Hey while we’re renaming stuff... can we rename minor planet Pluto to be:
the minor planet “Planet Pluto”?

This is tonight, around 9:30-10:30 CST.
Could be the biggest meteor shower you will see in your lifetime.

If you’re somewhere with a clear view of the sky (unlike where I am in north Texas).

https://apple.news/ADmBs4npBR06sxR2uNqkK0A

NASA has big plans for the 2020s, from powerful new space telescopes to a hunt for alien life on a moon of Saturn. Here's the timeline.

I thought Hollywood already found alien life.

(01-21-2020 05:43 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  NASA has big plans for the 2020s, from powerful new space telescopes to a hunt for alien life on a moon of Saturn. Here's the timeline.

NASA shutting down space telescope, infrared eyes to cosmos

Quote:CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA is pulling the plug on one of its great observatories -- the Spitzer Space Telescope -- after 16 years of scanning the universe with infrared eyes.

The end comes Thursday when ground controllers put the aging spacecraft into permanent hibernation.

For years, Spitzer peered through dusty clouds at untold stars and galaxies, uncovered a huge, nearly invisible ring around Saturn, and helped discover seven Earth-size planets around a nearby star.

Spitzer's last observation was expected Wednesday. Altogether, Spitzer observed 800,000 celestial targets and churned out more than 36 million raw images as part of the $1.4 billion mission.

Designed to last just 2.5 years to five years, the telescope got increasingly difficult to operate as it drifted farther behind Earth, NASA said. It currently trails Earth by 165 million miles (265 million kilometers), while orbiting the sun.

Spitzer will continue to fall even farther behind Earth, posing no threat to another spacecraft or anything else, officials said.

until it crashes into an advanced alien probe that then 'rebuilds' itself out of remnants of the two crafts... and then seeks out it's home to 'sanitize' it!

(01-29-2020 02:33 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  until it crashes into an advanced alien probe that then 'rebuilds' itself out of remnants of the two crafts... and then seeks out it's home to 'sanitize' it!

And names itself Nomad.

(01-29-2020 03:05 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  

(01-29-2020 02:33 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  until it crashes into an advanced alien probe that then 'rebuilds' itself out of remnants of the two crafts... and then seeks out it's home to 'sanitize' it!

And names itself Nomad.

(01-29-2020 02:33 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  until it crashes into an advanced alien probe that then 'rebuilds' itself out of remnants of the two crafts... and then seeks out it's home to 'sanitize' it!

Sorta like what may have a 1-in-10 chance of happening this evening over Pittsburgh?

https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-air...rgh-2020-1

Quote: ... The satellites will pass dangerously close to each other just 25 seconds before 6:40 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to LeoLabs, a company that uses radar to track satellites and debris in space.

LeoLabs calculated that the two objects will come within 12 meters (39 feet) of one another. The group called the data "alarming" on Twitter.

On Wednesday morning LeoLabs calculated a 1-in-20 chance of collision — higher than its initial estimate of 1-in-100. The revision takes into account the fact that GGSE-4 has an 18-meter (59-foot) boom extending from its main body, and trackers don't know if the boom is facing towards IRAS.

Experts at The Aerospace Corporation ran their own simulation on Tuesday and found a 1-in-10 chance of a crash.

Pale Blue Dot Revisited

Quote:This image shows an updated version of the iconic Pale Blue Dot image taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft.

For the 30th anniversary of one of the most iconic images taken by NASA's Voyager mission, a new version of the image known as "the Pale Blue Dot."

Planet Earth is visible as a bright speck within the sunbeam just right of center and appears softly blue, as in the original version published in 1990.

In 1990, the Voyager project planned to shut off the Voyager 1 spacecraft's imaging cameras to conserve power and because the probe, along with its sibling Voyager 2, would not fly close enough to any other objects to take pictures. Before the shutdown, the mission commanded the probe to take a series of 60 images designed to produce what they termed the "Family Portrait of the Solar System." Executed on Valentine's Day 1990, this sequence returned images for making color views of six of the solar system's planets and also imaged the Sun in monochrome.

The popular name of this view is traced to the title of the 1994 book by Voyager imaging scientist Carl Sagan, who originated the idea of using Voyager's cameras to image the distant Earth and played a critical role in enabling the family portrait images to be taken.

The image of Earth was originally published by NASA in 1990. It is republished here to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Family Portrait of the Solar System and the Pale Blue Dot image in particular.

The planet occupies less than a single pixel in the image and thus is not fully resolved. (The actual width of the planet on the sky was less than one pixel in Voyager's camera.) By contrast, Jupiter and Saturn were large enough to fill a full pixel in their family portrait images.

I can see the Pale Blue Dot at 400x zoom, not at 300x

The Voyagers are still going. Let’s hear it for Pu-238.

it's about time we opened space up for business...

Trump Makes It Official: The U.S. Will Mine the Moon

Quote: A new executive order allows for U.S. mining on the moon.

Future moon inhabitants will likely need to use materials around them to build sustainable shelter.

The moon is governed by various treaties over time, but these have rarely been tested.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order allowing for the mining of resources from the moon and asteroids, continuing a decades-long U.S. interest in doing so. With the imminent return of U.S. astronauts to the moon scheduled for 2024, this issue is more real than it has been for several decades.

But the U.S. isn’t alone. The European Space Agency (ESA) also wants to mine the moon, and the world’s spacefaring nations have all notably stayed out of a 1979 treaty that says nations will refrain from mining in space.

Heading the other direction (underwater), but potentially informing on possibilities of life out there, this is a really cool story.

https://gizmodo.com/this-freaky-spiral-t...1842758206

Has NASA discovered another Earth? Perhaps

Quote:Astronomers have discovered a planet nearly the same size as Earth that orbits in its star’s habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on its surface, a new study said.

The presence of liquid water also indicates the planet could support life.

This newly found world, Kepler-1649c, is 300 light-years away from Earth and orbits a star that is about one-fourth the size of our sun.

What's exciting is that out of all the 2,000 plus exoplanets that have been discovered using observations from the Kepler Space Telescope, this world is most similar to Earth both in size and estimated temperature, NASA said.

An exoplanet is a planet that's outside of our solar system.

"This intriguing, distant world gives us even greater hope that a second Earth lies among the stars, waiting to be found,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s science mission directorate in Washington, D.C.

NASA Selects Blue Origin, Dynetics, SpaceX for Artemis Human Landers

I swear I thought the Dynetics lander was a drum kit when I first saw the pic:


Artist concept of the Dynetics Human Landing System on the surface of the Moon. Credits: Dynetics

(05-22-2020 04:24 PM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  We're back!

First manned space mission to depart from US soil since 2011!

Quote:SpaceX is ready to make space history with its first astronaut launch for NASA next week.

No showstoppers were found during a crucial flight readiness review (FRR) for SpaceX's Demo-2 mission, keeping the company's first-ever crewed flight on track for a May 27 liftoff, NASA officials announced today (May 22).

"The Flight Readiness Review has concluded, and NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission is cleared to proceed toward liftoff on the first crewed flight of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program," NASA officials wrote in an update today.

Demo-2 will send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, which will launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon...aunch.html

Yup! Today at 4:33pm. Hope weather cooperates. Otherwise, next launch window is Saturday, I believe. Hope things go well so we can stop relying on the Russians and be Independent again!

linky: Watch live now! SpaceX to launch 1st astronaut mission for NASA

Liftoff is set for 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT).




Note: The video above will be replaced with the live webcast at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT).

SpaceX's Demo-2 mission has been four years in the making and will launch today, May 27, at 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT). Demo-2 will mark the first launch of NASA astronauts on an commercial spacecraft and the first launch of American astronauts into orbit on a U.S.-built vehicle from America since 2011. Coverage begins at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT).

Launch was scrubbed due to weather with about 16 minutes left in the countdown. Next window is Saturday at 2:22 pm CDT.

looks like it's a go for launch in about 7 minutes!

Well that felt good!