Odysseus drifted sideways on landing and one leg caught on something, over he went.

By Nick Blank (Nickgb) on Tuesday, February 27, 2024 - 01:36 pm: Edit

Looks like the Ingenuity Mars copter lost one entire blade on its hard landing, based on new pictures taken by the rover.

https://www.space.com/ingenuity-mars-helicopter-broken-blade-perseverance-rover

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, March 05, 2024 - 02:48 am: Edit

Tight Squeeze?

The ISS now has 11 people on it - with 4 arriving today via the SpaceX Crew8 Mission.

BBC Web site doesn't mention how many crew will be in the return mission and when!

By John Wyszynski (Starsabre) on Thursday, March 14, 2024 - 10:53 am: Edit

The Starship got to orbit the morning. Made reentry over the Indian ocean but apparently broke up in the hypersonic phase of landing.

Next starship is already built and done most of the testing. FAA approval should be much quicker as nothing blew up this time.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 - 04:13 pm: Edit

FYEO
Space: Russian Roscosmos Retreating
March 11, 2024: Two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the severe economic sanctions imposed on Russia continue causing problems, especially with the Russian space program and the Russian space agency Roscosmos. These funding reductions hit a lot of non-military government programs.
The costs of the war reduced government income while military spending took priority, but that did not extend to the Russian space program. In theory Roscosmos could assist the military effort but in practice Roscosmos had little to offer. This became evident six months after the invasion when Russia confirmed that it was not withdrawing from the ISS (International Space Station) program by 2024 but would scale back its support because of the economic sanctions. That meant other members of the ISS consortium had to provide the transportation services to and from the space station. The Americans were already using the SpaceX passenger and cargo capsules. Other American and European firms had developed similar capabilities. Currently the ISS is supposed to remain operational until 2030. As of early 2024 the ISS has been occupied 23 years. Russia played a major role in ISS design and construction early in the program, but the Russian contributions have been steadily declining over the last few years.
Even without the Ukraine War related economic sanctions, the Russian space program was in financial trouble and sanctions only made it worse. The Russian space program suffered from a growing number of problems in the last decade. Russian support for the ISS suffers because Roscosmos is also responsible for maintaining the more important Russian GPS (GLONASS) satellites as well as all other military communications and surveillance satellites. These activities take priority over projects involving international cooperation.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, May 10, 2024 - 02:40 pm: Edit

FYEO
Space: Voyager Spacecraft Calls Home
May 5, 2024: NASA Engineers made very long distance repairs on one of the two Voyager Spacecraft launched in 1977. NASA partially restored communications functions on their 773 kg Voyager 1 spacecraft. This ended five months of silence from Voyager 1, which was still able to receive commands. Voyager 1 is currently 24.2 billion kilometers from Earth. It takes 22.5 hours for a signal to reach Voyager 1 from earth and the same amount of time for Voyager response to reach earth.
Voyager 1 passed the Heliopause and left our solar system for interstellar space in 2012. Voyager 2 followed in 2018. Interstellar Space is 14.9 billion kilometers from earth and is the point where an object from earth is free of any gravity, electronic or other influence from our solar system.
About 14 percent of Voyager’s weight is scientific instruments while the rest includes communications equipment and the nuclear powered electric power system. NASA is constantly reconfiguring the power supply to make it last longer. Current estimates that the Voyager spacecraft can retain some capabilities until 2036. That is 59 years after the Voyager spacecraft were launched.
Meanwhile NASA was able to repair the Voyager 1 communications system after five months of silence. This involved some very complex and time consuming troubleshooting and repairs on the Voyager 1 1970s era computer.
Voyager cannot store data so five months of data is lost. With communications restored, Voyager 1 resumed sending data and will continue for another twelve years and then shut down because the power supply system can no longer generate power for the two Voyager spacecraft. Voyager 2 never had any problems and has continued to transmit data back to earth.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Thursday, June 06, 2024 - 10:05 am: Edit

Space is 'sexy' again!

Boeings succesful lunch and a succesful SpaxceX Starship launch, succesful Booster Landing and a Starship 'landing' (not sure if this part was 100% succesful, but it certainly got close) - all within 1 week!!!

Make Rockets go!!!!

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Saturday, June 15, 2024 - 02:42 pm: Edit

New study finds potential (Tholian) alien mega-structures known as 'dyson spheres' | Fri, Jun 14
A group of researchers have identified at least seven stars that might be surrounded by advanced alien mega-structures known as "dyson spheres." NBC News' Ellison Barber speaks with Janna Levin, a professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College, about the findings and whether the truth is out there.

Maybe the “tapes” SVC has are real.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Saturday, June 15, 2024 - 09:19 pm: Edit

The truth is out there.

By Dal Downing (Rambler) on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 - 04:26 am: Edit

It took about 8 months but NASA say Voyager I is fully functional again.

Four more years and Vger will be on a 50 year mission.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 - 09:50 am: Edit

Dal

Thats pretty good going!!

With the time it takes for transmissions to go back and forth - 8 months seems to be pretty speedy!!

(I re-watched the Martian Film recently and it was interesting how they communciated and the time delay was a relevant issue - and thats more or less next door in comparison!!)

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 - 10:37 am: Edit

Aren't the Voyagers more than a light-day away from Earth?

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 - 12:07 pm: Edit

Voyager 1 is 22 hours 36 minutes from Earth at the speed of light according to the NASA Mission Status page. So well over 1 day round-trip, but slightly less than 1 light-day out.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 - 02:24 pm: Edit

It always amazes me that such a small amount of radio power can reach such a great distance, and still work!

I mean, my mobile phone will drop calls when walking along a path with a "dead spot" not far from my home.

--Mike

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 - 04:00 pm: Edit

It also gives an idea of how BIG space is, these are some of the fastest things ever built by man, it's been nearly 50 years, and they are well under a thousandth of the distance to the nearest star....

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, June 25, 2024 - 03:05 pm: Edit

FYEO
Space: SpaceX Profitability Arrives Early
June 23, 2024: SpaceX, the innovative and ambitious satellite communications company, became profitable in 2024. This was earlier than financial and space technology experts expected. SpaceX is estimated to earn $3.8 billion in 2024 with expenses of about $3.2 billion. SpaceX has only been in business for five years and has always operated at high speed while maintaining control over costs and efficiency of operations. SpaceX put its first 60 satellites into orbit in 2019 and expected to eventually launch 30,000 Starlink communications satellites. These would provide global high-speed internet service to those using Starlink terminals with a small dish antenna. Monthly fees were to be about the same internet users pay. Most potential internet customers live in areas that are not wired for internet service. SpaceX solves that problem with LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites operating 300 kilometers up. SpaceX built a factory to build its satellites and continually upgraded the design of the satellites and the reusable first stages of the Falcon 9. Development of the current FH (Falcon Heavy) B5 began with Falcon 9 v1.0 in 2010, followed by V1.1 2013, V1.2, in 2015, Block 5 in 2019, Falcon Heavy in 2018 and Falcon Heavy B5 in 2020.
On May 17, 2024, a Falcon 9 delivered 23 more Starlink Internet satellites to orbit. This Falcon 9, in 20 previous launches, has put over 530 satellites, most of them Starlink’s, into orbit. This was the 51st orbital mission this year. With the latest launch SpaceX has carried out 83 lunches from the Kennedy Space Center. That is one more than the prior 82 Space Shuttle launches that took place over a thirty year period.
The rocket launched was a Falcon 9 Block 5. This model was designed to be used ten times. But now SpaceX believes these Block 5 Falcon 9s can be used for up to 40 launches. This Block 5 Falcon 9 has proved capable of carrying out a launch, then landing and carrying out another launch without refurbishment. As of now SpaceX has about 5,935 operational Starlink satellites in orbit out of a total of 6,350 launched to date. SpaceX plans to carry out 150 launches by the end of the year. A smaller number of launches take place at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. That’s where the classified Starshield satellites are launched for the U.S. Space Force.
Back in 2019 the first sixty Starlink satellites were put into orbit. The goal was for SpaceX to eventually have 30,000 Starlink satellites up there. This would provide the entire planet with low-cost, high-speed Internet access via a multiple-satellite ISP (Internet Service Provider) system. Users needed a small ground station consisting of a small satellite dish and a special modem, costing $600 for standard use with a $90 a month service charge. In large quantities these stations cost about $100 each. High Performance Starlink service costs $2,500 a month. Some nations will not allow their citizens to access Starlink while others seek to regulate what portions of the Internet users can access. This has been the experience of major competitors like ViaSat and HughesNet. When all the Starlink satellites are in orbit, Starlink will be the planet’s major provider of satellite Internet service.
Starlink expected to be profitable in 2024 and was, with 3.8 million fee paying customers. That’s up from 2.3 million Starlink customers in 2023.
The original gen1 Starlink system was designed to expand to over 40,000 satellites if demand by paying customers was large enough to justify and pay for it. Starlink gen2 is designed to provide so much more customer bandwidth (data transmission) that far fewer Starlink satellites will be needed. That could be up to 90 percent less than gen1. Gen2 is designed to operate more efficiently over countries that outlaw Starlink as an ISP. Nearly half the Internet users on the planet live in countries that heavily censor Internet use. Starlink makes it much more difficult to censor Internet users. Originally designed to provide affordable high-speed Internet use to those in remote areas, Starlink discovered it had gained a lot of new customer interest because of its experience in Ukraine.
The Gen2 satellites are described as nearly ten times more capable than the original Gen1 Starlink satellites. Gen2 are designed to work with Gen1 satellites and gradually replace them. Gen1 satellites are designed to last about seven years. At that point the satellite gradually loses altitude until it burns up reentering the atmosphere. The true capabilities of Gen2 won’t be known until some of them are in orbit. Gen1 satellites proved more effective than expected but the list of suggested improvements indicated that a larger Gen2 satellite would be the way to go. Eventually this will mean fewer Starlink satellites in orbit but there will still be thousands of them.
The main function of Starlink is to provide cheaper, more powerful, and globally available access to the Internet or any other communications network that can pay for the use of the Starlink network. That includes military users that are friendly to Starlink and not considered a threat. The threat nations include China, Russia and several smaller countries like Iran, North Korea and Cuba that are hostile to Internet access they cannot control. China estimates that Starlink is able to increase the speed and throughput of military communications over a hundred times what it is now.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 - 03:48 pm: Edit

My worry about Starlink is its contribution to an eventual Kessler syndrome. Mind, it's not as concerning as the original plan, which had them at a higher orbit, but it's still worrisome.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 - 05:26 pm: Edit

Ted White: author of the book The Maurauder satellite.

Good yarn, but the premise was a group of astronauts who had the duty to collect space debris.

If you are allergic to space aliens, you might want to give this one a pass.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 - 07:32 pm: Edit

Zeihan on geopolitics, a web blogger posted a blog on a recent (within 24 hours) Ukrainian attack on a Russian satellite ground tracking facility in Crimea.

The report claims that Russia only had four such ground support bases. The report also indicated that this was an intentional attack on a major component of Russian air defense for all of the south western area of the Russian Federation.

The reason for the interest in degrading Russian Air Defense is the expectation that F-16 fighters will be deployed in numbers during the later part of summer 2024, and combined with Russian forces in ability to control the air defenses, could allow Ukraine to gain local air superiority over the battlefield.

This potentially could be a game changer in the war.

Side issue, if Ukraine could destroy a second such ground station, Russias ability to manage and control their satellites in orbit. And if they fail to maintain a credible launch capability, they could potentially lose a significant portion of their GPS system.

One detail that I was unaware of, was Russian dependency on surplus ICBM rockets left over from the cold war.

The stockpile of such rockets has been depleted since the fall of the Soviet Union, and production of new missiles has not kept up with usage. At some point, the Russians will have to start using missiles that are part of the strategic Rocket Forces, which reduces the number of deployable nuclear weapons.

Another issue, is The Russians are using glide bombs. Launched from a cargo plane over Russian territory, the glide bombs use the Russian version of GPS for targeting. Loss of control of satellites means a progressive loss of accuracy of precision weapons. Eventually, the accuracy will degrade to the point that the targets will have to be huge. This might well end up with Russian targeting cities.

And yet, talking heads on TV/cable news insist that Russia is winning the war.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 - 11:38 pm: Edit

>> their GPS system

I believe it is called GLONASS, if memory serves?

--Mike

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, August 07, 2024 - 05:18 am: Edit

What the heck has gone so terribly wrong with Boeing and Starliner. Their crewed mission had a lot of really basic tech issues and apparently now NASA is really not sure it is safe to fly.

The story goes that if:
it comes home empty and works that just says NASA didn’t trust it.
It comes home empty and fails it probably gets cancelled.
If it kills the crew Boeing may be out of business
If the crew is willing to ride it down and is safe, they aren’t out of th e woods.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Wednesday, August 07, 2024 - 08:39 am: Edit

Starliner

Trying to look on the brightside....

...is the issue that there was problems, which they didn't forsee - and they are serious enough that 'someone' high up in NASA has told Boeing "what do we do.... and Boeing hasn't given a positive reply"?

With this being the first crewed mission, perhaps their just isn't enough positive points - but when they safely return, things will look better?

Fingers crossed.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, August 07, 2024 - 11:36 am: Edit

When McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing, the management style used by the former -- a style which had produced the lackluster MD-11 and its slew of safety issues -- won out, replacing engineers with accountants at the top and middle. The corresponding loss of quality across the board at Boeing over the past 25 years has been the result, as experience engineers and technicians have abandoned the company.

By Michael F Guntly (Ares) on Wednesday, August 07, 2024 - 12:45 pm: Edit

Jessica,

Agreed. MD was having difficulties in mid 1990's. Boeing merged with MD, though it appears MD assimilated Boeing.

(Retired 2016 after 40 years at MD/Boeing)

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Wednesday, August 07, 2024 - 06:19 pm: Edit

The core problem was that over consolidation in the aerospace industry in the US led to a shortage of real competition and innovation.

The specifics as to why Boeing degraded and became what Boeing is today are less relevant. If more competition existed, such valid competitors would have scooped up the opportunities Boeing missed and then excelled. But too many competitors were gobbled up or driven out of business. So then the customers (in many cases ultimately US consumers or US taxpayers) simply had to accept Boeing's lesser products.

Thank goodness for SpaceX.

--Mike