The thread for space cadets!

Yep, it is really crowded up there.

I heard equatorial countries pretend to claim the portion of space above its territories to rent it and make loads of money.
 
That would violate several space treaties and piss off all the major powers of the Earth so I don't think that will come to pass. The area of international space law does need fresh thinking and new treaties to keep up with commercial and military developments but I don't see any way that equatorial countries can claim any air rites over the geostationary arc.

--------

NASA is thinking about buying seats on Virgin Galactic's and Blue Origin's commercial suborbital flights to conduct additional experiments and for astronaut training. This could very well see NASA astronauts launched to the edge of space from @Birdjaguar -land
 
hobbsyoyo said:
That would violate several space treaties and piss off all the major powers of the Earth so I don't think that will come to pass. The area of international space law does need fresh thinking and new treaties to keep up with commercial and military developments but I don't see any way that equatorial countries can claim any air rites over the geostationary arc.
Click to expand...
Well, air space and outer space limits are not clearly defined in international law. Geostationary orbit is far away but a country could try to include it in its own air space. Of course none of these countries are superpowers (even if some like Brazil or India are pretty big) and could hardly enforce such rocambolesque pretention.
 
Thorgalaeg said:
Well, air space and outer space limits are not clearly defined in international law.
Click to expand...
I think space is clearly defined as anything about 100 km and there is a ton of law/precedent for how the countries on the ground below have no control over what flies over except that they can restrict the satellites ability to broadcast over their territory. There is a lot of outer space law that has not been explored/tested/regulated, but control over the actual space itself is not really disputed. There are very clear procedures for companies to buy slots and broadcast from them; it's not like the wild west where everyone is grabbing space without regards to who is already there.
 
The European-Russian ExoMars rover has been delayed till 2022. They have run into persistent issues with their parachutes that they were not able to overcome in time. JPL/NASA has been helping but it's not been going well as they keep failing important tests. Oh well, better safe than sorry.
 
Random space-related article.
BBC said:
How do you keep a space station clean?

The astronauts and cosmonauts on board the International Space Station have brought with them a host of bacteria from Earth. How do they keep them from creating havoc?

By 1998, after 12 years in orbit, Russian space station Mir was showing its age. Power cuts were frequent, the computers unreliable and the climate control system was leaking. But when the crew began a study to assess the types of microbes they were sharing their living space with, even they were surprised at what they found.

Opening an inspection panel, they discovered several globules of murky water – each around the size of a football. Later analysis revealed the water was teeming with bacteria, fungi and mites. Even more concerning were the colonies of organisms attacking the rubberised seals around the space station windows and the acid-excreting bugs slowly eating the electrical cabling.

When each Mir module launched from Earth it was near-pristine, assembled in clean rooms by engineers wearing masks and protective clothing. All the unwanted life now living on the station had been carried into orbit by the multinational group of men and women who subsequently occupied the orbiting laboratory.
Click to expand...
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200311-how-do-you-keep-a-space-station-clean
 
NASA's SLS rocket has hit a potential roadblock. For years, NASA has been playing accounting games to shuffle the costs of the troubled program to keep it under limits which would trigger a mandatory cost review by Congress. The government's auditors have been fighting NASA on their accounting and finally ruled that in fact NASA's accounting process for the program was wrong and that the SLS has indeed breached cost-growth limits. The program will not be split from the NASA general funding so that it can be voted on for continued authorization by Congress. It is likely to survive this (it was Congress that forced NASA to use the SLS in the first place) but it's not good for the long-term viability of the Artemis moon program.

Also, as part of the auditor's findings, we finally found out the price tag of a single RS-25 (the engine built for the space shuttle and re-used for the SLS) : $109 million. That means that one single engine for the SLS costs more than an entire Falcon Heavy rocket.
https://spacenews.com/sls-cost-growth-exceeds-threshold-for-formal-review/
 
SpaceX is finding the far-side knee of the bathtub curve (blue line below) -
Spoiler :


They just launched a booster for the fifth time and one engine failed on ascent. They also failed to recover the booster (for undisclosed reasons) but they were able to successfully place the payload into orbit. This is the second failed recovery in a row, and the previous failure I believe was with a booster that was on its forth flight.

So they're finding the limits of their design life with the current block of Falcons.


Meanwhile, China failed to reach orbit with the first operational launch of a new variant of their Long March series, the Long March 7A. The payload was a secret testbed satellite, and the rocket itself was upgraded over it's previous launch with a more powerful upper stage. The Long March 7A and it's big brother the Long March 5 both cut out toxic hypergolic fuels that have marked the Long March series until now but they have had issues with both vehicles thus far.
 
They are the remains of salt water geysers! There are at least pockets of water under Ceres surface, if not a general plantesimal-wide ocean. The bright spots are where the water erupted to the surface and evaporated into space, leaving behind brightass salt deposits. :)
 
SpaceX is reporting a 50% reduction in the brightness of their communications satellites. They are experimenting with different coatings to reduce the glare from the satellites that can disrupt astronomical observations. The astronomers need a 10-20 fold decrease though, so 50% is good but not good enough.

The astronomers need to put together a database of all the professional and semi-professional observatories on Earth. This can be tied into an algorithm that causes the satellites to tilt their arrays away from the sun while passing over these zones. That would likely get them the rest of the reduction they need and they can likely survive the power hit just fine though there may be some problematic areas where they have to sun-seek regardless. They can work out an algorithm to stagger sun-seeking over those areas problem areas to help minimize the disruptions too.

This won't be easy but it's probably easier than further hardware revisions.
 
hobbsyoyo said:
They are the remains of salt water geysers! There are at least pockets of water under Ceres ...
Click to expand...

so says you . ı guess on other forums you will be it was only one shooter in the JFK case .

also thanks for the info .
 
hobbsyoyo said:
SpaceX is reporting a 50% reduction in the brightness of their communications satellites. They are experimenting with different coatings to reduce the glare from the satellites that can disrupt astronomical observations. The astronomers need a 10-20 fold decrease though, so 50% is good but not good enough.

The astronomers need to put together a database of all the professional and semi-professional observatories on Earth. This can be tied into an algorithm that causes the satellites to tilt their arrays away from the sun while passing over these zones. That would likely get them the rest of the reduction they need and they can likely survive the power hit just fine though there may be some problematic areas where they have to sun-seek regardless. They can work out an algorithm to stagger sun-seeking over those areas problem areas to help minimize the disruptions too.

This won't be easy but it's probably easier than further hardware revisions.
Click to expand...

I wonder if they could use that material that absorbs crazy amounts of light? Wouldn't that cause heating issues too?
 
Yeah it would cause heating issues, which is why this seems like an easy problem to fix but is in fact quite tricky.
 
Bigelow Aerospace is laying off all their workers through the crisis. I don't know this actually means the company is in trouble - Bigelow is particularly bad when it comes to how he treats workers and he'd close up shop to save a buck regardless of how that impacts the workers. He probably thinks he's doing them a favor by putting them on unemployment which will only cover a small fraction of their lost income. Those people were making between $80 and 150k per year and will now have to get by on $19k while paying a new fee of ~$7,200/year for COBRA insurance.
https://spacenews.com/bigelow-aerospace-lays-off-entire-workforce/


The James Webb Space Telescope has been delayed, as has SLS production.


Astra had an anomaly with their rocket yesterday. :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Plains-Cow
  • Locked
Off-Topic
Replies
4
Views
941
lymond
lymond
King Phaedron
Secret of Evermore - World Map Scenario for you
Replies
2
Views
755
Planktonic
P
S
Review of the Spy System (4.5.1)
Replies
18
Views
1K
azum4roll
A
King Phaedron
3 Civilizations are China locked on this map - Secret of Evermore
Replies
3
Views
1K
fomrat
F
SirNovelty
Combat Bonuses - A Thread Comparing the Combat of Civ V and VI
Replies
19
Views
4K
iammaxhailme
iammaxhailme
Top Bottom