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Category: Space

Bang! Zoom! Straight to the Moon!

Donald is a bold, inspiration leader … in whatever direction Fox is talking about today.

Oh, look. President Random-Neuron-Firing is making arbitrary and inconsistent policy statements on Twitter. Again. I offer a shiny nickel to the first person who can identify the Fox News, etc., item that triggered him. #nasa #moon #trumptantrum https://t.co/AwbZH9gt9m

After months of proudly proclaiming that NASA was going to put us back on the Moon, for long-term occupation and exploration (said statements then faithfully echoed by NASA itself, as well as by VP Pence and other administration members), all of a sudden, Trump blurted this out yesterday:

Why the sudden change of heart? As far as anyone can tell, because an hour earlier, His Closest Advisors (Fox) said that the Moon was for chumps (and a bright, shiny nickel has been delivered to Stan for spotting this).

We literally have a president whose mood and policies on any given day are influenced by Fox News and Fox Business News. No matter what he’s said, even assuming he remembers it, a critique on Fox is enough to get him to pivot in another direction.

That would be annoying enough if we were just employees of his company (yes, I’ve worked for bosses like that). But as President of the United States? Yeesh.

NASA’s space suit problem

I don’t think I’ve ever seen or read SF that thought about this particular issue.

NASA had a bit of egg on its face recently when it had to cancel a two-woman space walk because, well, they only had one space suit in their mutual size.

But the reality is actually more complex — and even less complimentary to NASA and the general state of the nation’s space planning. The existing wardrobe of space suit pieces is over 40 years old, designed for the space shuttle program. NASA doesn’t have the budget to make new ones, and, as importantly, doesn’t know what sort of space suits to make as US space priorities seem to change every 4-8 years.

Do you want to know more? NASA Space Suits Were Never Designed to Fit Everyone – The Atlantic

It’s not too late for Planet Pluto!

A new paper says the IAU’s claims around its definition for what a planet should be are flawed, and that Pluto fits the important aspects of planethood.

Stay tuned!




Pluto should be reclassified as a planet, experts say
The reason Pluto lost its planet status is not valid, according to new research.

Original Post

The First Song on Mars

Happy Birthday, Curiosity!

Watch the video to learn about the first musical tune played on Mars. That we know of, at least.

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“End of Mission” for Cassini

It’s been a multi-decade road, but one of the pioneers of space exploration has gone out in a blaze of glory.

Originally shared by +Colin Sullender:

Cassini: End of Mission

At 4:55 am PDT, NASA’s Deep Space Network lost contact with the Cassini spacecraft as it plunged into the atmosphere of Saturn.

This marks the end of a nearly 20-year-long, 4.9 billion mile mission that began aboard a Titan IV rocket in Cape Canaveral on October 15, 1997. After almost seven years of travel, including flybys of Venus, Earth, and Jupiter, Cassini entered orbit around the sixth planet of our Solar System on July 1, 2004, where it remained for over a decade. Earlier this year, Cassini began a series of harrowing dives between Saturn and its majestic rings, culminating today with its destruction in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant. With fuel running low, this method of disposal was selected to minimize the risk of biological contamination of Saturn’s moons.

Cassini is responsible for an immense body of knowledge about our Solar System. From tests validating Einstein’s theory of general relativity to discovering six new moons orbiting Saturn to landing the Huygens probe on the surface of Titan, the spacecraft has been a workhorse of NASA, ESA, and ASI for many years.

And now she has become one with the planet she so magnificently portrayed.

Sic Itur Ad Astra

Source: https://youtu.be/xrGAQCq9BMU (NASA JPL, Erik Wernquist)

#ScienceGIF #Science #GIF #Cassini #Huygens #NASA #JPL #ESA #ASI #Saturn #Mission #Space #Discovery #Orbit #Rings #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Destruction #Burn #Finale

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Planets as People

These are cool — some are spectacular.

Originally shared by +Doyce Testerman:

Via +Bill Garrett – Planets as people. Beautiful.

https://imgur.com/gallery/137rk




Planet Girls plus the Sun and Pluto by Phill Berry
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet.

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“I’m Being Followed by a Moonshadow …”

Amazing animated GIF of today’s eclipse, looking down on the Earth as the Moon’s shadow crossed the US.

Originally shared by +Colin Sullender:

The Great American Eclipse

Today’s eclipse was the first total solar eclipse visible from most of the continental United States since 1979. Millions of people travelled to experience the celestial event along the 70-mile-wide path of totality that spanned the width of the country from Oregon to South Carolina.

This high resolution imagery of the solar eclipse passing over the United States was captured by the GOES-16 satellite. It is the first of the next generation of geosynchronous environmental satellites jointly operated by NASA and NOAA that will provide atmospheric and surface measurements of Earth. Data from the GOES system is used for weather forecasting, severe storm tracking, space weather monitoring, and meteorological research.

Source: https://goo.gl/6yYYKB (NOAA)

#ScienceGIF #Science #GIF #Solar #Eclipse #Totality #NOAA #NASA #Satellite #Space #GOES16 #Geosynchronous #Environment #Climate #Weather #Meteorology #Geocolor #Animation #Clouds #Shadow #Penumbra #Umbra #United #States #America #USA

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Mars and Organics

Despite concerns about being able to detect them for a variety of reasons, Curiosity is finding organic compounds all around Mars. That doesn't mean life, past or present, but that early life could have found support once upon a time.

Keen.




The Search for Organic Compounds On Mars Is Getting Results – Many Worlds
Sedimentary rocks of the Kimberley Formation in Gale Crater, as photographed in 2015. The crater contains thick deposits of finely-laminated mudstone from fine-grained sediments deposited in a standing body of water that persisted for a long period of time. Scientists have now reported several …

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The real people behind "Hidden Figures"

I saw the trailer for the movie last weekend, and was sure we'd start seeing actual articles about the historical women involved — African-American women who provided (segregated) math help in calculating orbits and other math work. Here's one of them.

Originally shared by +Cheryl Martin:




On Being a Black Female Math Whiz During the Space Race – The New York Times
Former NASA mathematicians discuss the matter-of-fact way they approached their work and the new history about their careers in “Hidden Figures,” which is being made into a film.

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Tweetizen Trump – 2016-12-09 "Good-bye, Hello"

Donald Trump being presidential? Could it be?

Today we lost a great pioneer of air and space in John Glenn. He was a hero and inspired generations of future explorers. He will be missed.¹

It's thoughtful, it's inspirational, it's grammatically correct. Who wrote that, really?

The rest of the tweets since then were all about the Victory Rally in Des Moines, and upcoming Victory Rallies in Baton Rouge and Grand Rapids (one of which included a gratuitous link to a NY Post op-ed about how cool Trump's Carrier pay-off was).

So … a relatively sane day.

——

¹ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/806970576359325696




Trump returns to Iowa for a rally with a different tone — but familiar themes
Gone were the loud chants of “Lock her up!” and “CNN sucks!” Absent was the dismissive “Get ‘em out!” in response to protesters. Hillary Clinton’s name came up only a couple of times in passing.

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RIP, John Glenn

While his work as US Senator was tarnished by the Keating Five scandal, Glenn's career in politics was a reasonably good one. But he will be remembered more (and with reason) for his earlier work as a test pilot and then one of the original Mercury astronauts, and being the first American to orbit the planet, in 1962.

Thank you, sir, for your service.




John Glenn, first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth and later spent 24 years representing Ohio in the Senate, has died at 95
Former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn has died in Ohio. He was 95.

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US Senators love funding NASA [work in their own states]

In the defense industry, where a project is being built is a critical component of what sort of DoD money goes to it, under the protective eyes of Congresscritters with an electoral stake in bringing home the defense system bacon. Whether such systems work, or are the best to choose from, seems a secondary consideration to where such systems will be built, because that makes constituents happy.

The same is also true with NASA, except it's a lot more ham-handed. So a couple of US Senators[1] have arranged for some big boosts to NASA's budget .. for programs that are operated in their state. But in doing so, they hamstrung other projects that are needed to actually make use of those boosted programs. Because actual NASA space exploration is simply a coincidental byproduct of big NASA spending that benefits one's constituents.

—–

[1] And, to be fair, the two highlighted in the article are a Republican (Richard Shelby of Alabama) and a Democrat (Barbara Mikulski of Maryland). Pork barrel politics are not confined to just one side of the aisle by any means.




How to land on Mars? Don’t ask NASA—the Senate just cut its test program
Parochial interests trump tech funding when it comes to reaching the Red Planet.

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China on the Moon

Congrats to China for their Chang’e 3 lander and its rover, Yutu, landing on the Moon. Expanding our knowledge of the Solar System is a good thing, no matter who does it.




China Shares Stunning New Moon Photos With the World – Universe Today
China has released hundreds of photos from Chang’e 3 lunar lander and Yutu rover.

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The Passing of the Men on the Moon

Y'know, it'd be awfully keen if we could, oh, I don't know, actually put more people on the Moon, or Mars, or someplace, before all those original space pioneers die off. Pass the torch, as it were.

Just a thought.

Originally shared by +Boing Boing:

Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell, 6th man on the moon, dies at age 85 http://boingboing.net/2016/02/05/apollo-astronaut-edgar-mitchel.html

 

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Yule Moon

"The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below."

(h/t Clement Clarke Moore and +The Bruce, Mile High​)

Originally shared by +NASA:

This Christmas, your belly won’t be the only thing that’s full. A rare full moon will be visible in the skies. This full moon, the last of the year, hasn’t occurred on Christmas since 1977, and won’t happen again until 2034. So don’t miss it: http://nasa.tumblr.com/post/135785010984/rare-full-moon-on-christmas-day

 

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And now for a bit of Moon science

Congrats to the Chinese for their discovery. Nicely done.

Originally shared by +Ray Radlein:




New type of moon rock discovered by Chinese lunar lander
The Yutu rover, part of the Chang’e-3 unmanned lunar mission, has identified a type of basalt unlike anything collected by previous Soviet or US missions

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Looking inward, looking outward

It's ironic that budget hawks and conservatives who have long argued that manned space exploration is a money-wasting boondoggle and that NASA ought to be spending more time focusing on the Earth … are now spawning folk insisting that NASA's core science program is space exploration and that Earth science is a money-wasting boondoggle because it supports climate change.




Republicans outraged over NASA earth science programs… that Reagan began
Republicans trying to dry up NASA’s earth science funding may not realize its origins.

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"We should have had a historian," says NASA

Yes. Yes you should have. Then you wouldn't have dumped the original moon landing videos into the degaussing bin to "save money." Yeesh.





Moon landing tapes got erased, NASA admits
| Reuters


The original recordings of the first humans landing on the moon 40 years ago were erased and re-used, but newly restored copies of the original broadcast look even better, NASA officials said on

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Looking for a gender-neutral "unmanned" alternative for space flight

Since we've culturally decided that "man" no longer serves as a contemporary synonym for "humanity," the term "unmanned" almost certainly needs to be retired — but apparently that's kind of complicated.

The best, most accurate alternative I see from this article is "uncrewed," which is precise, non-gendered, and similar enough to "unmanned" to sound correct. The problem is that NASA won't use it because it "isn't in the dictionary."

Which is an odd restriction for an agency dedicated to exploring the unknown, if you think about it.

Hey, NASA, to paraphrase another aspirational source, "If you use it, the dictionaries will come." Words don't get put into the dictionary through a permission process. They get put in because they are being used. Use "uncrewed" and the dictionaries will pick it up quickly. Problem solved.

(I do fully agree with +J. Steven York that we should avoid "unstaffed".)




Finding new language for space missions that fly without humans
Historically, human spaceflight was described using the words

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Moon Shots

This is part of what makes the Internet and the digital age an awesome thing.

Originally shared by +Les Jenkins:

Cool.




Over 8,400 NASA Apollo moon mission photos just landed online, in high-resolution
Space fans, rejoice: today, just about every image captured by Apollo astronauts on lunar missions is now on the Project Apollo Archive Flickr account. There are some 8,400 photographs in all at a …

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