SPACE

[zip accident]

I believe the high is somewhere near -30 f or -34 c

Unless there's a lot of general heating inside the lander, that means sublimation if anything. I don't think there's much sublimation with water.

[benedictw]

I don't think there's much sublimation with water.

There can be - at low enough pressures it will go straight from solid->vapor. Not sure what the pressure\temperature would have to be though.

[Darkflame]

Still pissing about with pluto I see;

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEno ... EnoughNews

I hope that artical is inaccurate, because this strikes me as very bad diffinition indeed.

Plutoids will be defined as celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun farther away than Neptune.

To start with, Pluto goes within Neptunes orbit at some points of the year.
And secondly, why such an arbitary range?
What if there was another larger planet further out, would it still be a plutoid just due to distance?
What makes Neptune so special as to be the dividing range? What happened to the previous (also fairly random) critera?

[zip accident]

I don't think there's much sublimation with water.

There can be - at low enough pressures it will go straight from solid->vapor. Not sure what the pressure\temperature would have to be though.

Well probably, yes, I would expect that, which is not the same as knowing. However, the pressure on Mars, while too low for humans, is not minimal enough for that to be likely, I'd guess. Ice is very tough, if the stuff were frozen together it probably couldn't have been dug out at all. If there were ice in the sample, it would have been at the same pressure while it was outside, so it couldn't have formed if it was going to sublime on contact with the normal martian air.

Still pissing about with pluto I see;

It's a name. It doesn't matter. Pluto will still be Pluto whatever it's called. I must say I wouldn't really be happy with them giving it a different specific name, but the type name is pretty irrelevant and has no bearing on the composition or orbital atributes of the body.

[Darkflame]

Well, exactly, its completely arbitary.
So whats the point of changing it at all?
Whats the point of expending so much effort on a classification that...from a scientific standpoint...is utterly useless?

[axel000]

Frankly the size of the planet should be irrelevant IMO, I think a simpler defination would be planet = body orbiting star with some kind of atmosphere or a warm core. Asteroid is body orbitting star with no atmosphere and no core.

Moon is any kind of body orbiting a planet, even a body with an atmosphere.


However, what happens if you find two planets rotating together. Which one is the moon ? Odd to picture but stars behave like this in a binary star system so I expect we will eventually find binary planetary systems too...

[axel000]

New NASA spacesuits for constellation program :




source

[Sir_LANs-a-lot]

New NASA spacesuits for constellation program :

[axel000]

NOT GOOD

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Discovery astronauts have completed their flight control systems checks, but spotted bit of debris departing the shuttle after test firing its thrusters.

The small, rectangular object was seen floating away from the aft starboard wing of Discovery and appeared to be about 1-1.5 feet long and shiny in nature.

“It is not yet known what that object might be,” said NASA commentator Rob Navias, adding that it’s not uncommon for objects to drift out of shuttle payload bay during flight control systems checks.

Shuttle commander Mark Kelly later reported the debris appeared to be leaving the orbiter at a rate of about 1 foot per second.

Astronauts noted a protrusion of what appeared to be thermal simulation on Discovery’s tail-mounted speed brake. They have sent images to Mission Control of the protrusion to Earth, though flight controllers do not believe it represents a concern.

And I think the writer meant "thermal insulation"

[axel000]

Awesome pictures of NASA testing equipment for the return to the moon, currently scheduled for 2020. This testing was performed at Moses Lake, Washingon State.

As NASA takes its first steps to establish a permanent lunar outpost -- the first step in a journey that will eventually take humans to Mars -- testing like this will be critical to the safety and success of its missions. It's been almost 36 years since humans were last on the moon, and under Project Constellation the next journey is planned for 2020. It may seem a long way off, but the timeline is short, given the work that needs to be done for such a monumental task.

Included in the tests were lunar rovers, robots, space suits and shelters.

Robotic Rovers



Mobile Lunar Habitat




Experiment station ?


Rover




Hulk moment


Note- this is not the final suit, contract was just awarded to a different firm (oceaneering)


Suit on left may be the oceaneering suit, looks like the artists impression of suit 2 (EVA) posted earlier


source (scroll all the way down for the article)

This stuff is coming along fast

[Duck Turkin]

I don't think there's much sublimation with water.

There can be - at low enough pressures it will go straight from solid->vapor. Not sure what the pressure\temperature would have to be though.

Well probably, yes, I would expect that, which is not the same as knowing. However, the pressure on Mars, while too low for humans, is not minimal enough for that to be likely, I'd guess. Ice is very tough, if the stuff were frozen together it probably couldn't have been dug out at all. If there were ice in the sample, it would have been at the same pressure while it was outside, so it couldn't have formed if it was going to sublime on contact with the normal martian air.

There apparently can be sublimation of water-ice on Mars. Here's one paper that talks about it and it's impact:

Recent ice-rich deposits formed at high latitudes on Mars by sublimation of unstable equatorial ice during low obliquity

Maybe you can't get sublimation of water-ice everywhere on Mars surface, but conditions exist where it can occur.

[Darkflame]

Frankly the size of the planet should be irrelevant IMO, I think a simpler defination would be planet = body orbiting star with some kind of atmosphere or a warm core. Asteroid is body orbitting star with no atmosphere and no core.

Moon is any kind of body orbiting a planet, even a body with an atmosphere.


However, what happens if you find two planets rotating together. Which one is the moon ? Odd to picture but stars behave like this in a binary star system so I expect we will eventually find binary planetary systems too...

I quite like the idea that its just a relative term and not an absolute one.
Dosnt pretend theres any scientific base's for a name.

Binary planetary systems should be called just that. They are both moons and planets to eachother.

[teamonkey]

Well, exactly, its completely arbitary.
So whats the point of changing it at all?
Whats the point of expending so much effort on a classification that...from a scientific standpoint...is utterly useless?

Pluto is still a dwarf planet (as are Eris and Ceres), but it's now also a plutoid (as is Eris).

It's a bit arbitrary, but the issue is partly down to the planets sweeping up crap. As planets orbit, they affect the dust, gas and rocks in the area. Eventually they sweep it away or collect it. Up until Neptune the solar system is fairly clean, beyond that it gets muckier. Pluto is big enough to clear its orbit, but not big enough to make a significant difference. Hence the classification "trans-Neptunian objects", which now includes plutoids as a specific type.

[EDIT] here:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Neptunian_object

[axel000]

*phew*

Shuttle’s Lost Metal Clip no Risk for Landing
13 June 2008 11:36 a.m. EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A lost metal clip drifting away from the space shuttle Discovery poses no risk to the orbiter’s planned landing tomorrow, Mission Control told the seven astronauts aboard the spacecraft.

“We’re confident that this is going to be no impact for entry,” NASA astronaut Terry Virts radioed the crew, adding that similar clips have been lost on previous shuttle missions all the way back to the first flight, STS-1, in 1981.

The clip is one of three used to protect Discovery’s tail-mounted rudder speed brake against heat during launch, and not required for landing, he said.

A small bump thought to be loose insulation on the shuttle’s tail is actually just an artifact of lighting, Virts added.

Neither problem poses any concern for tomorrow’s planned Saturday landing at 11:15 a.m. EDT (1515 GMT) here at the Kennedy Space Center.

[axel000]

Study - life's building blocks originated from space

More confirmation that life on earth is not unique.