The thread for space cadets!

[Birdjaguar]

Strange radio signals are coming from the direction of the centre of the galaxy and we aren’t sure what is emitting them. They turn on and off seemingly at random, and their source must be unlike anything else we have seen before.

The source of this radiation has been nicknamed “Andy’s object” after Ziteng Wang at the University of Sydney in Australia, who goes by the name Andy and first discovered the radio waves. He and his colleagues spotted the emissions six times in 2020 using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder radio telescope. They made further observations with the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.

The researchers found that the object occasionally flared for up to a few weeks, but was dark most of the time. When it finally lit up again in February this year, several months after the initial detection, they pointed some of the most powerful non-radio telescopes we have at it and saw nothing. “We’ve looked at every other wavelength we can, all the way from the infrared to optical to X-rays, and we see nothing, so it doesn’t seem to be consistent with any kind of star that we understand,” says David Kaplan at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who was part of the research team. The fact that it wasn’t visible in any other wavelengths ruled out several possible explanations for this object, including normal stars and magnetars, which are neutron stars with powerful magnetic fields. [more at the link]

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...ng-radio-waves-from-the-centre-of-the-galaxy/

 

[Samson]

Strange radio signals are coming from the direction of the centre of the galaxy and we aren’t sure what is emitting them. They turn on and off seemingly at random, and their source must be unlike anything else we have seen before.

The source of this radiation has been nicknamed “Andy’s object” after Ziteng Wang at the University of Sydney in Australia, who goes by the name Andy and first discovered the radio waves. He and his colleagues spotted the emissions six times in 2020 using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder radio telescope. They made further observations with the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.

The researchers found that the object occasionally flared for up to a few weeks, but was dark most of the time. When it finally lit up again in February this year, several months after the initial detection, they pointed some of the most powerful non-radio telescopes we have at it and saw nothing. “We’ve looked at every other wavelength we can, all the way from the infrared to optical to X-rays, and we see nothing, so it doesn’t seem to be consistent with any kind of star that we understand,” says David Kaplan at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who was part of the research team. The fact that it wasn’t visible in any other wavelengths ruled out several possible explanations for this object, including normal stars and magnetars, which are neutron stars with powerful magnetic fields. [more at the link]

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...ng-radio-waves-from-the-centre-of-the-galaxy/

Obligatory:

 

[Varde]

Should we be using Rockets?

I was alerted to the fact that a leaping vessel would be safer and better at doing the job.

Obviously a ground apparatus propels the vessel with enormous push power, which then leaps upward and transforms into an aerodynamic craft.

The reason I share this is so astronauts are in less dangerous situations.

 

[red_elk]

I was alerted to the fact that a leaping vessel would be safer and better at doing the job.

It's impossible to put spacecraft on orbit around the Earth this way. It will fall back, or, if propelled with high enough force, will go away from the Earth completely.

Obviously a ground apparatus propels the vessel with enormous push power

What kind of apparatus you propose to use? If it's some kind of cannon shooting the vessel, it will create huge g-forces inside, which will kill the astronauts.

 

[Varde]

It's impossible to put spacecraft on orbit around the Earth this way. It will fall back, or, if propelled with high enough force, will go away from the Earth completely.


What kind of apparatus you propose to use? If it's some kind of cannon shooting the vessel, it will create huge g-forces inside, which will kill the astronauts.

Not a cannon.

The Leaper Vessel would have six legs and would be set into the apparatus.

The apparatus would charge with immense energy and then push the legs which would extend, leap and break off from the vessel.

 

[Samson]

This is basically the rail gun idea? It is conceptually possible, but technically difficult. I do not see legs working, where does the energy come from and what are the G forces involved? There are more ideas on wiki.

 

[Gelion]

Someone read "The Moon is a harsh mistress" . Unfortunately the accelerator would (theoretically) work only going down and not up...

 

[red_elk]

Not a cannon.

The Leaper Vessel would have six legs and would be set into the apparatus.

The apparatus would charge with immense energy and then push the legs which would extend, leap and break off from the vessel.

Looks like you've invented an aircraft carrier catapult
It may be enough to shoot aircraft in the air, but you'll still need a rocket or jet engine to go to space.

 

[tjs282]

Should we be using Rockets?

I was alerted to the fact that a leaping vessel would be safer and better at doing the job.

Obviously a ground apparatus propels the vessel with enormous push power, which then leaps upward and transforms into an aerodynamic craft.

You're talking about a 'genuine' self-propelled spaceplane here?

As I understand it, the main problem with using a spaceplane to reach orbit is that all of the currently available high-speed air/spacecraft propulsion system designs (turbojets, [sc]ramjets, rockets) would be cripplingly inefficient during at least one phase (subsonic, supersonic or hypersonic) of the aerodynamic portion of the flight.

This means that even if a spaceplane was catapult-launched(?), due to the flight distance/ time needed to accelerate to orbital velocity while still in-atmosphere, it would (currently) require at least 2 additional onboard propulsion systems (including the rocket-drive needed once the plane was in near-vacuum), with all the additional mass and complexity entailed by such a design — as compared to a single, relatively 'simple' rocket, which spends minimal time in-atmosphere by ascending (nearly) vertically.

The nearest craft to a functioning self-propelled spaceplane that humans have built to date is probably the SR-71 Blackbird, which uses (used?) a hybrid engine design that could be switched between turbojet and ramjet mode — but to get it to orbit, it would also need a rocket-drive (which would require a separate fuel supply and exhaust nozzles).

The Space Shuttle was technically a spaceplane, but was incapable of fully self-propelled atmospheric flight: it had to ride booster-rockets to reach orbit, and returned to earth by gliding.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Nasa's Lucy mission will seek out Solar System 'fossils'

A spacecraft has launched from Cape Canaveral on a mission to uncover "the fossils" of the Solar System.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58927969

 

[Samson]

Not aliens from Proxima Centauri after all

A radio signal detected by an Australian telescope in 2019, which seemed to be coming from the star closest to the Sun, was not from aliens, researchers report today in two papers in Nature Astronomy.
“It is human-made radio interference from some technology, probably on the surface of the Earth,” says Sofia Sheikh, an astronomer at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, and a co-author of both papers.

Since 2016, Breakthrough Listen has used telescopes around the world to listen for possible broadcasts from alien civilizations. In 2019 a mysterious signal was first spotted last year by Shane Smith, an undergraduate student at Hillsdale College in Michigan, who was working as a research intern with Breakthrough Listen.
The signal, named BLC1 for “Breakthrough Listen candidate 1”, was the first to pass all of the programme’s initial screening tests to rule out obvious sources of interference. “It definitely had me wondering ‘what if?’ for a bit,” says Sheikh.

Because the signal didn’t re-appear in the 2020 and 2021 observations, it might have been coming from malfunctioning electronic equipment that got shut down or fixed, says Sheikh. The team suspects the equipment was relatively close to Parkes, perhaps within a few hundred kilometres. The frequency of the signal drifts in a way that is consistent with inexpensive crystal oscillators such as those commonly used in computers, phones and radios, says Dan Werthimer, a SETI astronomer at UC Berkeley who specializes in signal processing.

“The Universe gives us a haystack,” says Ravi Kopparapu, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It is our need to find the needle in it, and make sure that it is actually a needle that we found.”
​

The 64-metre Parkes Murriyang telescope is one of the facilities involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI.

Writeup Paper 1 Paper 2

 

[Sofista]

By the time we reach it, we'll surely be caught in some Alien Crossfire.

 

[r16]

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-european-project-the-future-of-the-eu.640758/page-64

sometime for an r16 post of sorts . Not particularly necessary but am not particularly necessary either and the link serves only a way to find a series of posts if that badly required . The current positive "coverage" despite r16 and others' quite sensible declaration of no coverage is mystifying . Or maybe not . People were apparently to told to their faces , in real life or on-line that no interference was a good thing , and apparently there are enough intelligence services looking into it already , maybe ... Laughs , more additions to the number of peoples who are really impressed enough to avoid r16 tales in entirity and , just as expected , a guy and his proof that they are "protected" ; r16 is not real anyhow . Properly coached , eh ?

Spoiler :

is the Chinese threat that great ? Because subtly breaking wind in the general direction of Western dominance in tech and everything since 2008 ..? Or maybe some opinion piece in some blog or whatever , noticed only by chance as ı catch up with reading after my mother's hospitalization ? Russell Crowe's The Gladiator is one of the movies ı have not watched entirely . It seems there are two deaths in the end . ı read it in the article ! The emperor and the general of the legion ! Only after the bodyguard refuses to hand over a weapon to his emperor . Despite very open references to the PM as a smart operator who totally "avoids fighting in close range and keeps his distance from the fight" . Is this coup planning in the open , with promise of caving in the last moment as planned ? Or making offers , to Washington DC , like on the web ? Where anyone can see it ... Despite New Turkey being full of people who can read the future from the most obscure of sentences that appear in magazines and books people have never heard of ? Tantalizing enough to cause people to assure other people that they do not need to bother , it has been taken note of ?

apart from the thing that ı don't know anybody from The Gladiator , you know , like remotely ...

blog people are so fed up with Chinese stuff that gets released that they are having sleepless nights and restless days to glorify the American releases . To ease the non-stop effort , jokes are needed and this one ... Seems it was done by a company owner in Ghana or something . The guy wants to be the Messiah or something and reportedly makes fully working cars and whatnot . While this , as you have already noticed , is an attack helicopter ...

is stealth ; because faceted glass panes and wooden structure . Real because of the riveted metal plate somewhere . Has massive floatation wheels and do not fail to notice the no-slip step . African mud ! And safety of the pilot is of course paramount . Star signifies the targeting stuff . In this age of connectivity and data transfers the very iron (secondary) gunsight from the P-40 will just work fine up there . The twin lamps are the search systems and will do dandy as lamps , because connectivity and data transfers . The chaff pod (the small one on the wing) will though go , it is better to be on the hull as per traditions . The three fireworks will work in high threat scenarios but not in Africa ... When you strike an average guy with it , will hurt crazy and he will know that the next one will that Hellfire missile with the ninja wings . Unfortunately due to socio-economic conditions , the average person thus struck in Africa might very well be one to think that his immortality was just proven ... And the cargo rocket will be qualified but not fielded . Not only too small in size but this is the age of pizza delivery drones , thd troops will grumble for being "rocketed" ... The feeling that the new generations are soft is somewhat universal ...

and of course it is superbly defended ? That white pearl like thing hanging down from the door handle thing . Will replace with a nazar boncuğu , to guard against evil eyes and no nothing can touch it . Yeah , this is right away going to be my conjectural engineering thing of the year .

will indeed raise eyebrows all around . Anywhere but the fleet . Because everybody knows the rocket pod directly inline to blow up the pilot into a million bits is actually flexible and slaved to helmet mounted sight of the pilot , much like almost every helicopter cannon is used in this era . In the spirit of the contract , we will of course change that into a VLS , a vertical launch system to fire across the rotor arc . Robinson Rs seem to be a good fit for the dynamics ... Poster is kinda still proud for designing the actual X-Wing ... Oh , come on , that America could not field RAH-66 like means so what , it is America ...

 

[Samson]

It looks like the ISS got a good view of the northern lights during that flare, even if we did not

Thomas Pesquet said "We were treated to the strongest auroras of the entire mission, over north America and Canada. Amazing spikes higher than our orbit, and we flew right above the center of the ring, rapid waves and pulses all over."​

 

[Gelion]

The Dragon landing:

 

[Gelion]

Dragon 3 approaching the ISS right now:

 

[stfoskey12]

The James Webb Space Telescope might actually launch in just over a month: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddar...-beyond-for-nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope

Now that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has safely arrived at its launch site in French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America, technical teams have begun making progress on the final checklist of preparations before liftoff later this year.

These preparations are expected to last 55 days from the observatory’s arrival by ship to the day of launch.

After Webb arrived at the Arianespace clean room facilities in French Guiana, contamination control technicians ensured the observatory is clean and contaminant free following its 5,800 mile journey. Then engineers ran a final set of electrical and functional tests and checked the stowed mechanical configuration to ensure delivery went smoothly. A trained crew in special hazmat suits will soon begin the two-week process of loading the spacecraft with the hydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer it will need to power its rocket thrusters to maintain its orbit. Next, Webb will move to the nearby vehicle integration building to be lifted and mounted on top of the Ariane 5 rocket “stack.” The final few remove-before-flight “red-tag” items are taken off, and a few remaining add-before-flight “green tag” items are installed. Then the rocket fairing is lifted and lowered over top and locked into place, signifying the conclusion of a long journey. At this point, Webb will be very nearly ready to launch from Europe’s Spaceport, also known as the Guiana Space Center (CSG).

As a fully integrated launch vehicle with Webb as the payload, the Ariane rocket will roll out to the launch pad a few days before launch. Engineers monitor the rocket via electrical connections running from the payload control room to the pad through an umbilical attachment to the vehicle that separates at liftoff. A few hours before liftoff, the rocket is loaded with liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. About a half hour before launch, engineers in the payload control room switch the spacecraft from external electrical power to the spacecraft’s on-board battery.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

I imagine in the long history of this thread it has been already said, but has anyone commented on the use of "space cadet".

I understand the aim here, but I do find it funny how the phrase would be used around my friends.

"He's a right space cadet" is not an accolade!

 

[Samson]

I had always assumed it was a bit of a pun on that meaning. I think it has a similar meaning among my friends, but it is not considered very negative and can be self identified.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

Oh yes, its more about being silly, than anything mean. A bit of a dreamer perhaps.