The thread for space cadets!

Then they should store some xenon tanks in the ISS, install an ion thruster, switch it on and let the whole station fly into the stars.
 
hobbsyoyo said:
Interestingly (or rather, disappointingly), I read they will not use the helicopter for any scouting and in fact will abandon it shortly. The way the mission is designed is such that it take so much bandwidth to operate the drone that the rover would not be able to do any science whatsoever while they are flying it. Thus, they'll do all the test and demonstrations they want to do and then leave it. This is what happens when you slap a helicopter on a rover at the (relatively) last minute. Though to be fair, bandwidth challenges for deep space missions are no trivial matter - this would always be a challenge to fly concurrently with rover operations.
Click to expand...

I'm confused. Is not everything anyways operating more or less automatically up there?
Yes, the data transfer back to earth takes time, but I don't see how that would impact the scientific operations up there.
Unless they want to send back every single picture which the helicopter makes.
 
it is a relic of the days they were super mystified by some American probe to be living double its allotted design life . They need the Al for something else .
 
Thorgalaeg said:
Then they should store some xenon tanks in the ISS, install an ion thruster, switch it on and let the whole station fly into the stars.
Click to expand...
At one point they were going to put one of Ad Astra's VASIMR rocket engines on the station but they ended up cancelling that contract. Not sure why, but I suspect Ad Astra wasn't meeting deadlines.
The_J said:
I'm confused. Is not everything anyways operating more or less automatically up there?
Yes, the data transfer back to earth takes time, but I don't see how that would impact the scientific operations up there.
Unless they want to send back every single picture which the helicopter makes.
Click to expand...
The rovers have sophisticated AI that allows them to operate semi-autonomously but even then, they do send back basically every photo/video that the rover takes. I do not think the copter has such sophisticated AI, plus they'll want every picture/video it takes as well as every picture/video that Perseverance takes of the copter as well. It is just too much data.

The other big thing is even if say they didn't send back all the data, the copter does not have big enough antennas to communicate with Earth or even the Mars satellites directly, it has to use the rover as a comms link and that ties up the rover's radios which it needs for its own work.
 
The closest star to us is Proxima Centauri, which is a red dwarf star that is in a loosely-bound triplet with Alpha Centauri A & B. Proxima Centauri has recently intrigued scientists as it should have a long-lived goldilocks zone which could host life, and a planet has been detected within that goldilocks zone. Unfortunately, this type of dwarf star is prone to massive flares and coronal ejections which roast that goldilocks zone (which is much closer to the star than the Sun's is). This week they detected just such an ejection event - it was 100x bigger than similar Sun ejections. These type of ejections happen regularly on Proxima Centauri and they spew out lots of millimeter radiation which will cook any inhabitants of Proxima Centauri b (the planet). :(
https://www.space.com/proxima-centauri-emits-largest-stellar-flare.html
 
civ l ends with landing 10 000 colonists , it has nothing about keeping them alive ; Civ lll totally ends with the launch ...
 
BBC said:
Mars Ingenuity helicopter mission extended by Nasa

The US space agency has announced it is extending its Mars helicopter mission.

Nasa said the first three flights of the drone, called Ingenuity, had worked so well it would now be moving from a demonstration to an operational phase.

This means the chopper will now support Nasa’s Perseverance Rover, helping with its hunt for signs of life.

The new phase will last for another 30 Martian days - or Sols - but the team said they’re hopeful it could be extended further.

“The technical performance has been fantastic and it is exceeding all our expectations,” said MiMi Aung, Ingenuity’s project manager.

“I can't tell you how excited we are about this new phase.”

Ingenuity’s flight on 19 April made history as the first powered flight on another planet.

The 1.8kg chopper lifted off in the extremely thin Martian atmosphere and hovered at a height of 2 metres for about 40 seconds before landing.

For its second and third flight, it flew further afield, rising to a height of 5 metres before speeding off laterally for 50 metres and then returning to its landing spot.

Nasa’s original plan was to then carry out two more flights, before grounding Ingenuity to bring the technology demonstration to a close.

But Friday's announcement is a change of course. The US space agency said it is so pleased with the helicopter’s performance, it wants to push Ingenuity further.

Bob Balaram, Ingenuity’s chief engineer, said: “It's been riding the winds, it's been taking off great, all the engineering systems, the solar panel, the battery, the radio have all been working very well - everything has just been fantastic.”

Now Ingenuity will be helping out with the science programme.

It will work with Nasa’s Perseverance Rover, as it starts to explore the Jezero Crater - a region of Mars that was once a lake.

The rover will be looking for rock samples that it can study with its onboard laboratory - its ultimate aim is to find signs of life.

In the helicopter’s new operational phase, it will fly up to a kilometre ahead of the rover, scouting for promising geological features and exploring areas that Perseverance cannot reach.

It will also make digital elevation maps, helping scientists to better understand the terrain.

The hope is this will demonstrate how aerial exploration could help future missions.

The helicopter's fourth flight, which took place on Friday, begins the transition to the operational phase.

The plan was a 266m-round trip and for the helicopter to take 60 black-and-white images and five colour images, and Nasa has confirmed the helicopter flew further and faster than ever before.

This data will help the team to locate a new flight field, and on its next flight, in about a week's time, the helicopter will head there so the next stage of its mission can begin.

Nasa is hopeful the helicopter will perform well, but acknowledges the next phase will push the helicopter to its limits - it was only ever built to fly as a tech demo.

"We will now be flying over unsurveyed terrains and transfer to airfields that are not well characterised so there's a higher probability of a bad landing," explained MiMi Aung.

"We will be celebrating each day that ingenuity survives and operates beyond the original window."
Click to expand...
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56951752
 
And another not so good news for space cadets.

Transcript: The Path Forward: Space Force with Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wash...hief-space-operations-gen-john-w-jay-raymond/

GEN. RAYMOND: It is clear, David, that space is a warfighting domain, just like air, land, and sea, and it is something that has really materialized here over the last handful of years as both China, which is our pacing threat, and Russia have developed weapons that can either disrupt our satellites or destroy our satellites, from on the ground or in space, or in cyber.
Click to expand...

Space is a warfighting domain.
 
what would you expect him to say ? He commands something which is an equal of US Army , Navy and Airforce which fight for the budget dollars which are put there so that they can be transferred to corporations , he should fight for dollars or the Establishment will find someone that will fight for the dollars .
 
I would expect him not to exaggerate too much to "get those dollars". Point is, the US sees the space as an arena for combat and it kills any hope of peaceful exploration of space as it was envisaged even 20-30 years ago. Money sure, but we're trapped down here now.
 
space as a peaceful area where nations of the world cooperate is a thing that got established through A) American lack of intelligence , hence fear of more Sputniks and B) Russian abundance of intelligence , hence fear of even more arms races Russians would fail to finance at some point . Has otherwise never existed .
 
If there's an argument that works either way its turned around - its that one :D Which ever way it worked before it doesn't now... this means that "if I am not getting out of here alive, neither are you" is within the realm of possible. Classical prisoners dilemma.
 
the attack on Tankograd . Which won't be funny when it gets into the realm of internet discussion and also why it is USN at the forefront of alien defence business instead of USAF or this new fangled Space Command thing , because like one has closer relationship with its counterpart in Russia .
 
Damn that first monkey that lifted the first stick ;) Guess we are stuck with it and must as well make the best of it.
 
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