(11-22-2022 01:40 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(11-21-2022 12:09 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  Orion Successfully Completes Lunar Flyby, Re-acquires Signal with Earth



picture of you (NASA)

third from the right.

you gonna make me squint?

um...what did she say?

live view

photo of our local neighborhood (nasa)

Orion continues its journey back to Earth on day 22 of the 25.5-day Artemis I mission. Orion’s return scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022. A few key milestones for Orion remain, including the entry system check outs and propulsion system leak checks on mission days 24 and 25, respectively. Orion will travel at around 25,000 mph while reentering Earth’s atmosphere, testing the world’s largest ablative heat shield by reaching temperatures up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit – approximately half the heat of the sun. The heat shield is located at the bottom of the Orion capsule, measuring 16.5 feet in diameter, and sheds intense heat away from the crew module as Orion returns to Earth. The outer surface of the heat shield is made of 186 billets, or blocks, of an ablative material called Avcoat, a reformulated version of the material used on the Apollo capsules. During descent, the Avcoat ablates, or burns off in a controlled fashion, transporting heat away from Orion.

Very happy with the mission’s success so far. I worked on the KSC ground segment and the GS-SLS-Orion software integration before the program got dubbed Artemis. Fingers crossed for a successful trip home and recovery.

By the way, the ablator doesn’t really burn, it chars, and the heat is carried away as the reaction products flow away. There is basically a standing shockwave just over the heat shield, and the “smoke” from the charring also blocks much of the radiant heat from getting into the heat shield, but there’s a fantastic amount of energy involved.

Chemists and aero- and thermo-dynamicists would doubtless chuckle indulgently at my description, but you get the idea.

With the death of Artemis I, NASA's CubeSat program is showing itself to be a disaster. That's 4 out of 10 failures, thus far.

preview of Artemis II mission later in 2023:

preview of Artemis III mission to lunar South Pole region sometime in 2025:

Quote:The James Webb Space Telescope found six massive galaxies that some scientists never thought could exist. The telescope is so powerful it might have just shattered scientific understanding of the universe. Theoretical Physicist and author Dr. Michio Kaku talked about the groundbreaking report.

One of four publications that show that the DART mission did change the orbit of Dimorphos.
This is paywalled, but so was the Houston Chronicle story that linked to it.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05805-2.epdf

The sun seen like never before

This detailed photo of the sun isn't what it seems.

It's actually 90,000 individual photos stitched together as one, to make an accurate depiction of the star at the centre of our solar system.

Astrophotographers Andrew McCarthy and Jason Guenzel used NASA data and satellite images to create this image, which they named "Fusion of Helios."

Earth rises above the lunar surface

South Korea's first lunar probe has returned some striking images of Earth and the moon.

The Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter began orbiting the moon in December after the Korea Aerospace Research Institute's spacecraft had launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in August.

(04-05-2023 10:54 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  
Earth rises above the lunar surface

South Korea's first lunar probe has returned some striking images of Earth and the moon.

The Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter began orbiting the moon in December after the Korea Aerospace Research Institute's spacecraft had launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in August.

I wonder how much different the Earth looks now from that distance, compared to 60 years ago.

Things have changed a bit around here.

(04-07-2023 06:31 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  I wonder how much different the Earth looks now from that distance, compared to 60 years ago.

Things have changed a bit around here.

OK ... Here's the first "Earthrise" photo, taken on Dec. 24, 1968, by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders:



... and, for comparison, this year's Korean Pathfinder one (the link from above):



For completeness, here's another Earthrise image, taken on Oct. 12, 2015, by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft:



Also ... here's a 2013 NASA webpage in which the 1968 image was recreated. It includes a slider to allow you to compare the original and enhanced Earthrise images:

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images...-revisited

This page also has a link to the wonderful video made for the 45th anniversary of the original "Earthrise" image. It features a passage linking the images to the astronauts' audio communications/conversations as the photos were being taken:

(04-07-2023 11:14 AM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(04-07-2023 06:31 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  I wonder how much different the Earth looks now from that distance, compared to 60 years ago.

Things have changed a bit around here.

OK ... Here's the first "Earthrise" photo, taken on Dec. 24, 1968, by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders:



... and, for comparison, this year's Korean Pathfinder one (the link from above):



For completeness, here's another Earthrise image, taken on Oct. 12, 2015, by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft:



Also ... here's a 2013 NASA webpage in which the 1968 image was recreated. It includes a slider to allow you to compare the original and enhanced Earthrise images:

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images...-revisited

This page also has a link to the wonderful video made for the 45th anniversary of the original "Earthrise" image. It features a passage linking the images to the astronauts' audio communications/conversations as the photos were being taken:

Very cool! Thanks for posting, Mike!

This is actually really cool. Source is actually from 2007.

(04-28-2023 07:36 PM)gsloth Wrote:  This is actually really cool. Source is actually from 2007.

From:

https://www.the-sun.com/tech/5298931/foo...moon-space

Quote:... An astronomer named Jan Koet captured the video footage using a group-based telescope.

Koet writes in a YouTube post (https://youtu.be/LYJsjAmzw2c) that the video was taken on May 22, 2007.

"Video was made by a18cm Astro Physics 180EDT, aMeade 5000 3x Barlow and aToUcam2," the scientist explained.

He added that some after-processing was done "to push the brightness of the faint Saturn to match that of the Moon." ...