstrous births, plagues, fire and brimstone, stars falling from heaven, double suns, multiple rainbows, meteor showers, rains of blood, snow in summer. [...] Its existence was hitherto unknown, and silence wraps its discovery; apart from the attribution to Augsburg, little is certain about the possible workshop, or the patron for whom such a splendid sequence of pictures might have been created.The Augsburg Book of Miracles: a uniquely entrancing and enigmatic work of Renaissance art, available as a 13-minute video essay, a bound art book with hundreds of pages of trilingual commentary, or a snazzy Wikimedia slideshow of high-resolution scans.
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“members of the Voyager flight team celebrate”
NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth reports NASA. After pinpointing the issue with the space probe, the mission team have devised a workaround. Previously, previouslier, many more previouslies.
Moon Train
DARPA has asked for proposals to build an American train on the moon, to compete with proposed Chinese base proposals, and Northrop Grumman has responded with a concept study. But will this be a levitational railway, or a more standard broad-gauge one to suit the lower lunar gravity?
Voyager 1 sends readable message to Earth
After 4 nail-biting months of gibberish, Voyager 1 is making sense again. Since November 2023, the almost-50-year-old spacecraft has been experiencing trouble with its onboard computers. Although Voyager 1, one of NASA's longest-lived space missions, has been sending a steady radio signal to Earth, it hasn't contained any usable data. Now, there may be hope for recovery.
ScienceClic English Presents:
The Lost Universe: NASA's First TTRPG Adventure
The Lost Universe (science.nasa.gov, 03/04/2024): "A dark mystery has settled over the city of Aldastron on the rogue planet of Exlaris. Researchers dedicated to studying the cosmos have disappeared, and the Hubble Space Telescope has vanished from Earth's timeline. Only an ambitious crew of adventurers can uncover what was lost. Are you up to the challenge? This adventure is designed for a party of 4-7 level 7-10 characters and is easily adaptable for your preferred tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) system." Adventure design by Christina Mitchell. Graphic design by Michelle Belleville.
To the Moon (eventually) but with great food!
Victor Glover will be the first African-American to eat maple cream cookies and smoked salmon while traveling to and from the Moon on the Artemis II mission
Moon landings, a wooden satellite, Tolkien on Mars, fiery descents
The Martian helicopter completed its final flight on Valinor Hills. "yeah it really could be an ocean moon" - Let's check in on humanity's exploration of space in early 2024. [more inside]
Death, Lonely Death
Billions of miles away at the edge of the Solar System Voyager 1 has gone mad and has begun to die
Zoozve — Now it's Official (plus contest to name an Earth quasi-moon)
Breaking news about Zoozve The International Astronomical Union's Working Group on Small Bodies Nomenclature has made a decision, and that decision is to accept Radiolab's suggestion to name Venus' quasi-moon Zoozve! (Why did they suggest this? Previously.) [more inside]
That's no moon
Yes, it is! No, it isn't!
Until scientists get more data from James Webb, or future missions such as ESA’s PLATO launch, it’s all down to what they can do with the existing numbers.[more inside]
ZOOZVE
It’s not a moon, but it’s also not not a moon. A strange label on his child’s bedroom poster leads Latif Nasser on an exploration of the solar system. Via Thread Reader and Radiolab.
What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he’s not coming back?
"Space is a harsh, incredibly forbidding domain. It can play with the mind" Not everyone on a space mission is subject to the same rigorous tests as others - this assymetry between professional astronutters and mad scientists was once put to the test when one of the latter, Taylor Gun-Jin Wang, couldn't get his experiment to work - and spiralled into a deep funk... especially when the boss told him to not waste time trying to fix it...
SpaceX vs OSHA
“Elon’s concept that SpaceX is on this mission to go to Mars as fast as possible and save humanity permeates every part of the company." CW: Descriptions and a few photos of injuries.
“SpaceX’s idea of safety is: ‘We’ll let you decide what’s safe for you,’ which really means there was no accountability,” said Carson, who has worked for more than two decades in dangerous jobs such as building submarines. “That’s a terrible approach to take in industrial environments.”
India's Aditya-L1 spacecraft reaches Sun orbit
India's Aditya-L1 spacecraft reaches Sun orbit. The spacecraft has reached its home for the next five years, an orbit from where it will study the Sun and its influence on space weather.
Why did NASA build a vehicle designed to attack aircraft tires?
Why did NASA create the Tire Assualt Vehicle (TAV), a model radio-control tank with a drill?
The Space Shuttle Program had experienced some close calls with the landing and braking system, especially the tires. Hard data was desired about the response of the tires to various off-nominal situations. To obtain this data, a Convair 990 jetliner was converted into the Landing Systems Research Aircraft by adding an instrumented version of a Shuttle Orbiter landing gear.
(StackExchange, with an answer by the creator of the TAV) [more inside]
Coming in hot!
POV footage of NASA's Artemis 1's Orion spacecraft's re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere: Real-time (25m); Time-lapsed 25x (1m)
Beyond the Vomit Comet
"Blood flow in the jugular veins of six of the eleven ISS crew members they monitored had either stagnated or reversed direction" and "major surgery could result in the patient’s insides floating out," but, at least, “ there are good indications that erection and lubrication are not inhibited in space.”The Bodily Indignities of the Space Life (NYT guest link; archive), by Kim Tingley.
4.5 billion year old space rock tells us new things about Solar System
Launches, landings, elements, and the fiery golden apples of the sun
NASA started work on this day in 1958. So let's mark the occasion by checking on the past month of humanity's exploration of space. [more inside]
The loss of dark skies is so painful, astronomers coined a term for it
Feeling lunar gravity
Had ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface. Let's check in on humanity's exploration of space as autumn 2023 draws nigh, starting with the Sun and working outwards from there. [more inside]
Ground control to Major Todd
Starfield | Overwhelming Scope [Game Informer] “Even in the increasingly crowded marketplace of big, expansive games, Starfield stands out. Leveraging the gameplay Bethesda popularized with The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, Starfield expands the breadth of exploration to a galaxy of solar systems, planets, and ships. It populates those environments with a rich palette of activities and missions that tap into the outer space fantasy. It’s a staggering span of content to wrap one’s head around. At times, that scope threatens to impair the focus and pacing, and moment-to-moment gameplay is not always a strong suit. But players can expect to uncover hundreds of hours of experimentation in a richly imagined sci-fi playground, and that thrill is worth experiencing.” [more inside]
The Riker Maneuver
Something in space has been lighting up every 20 minutes since 1988
On Wednesday, researchers announced the discovery of a new astronomical enigma. The new object, GPM J1839–10 [...] takes 22 minutes between pulses. [...] The list of known objects that can produce this sort of behavior is short and consists of precisely zero items. John Timmer writes 900 words for Ars Technica.
To the other side of the Sun, to resurrect the last Great Observatory
Launches, satellites, deep space missions, images, and more. Let's check in on humanity's exploration of space for July 2023. [more inside]
NANOGrav confirms gravitational wave sighting
I hadn't heard of NANOGrav before today, but they've announced exciting findings. NPR puts it like this:
What they found is a pattern of deviations from the expected pulsar beam arrival timings that suggests gravitational waves are jiggling space-time as though it's a vast serving of Jell-O.While the LIGO observaory on earth can measure gravitational waves with a wavelength comparable to its size (4km), NANOGrav's neutron star observations work on a scale of light years, so they see an entirely different "slice" of gravitational waves, much like the difference between visible light and radio waves.
There is...one more thing we could try...
Moon Dog is a fun little short from young Australian filmmaker Nat Kelly. If it's a gloomy day where you are, try this charming distraction. That is all.
Space hack
Assuming the weather and engineering gods cooperate, a US government-funded satellite Moonlighter will launch [today], hitching a ride on a SpaceX rocket. And in roughly two months, five teams of DEF CON hackers will do their best to successfully remotely infiltrate and hijack the satellite while it's in space. The idea being to try out offensive and defensive techniques and methods on actual in-orbit hardware and software, which we imagine could help improve our space systems. [more inside]
SUPERNOVA! ©2023 Pinwheel Galaxy
The closest and brightest supernova in a decade is ON. In the outer reaches of the Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101), 21-million light-years from here (practically next door), a type II supernova has been spotted within the past week. It's viewable here on Earth via backyard-strength telescopes; but, tomorrow (Thursday, May 25, 2023) at 6PM EST (22:00 UTC), virtualtelescope.eu will be zooming in on the classic galaxy via their youtube livestream channel, inviting you to peek into the distant past at this growing dot that's unimaginably large, bright, and far away.
ALIENS CALLING....okay, not really, darn it.
Earth Will Receive an 'Alien' Transmission From Mars This Week Called A Sign in Space, the scientific art experiment invites the public to help decode the signal, which is meant to emulate a message from extraterrestrials. [more inside]
A First Glimpse of Our Magnificent Earth, Seen From the Moon
The first people to view our planet from the moon were transformed by the experience. In this film, they tell their story. Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee (editor and podcast host of the ruminative Emergence Magazine) and Adam Loften created the Emmy nominated video Earthrise in 2018.
I wondered what role this image could offer us 50 years later as we face intense political, social and ecological upheaval. Could it become a symbol of remembrance that unites us?[more inside]
All Aboard the Space Elevator
Gravity and Escape Speed
XKCD has recently done a couple more interactive posts, both oriented toward exploring 2D space in a gravity-based universe: Gravity, and Escape Speed. The first is a fairly laid back region to explore; the second starts your ship out fairly limited, and you try to find upgrades, get enough speed to leave your starting planet. The first is mostly just something to look around, the second feels more like an actual game, with lots of upgrades and fun collectables to find.
fine water spray
Hello from lunar orbit! 🌔
An eclipse, the heart of a supernova, rockets up and down the gravity well, and more missions. Here's a snapshot of humanity's exploration of space in April 2023. [more inside]
"investigations of astrophysics and quantum mechanics"
PBS Space Time is a long-running series of videos about high-level physics, ranging from about five to twenty-five minutes long. It was hosted by Gabe Perez-Giz and is currently hosted by Matt O'Dowd. The videos can be watched both on YouTube and the PBS website. With 300+ videos it's hard to know where to start, but they've sorted them into over thirty playlists, such as Futurism and Space Exploration, Standard Model Lagrangian Playlist and Dark Matter and Dark Energy Explained.
Volcano on Venus
A Martian glacier, rockets, asteroid samples, moons, and more rockets. From the fiery Sun to the search for alien civilizations, here's an update on humanity's exploration of space.
Sol
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured video of an immense solar flare followed by a solar tornado. [more inside]
Sol
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured video of an immense solar flare followed by a solar tornado. [more inside]
a promising trajectory
Kerbal Space Program 2 makes rocket science far more approachable, but no less complex [Polygon] “Despite its accolades, Kerbal’s zeal for orbital trajectories and delta-V’s can be intimidating. It is, well, rocket science. For its sequel, though, developer Intercept Games clearly wanted to make these systems more approachable for new players — and new interactive tutorials go a long way toward that end. None of which is to say that the designers have dumbed the series down. Rest assured, that signature customizability and attention to scientific realism remains fully intact. Even though Kerbal Space Program 2 is designed to ease potential rocket scientists into their new obsession, the many quality-of-life improvements that Intercept Games has introduced are just as much a boon to those who already speak Kerbin.” [YouTube][Gameplay Trailer]
Globus
Imagine you're a cosmonaut in space in the early 60s. How do you know where you are above the Earth? You look at the Globus in your control panel. An amazing analog computer/extremely fancy clock. Brief video | Via.
"The father of the Big Bang."
"The only known video interview with Belgian physicist Georges Lemaître, widely considered the "father of the Big Bang," talking about the birth of the universe has been rediscovered almost 60 years after it was lost." [more inside]
"'This isn't real ... Oh, look, there's Canada'"
Remember the time that Channel 4 sent some reality TV contestants to space for five days? Probably not, because they didn't, but they spent millions of pounds on tricking the contestants into thinking that they had. The resulting show, Space Cadets, is not fondly remembered -- or much remembered at all -- but a YouTube retrospective by science/culture vlogger Chris James has recently been making the rounds. It shows the highlights and the painstaking detail that went into the hoax, from embedded method improv actors to "spacecraft" constructed by Hollywood engineers. Whether it was a greater cruelty than I Wanna Marry Harry is a matter for debate. [more inside]
Virgin fails to get it up
Last night, Virgin Orbit attempted the first ever space launch from UK soil (well, kind of) with their 747 carrier aircraft Cosmic Girl taking off from "Spaceport Cornwall" to release a LauncherOne rocket over the Atlantic ocean. The venture had been hailed as the start of new space industry for post-Brexit Britain, but the company and regulators argued openly in the press about who was to blame for delays. On the night, the much-hyped livestream was a flop, with glitchy telemetry, the sign language interpreter spotted drinking, the Chrome browser running the visuals crashing, and the final release countdown passing by without any video or commentary, only elevator music. Eventually a grainy image appeared, but although the launch itself initially seemed successful, the company later had to retract a tweet reporting a successful orbit, as an as-yet undetermined failure of the second stage left all nine satellites in the payload to burn up on re-entry. The company's stock price promptly fell to Earth by 30%, almost as quickly as the failed rocket.
The Case for Team Non-Teeming
Why We Might Be Alone David Kipping, of Columbia University, takes on the usual arguments for a universe that is “teeming with life” and finds them all wanting. [more inside]
Overview effect
"I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration. I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced." .. "I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable." — William Shatner (NPR)
The McCallister Clan is Riding a Shooting Star
A family moves their inn from the Earth to outer space in a failed 1979 TV pilot. Obviously inspired by a certain scene Star Wars, "Starstruck," on YouTube (27 minutes), starring Beeson Carroll, Lynne Lipton and Roy Brocksmith, may remind you of a certain holiday special from the year before. [more inside]
Space is for all
ESA has announced their Astronaut Class of 2022. Comprising 17 astronauts from 12 countries, of which almost 50% are women, the cohort includes 5 career astronauts, 11 reserve astronauts, and 'parastronaut' John McFall, the world's first disabled astronaut. Although not guaranteed to go into orbit, the former British Paralympian will be part of a feasibility project to see what the requirements would be for that to be possible. [more inside]