Astronomy and space exploration

eloic said:
www.sciencedaily.com

Confirmation of ancient lake on Mars builds excitement for Perseverance rover's samples

Ground-penetrating radar on board NASA's Mars Perseverance rover has confirmed that the Jezero Crater, formed by an ancient meteor impact just north of the Martian equator, once harbored a vast lake and river delta. Over eons, sediment deposition and erosion within the crater shaped the geologic...
www.sciencedaily.com
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It's a shame that Mars Sample Return is in trouble as a project. If it happens next decade we'll be lucky.
 
Starship launch 3, positives:
Getting better each try.
Booster went up & got most of the way back down before blowing up.
2nd stage got to apparently the intended sub-orbital trajectory before burning up during re-entry.
Really cool footage particularly from onboard the 2nd stage.

Negatives:
Both parts had major control issues in the descent & ultimately failed.
Still losing a lot of tiles.
Door test seemed like a fail.
They were supposed to have not only landed people on the Moon but several flights to Mars by now.
How many more attempts are they going to need at this rate before they're ready to actually launch 'paying' payloads let alone be human rated to LeO not even speaking of Moon or Mars?
How many more attempts can they afford without some paying payloads?
 
Yes, Elon Musk did make a yet another failed promise/estimate but let's not forget Federal Aviation Administration's regulatory process which has been a major hindrance.
 
My guess is that they will start launching Starlink satellites in maybe 2-3 launches time. Maybe a few tests before that but nothing on an industrial scale.

As for human rating that will inevitably be a way off. Two years maybe? On the other hand I personally don't believe the current NASA timeline for manned Moon landings. IIRC it's currently slated for 2026, I think 2028 is more realistic and not just because of SpaceX, there are cost-plus contracts involved and the pork must flow. Humans on Mars is 2040. Maybe.

As for whether they can afford it, I think they probably can. Falcon 9 is a money printing machine. Most of the money spent on SS is in the ground infrastructure. I doubt the individual vehicles really cost that much.
 
I watched it and it was amazing!

nutball said:
My guess is that they will start launching Starlink satellites in maybe 2-3 launches time.
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Yeah, I think maybe next time or the following one, tops. They already tested the PEZ dispenser door and I don't think they'll have a hard time fixing and improving the design. It looked kind of... bad? to me, with only those 2 sort of hinges way too at the center, IIRC. I wondered why there seemed to be no support/railing at the edges and I found that confusing, because this is designed by engineers but then again, I'm not an engineer...

Well, now that I think of it, many of us weren't engineers either when we thought that the initial launchpad construction was totally wrong and that it would get destroyed soon and we were eventually right, so... 😅
 
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pcchen said:
Yeah, I can't believe they actually got the plasma footage working!
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The heat tiles seemed to be better attached to the ship, now. Only a few fell off. And it seems they did a pretty good job. Such a pity that the ship wasn't properly oriented and RUDd.

And yeah, when I saw the plasma I kept telling to myself "this is not a render, this is not a render". 🤣
 
eloic said:
Well, now that I think of it, many of us weren't engineers either when we thought that the initial launchpad construction was totally wrong and that it would get destroyed soon and we were eventually right, so... 😅
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Musk is all about the best part is no part. Sometimes the best part is a part.

He tried to cheap out on the launchpad infrastructure for IFT-1, that ended badly. Seemingly they don't believe in proper RCS thrusters so I wonder if that is part of the reason they lost control on both halves.

pcchen said:
Yeah, I can't believe they actually got the plasma footage working!
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That footage was amazing.
 
SlmDnk said:
but let's not forget Federal Aviation Administration's regulatory process which has been a major hindrance.
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Not really. If anything FAA licencing has provided cover for SpaceX's own delays.

(And lets not forget the Starship program is moving at a fairly rapid pace, just not at the speed of Musk timeline optimism)
 
Davros said:
I'm pretty sure anything moving at the speed of Musk's timeline optimism was ruled out by Einstein's General Relativity
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Regardless he has done more for space exploration in few years compared to rest of the world last couple decades
 
cheapchips said:
Not really. If anything FAA licencing has provided cover for SpaceX's own delays.

(And lets not forget the Starship program is moving at a fairly rapid pace, just not at the speed of Musk timeline optimism)
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Yes. The FAA has seemed to be delaying a few things in the past, but it's not the case anymore.

Kaotik said:
Regardless he has done more for space exploration in few years compared to rest of the world last couple decades
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Davros said:
As of now he hasn't done anything for space exploration...
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Somehow, I agree with you both. We haven't explored anything new... yet, but he's on the way to create a new rocket with new capabilities that could make such novel exploration a possibility, plus all of the excitement he has created about exploring and even colonizing Mars. I think the guy is kind of a tool and I don't idolize him, but I won't be a hater either and I think Starship as a whole is one of the coolest things we have the opportunity to witness in our time.
 
He transported some astronauts to the ISS. Earth orbit was explored by the crews of Skylab in the 1970's so he's only 50 years late to the party
eloic said:
plus all of the excitement he has created about exploring and even colonizing Mars.
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Agreed, the man is a hype machine, Remember "I'm fairly confident that by 2018 when your not using your tesla it will go out on it's own working as an autonomous taxi and generate up to 20k of income for you. You'd be insane to buy anything other than a Tesla right now"
someone compiled a video of his previous claims and some of them are absolutely outrageous.
 
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hoom said:
Everyday Astronaut did another epic compilation of launch footage
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Oh, I just remembered about him. I think I stopped visiting his channel 2 years ago when I felt he was starting to be way too conceited/idolized, IIRC. 🤔 Don't know if that's the case anymore.

Usually, I watch NSF and WAI. I prefer NSF, though.
 
What do you think about gravitational lens telescopes? Do you think we'll see one working in our lifetime? It seems pretty difficult for our current tech: hundreds of AU away from the Earth to work, etc.
 
As in we would create a gravitational lens telescope or we would try to use an existing gravitational lens as a telescope ?
 
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