The thread for space cadets!

The two years is because of the 15W transmitter can only transmit 1 to 2 kbp/s

That turns out to be something like 10 million photons per second on a Deep Space dish. So, 10000 photons per bit, which is a bit more than I expected. But the noise is probably quite bad and you do not want to have transmission errors.
 
Transmission errors will be corrected through various forward error correction schemes that halve the effective date rates or worse.
 
Transmission errors will be corrected through various forward error correction schemes that halve the effective date rates or worse.

Worse. I just checked and the codec they're using drops the data rate by a factor of 6. That helps a lot, but the error rate before the error correction needs to be low enough so that the probability of an error slipping through is very low. I imagine they will be verifying the integrity of the files after download, but it is a huge waste of bandwidth if you need to redownload it.
 
I had to deal with a similar issue with my own lunar mission, set to launch maybe in 2020*. I came up with a rather straightforward solution but unfortunately I can't share it. :(

*I say maybe because it's manifested on SLS so who the hell knows when it will actually fly.
 
SpaceX and China had banner years. China in particular is notable because not only did they take the crown for most launches this year (about 4 ahead of the US), they also had two launches from new start ups though both used decommissioned ICBMs hand-me-downs from the PLA and both failed. Still, they are serious about contending in New Space and their government is backing the new start ups. SpaceX had their most launches ever, debuted the Falcon Heavy and launched nearly as many re-used boosters as brand new ones. They were also the single biggest launch vehicle provider this year by a wide margin. (China's launches are currently provided by a consortium of government owned corporations so it's hard to make direct company-to-company comparisons)

China will be putting the first dark-side lunar lander down any day now and SpaceX will be performing their first test launch of Dragon 2 any day now as well. What a great way to start the new year!
 
It appears that China has successfully landed its rover in Pink Floyd land.
 
Hey hey, the moon is back.

What it looks like every night. (Northern Hemisphere)
Lunar_libration_with_phase_Oct_2007_450px.gif

It looks upside-down in the southern hemisphere? :hmm:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillianscudder/2017/09/09/astroquizzical-upside-down-moon/#76d4ce271231



The U.S. flag might have fallen down after Apollo 11 left, but Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 all had a pair of moonwalkers put up more American flags that are still standing tall today.
5 out of 6 ain't bad.
Poor Apollo 13 never got the chance. :sad:

Here's a tiny interactive map for the moon.
The Chinese landed inside the South Pole-Aitken basin, so spin the moon around to find it.
It's in the back at the bottom.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/earths-moon/overview/



China finally sending back some close ups of the side of the moon we never get to see usually.
Specifically, the Von Karman Crater inside the South Pole-Aitken basin

I really like the big board at 0:43
Is that an animation of the relay satellite at 0:55?
Real pics at 1:32
 
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That is a visual representation of the relay satellite in a Halo orbit at 00:55.

That is a cool console screen. Gotta be honest, I love the Indian's set up. It has a distinct retro-70's feel and the ubiquitous mustaches on the operators seals the deal.

CNaZpcEUEAAMhuK.png

ISRO mission control at Shriharikota.
 
Hey hey, the moon is back.

What it looks like every night. (Northern Hemisphere)
Lunar_libration_with_phase_Oct_2007_450px.gif

It looks upside-down in the southern hemisphere? :hmm:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillianscudder/2017/09/09/astroquizzical-upside-down-moon/#76d4ce271231



The U.S. flag might have fallen down after Apollo 11 left, but Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 all had a pair of moonwalkers put up more American flags that are still standing tall today.
5 out of 6 ain't bad.
Poor Apollo 13 never got the chance. :sad:

Here's a tiny interactive map for the moon.
The Chinese landed inside the South Pole-Aitken basin, so spin the moon around to find it.
It's in the back at the bottom.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/earths-moon/overview/



China finally sending back some close ups of the side of the moon we never get to see usually.
Specifically, the Von Karman Crater inside the South Pole-Aitken basin

I really like the big board at 0:43
Is that an animation of the relay satellite at 0:55?
Real pics at 1:32
I have read all US flag planted on the moon are currently bleached due to the strong UV radiation. Something like this:
White-flag-on-Moon.jpg

I would say it is the universe being deliciously ironic.
 
DwP9OwyW0AYGsXm.jpg:large


Dragon 2 was erect on the pad with the new crew access arm. Test launch (unmanned) later this month.
 
They had an all-hands meeting and told everyone to go home and wait for an email to tell them if they had a job or not. That's a brutal way to do it but it's a clean break I guess.

Do you take your stuff from your desk home as a precaution? How does that work?

There's a ton of speculation as to why they are doing this. Both Starlink and Starship/Super Heavy are going to be stupidly expensive projects so they need to cut costs where they can and focus. Also, with so many Falcons being re-used, they don't need to produce as many. On top of that, Dragon 2 is nearing development and Dragon 1's are also being re-used now and are no longer in production.

Still, it's kind of surreal because when I was there they were already re-using boosters but we were still working toward a dream of 'Forty Core!' (rocket cores per year - it was an official slogan) right up until I left. Right around then they began talking about a ramp-down but up until that moment they were still building out for high capacity. Looking back, I think they didn't have a choice really but to do that. It was still a huge unknown if they could pull of re-use technically and financially or if the market would even accept it for service at all. So they had to build out for high capacity just to make sure they could continue making money.

It doesn't help that we are basically coming out a huge backorder glut - telecom's put in a huge number of orders coming out of the great recession that has now mostly launched. This means there's a ton of communications capacity already on orbit and telecoms don't need to re-up their fleets any time soon. On top of that, there is a dramatic shift toward small sats and CubeSats right now that's beginning to massively disrupt the industry. Falcon may drive the price per kilo waaaay down but at the end of the day if they still cost $10-20 million to launch, a ton of universities and government agencies will go for the <$10m Rocket Lab-type rockets every time they can fit a payload onto a CubeSat instead of a larger satellite.
 
BBC said:
Spektr-R: Russia's only space telescope 'not responding'

Russia's only space radio telescope is no longer responding to commands from Earth, officials say.

Astro Space Centre chief Nikolai Kardashev said some of the Spektr-R satellite's communication systems had stopped working.

But it was still transmitting scientific data, RIA Novosti news agency reports.

The telescope has been operational way beyond its expected five-year lifespan, Russia's space agency Roskosmos says.

Specialists had repeatedly tried and failed to fix the lost connection, Mr Kardashev said.

Yuri Kovalev, head of research for the Spektr-R project, said the link went down on the morning of 11 January, but added that "there is still hope".

Spektr-R was launched into space in 2011.

A new Russian-German satellite, Spektr-RG, is scheduled to be launched this year.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46849347
 
Read about this failure too, sad news. The telescope still sends data, but stopped responding to commands.
It's that Kardashev, by the way. He is 86.
 
Although, getting like 7-8 years out of an expected 5-year life span.....I guess they were hoping it would last until the Spektr-RG was launched and fully operational.....
 
IIRC Spektr-RG is not a replacement, it works on different wavelengths.
5 years of lifespan was a realistic estimate, but as other projects show, with good engineers and a bit of luck, there is always an opportunity to use device much longer than it was originally planned.
 
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aliens are coming and they do not want inquistive Russians poking their noses into stuff which are not their business in any case . Proof ? The 6 radio signals received from a so called 1.5 billion light years , making astronomers excited . Did it happen only in New Turkey , one would have expected it to appear here as well . As supposedly the only time strong radio signals were repeated in SETI history , it was only a double .
 
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