SPACE

[axel000]

This is an interesting article on the Space Shuttle manufacturing base and difficulty transitioning this to Aries/Constellation.

The Space Shuttle Program is currently supported by over 1,500 active suppliers, some of whom are the only known or certified source of a particular material, part or service. The retirement of the Shuttle and transition to planned exploration activities, as called for in the President's Vision for Space Exploration, creates the need for NASA to begin making decisions today about its supplier base needs for the future.

[axel000]

more wallpaper

[zip accident]

I really, really, don't like the look of the gap in the tiles on the bulge near the tail fin. If that had been on the nose, she very probably wouldn't have made it (IMHO, IANAAA). Looks like some more missing on the underside and the undercarriage doors. I suppose they must be new tiles that don't match the originals, but it certainly looks very worrying.

[axel000]

Most likely the dark tile spots underneath the vehicle are new tiles. I've noticed the new black tiles are alot darker than the used ones, which grey with use.

Sounds like they are flying the shuttle to Kennedy Space Center this Sunday, on the 747.

[axel000]

Some nice present day shots and narrative re: the Apollo 15 landing site from Japan's Kaguya HD imaging satellite.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) reported on the "halo" generated by the Apollo 15* lunar module engine exhaust plume that was detected in the data from Terrain Camera (TC) image.

This was an image processed by the SELENE mission instrument team from the observation data of the Apollo 15 landing site on the moon (the foot of the Apennine Mountains encircling the Mare Imbrium close to Hadley Rille). This is the world's first report on the detection of the "halo" through observations after the end of the Apollo program.

Full res image

The enlarged image where the area of the potential "halo" exists. (left image: 1 square kilometer in size. The inside of the red circle includes the potential "halo").
The reflectivity of the "halo" area became brighter than the original one by the Apollo 15* lunar module engine exhaust plume and the probable "halo" area was confirmed.

TC 3D image and the picture taken by Apollo 15 astronaut. (left image : TC, right image : Apollo)
The viewpoint of the 3D image produced from TC stereo-pair data can be freely changed. The 3D image from TC data shows quite a similar landscape (left image) to the picture taken by the Apollo 15 crew (right image; provided from NASA: AS15-82-11122HR). Although the small objects (e.g. rocks) cannot be shown in this TC image because their respective sizes are less than the spatial resolution of the TC of 10 meters, the shape of the mountains and hills is almost the same, indicating the spatial observation accuracy of the TC is very high.

Full res image

This still image is a cutout from the movie taken by the SELENE (KAGUYA) HDTV (telephoto camera) on January 29, 2008 (JST.). The Apollo 15 landing site, as well as the Montes Apenninus, Hadley Rille (in the left) and Archimedes crater (in the center) are seen in this image.

The blast "halo" area can be clearly seen at the landing site. Odd to think how frozen in time everything remains on the moon, as the cycles of human and natural change continue to change Earth.

[F-ZeroOne]

Good photos of the NASA film studios, dat.

[axel000]

[axel000]

Going where no man has gone before...

these words occurred to me while reading this article today on the discovery of an exoplanet orbitting very close to an unusually hot star, with a crazy as **** orbit period of 2.5 days.

The planet, which is about five times as massive as Jupiter, circles its host star every 2.5 days. It lies at only three percent of the Earth-sun distance from its star, making it very hot and much larger than many other planets.

2.5 days to orbit a star. Just to imagine how this looks from a safe vantage point.

Reading things like this does make me begrudge future generations a little. Just imagine sitting on a starship 400 years hence and seeing these kinds of systems up close for the first time. Mind blowing.

[WiteWulf]

Fuck, I'm not even going to attempt to do any of the maths involved in coming up with semi-realistic figures but just imagine how massive the star must be to exert enough gravitational pull to keep a body with that much angular momentum in orbit. Crazy, absolutely crazy...

[WiteWulf]

For the astronomy geek in your life, Hubble Christmas Cards:
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/holiday/

[benedictw]

Fuck, I'm not even going to attempt to do any of the maths involved in coming up with semi-realistic figures but just imagine how massive the star must be to exert enough gravitational pull to keep a body with that much angular momentum in orbit.

Unfortunately, I'm bored.

I get the following:
Semimajor axis 4,500,000 km
0.6 Solar Masses (star)
1500 Earth masses (planet)

Orbital velocity (from that):
133527 m/s
480698 kmh
298692 mph
0.00045 c

For comparison, mercurys orbit is 47 km/h (semimajor axis is 50,000,000 km). So 'all' it needs is to get close enough to the star.

[axel000]

Carl Sagan would love this picture. Hubble pic of hundreds of thousands of stars (and probably planetary systems) in the M13 cluster.



Hundreds of thousands of stars. Probably a million planets. Chance of life ? High I suspect.

[Portland]

"Teddy-nauts" see the curve of the Earth. The toys were launched on a helium balloon by schoolchildren working with the Cambridge University Spaceflight team. The educational project saw the bears reach 30km on a two-hour, nine-minute mission which landed near Ipswich.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/p ... html/1.stm

[Portland]

Hmm, no edit again.

More coverage in the daily bile:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... gPage=true

[axel000]

Thats a fantastic little story, now thats great teaching

I thought a water bottle rocket was impressive in high school