Outer space thread

[Boatrocker]

Well, I treat this stuff the same way I treat religion. Got nothing against it, in principle, but remain very highly skeptical. I can't prove any of that shit is not real, nor can others prove it is. Until we have some proof, one way or the other, it remains unknown, and I remain untroubled by it.

[Vrede too]

I'd say that human activity or technical glitch is most likely, am just interested that it remains a mystery.

[rstrong]

My take:

1) It's a UFO not as in "aliens", but as in "The helicopter crew didn't know whose aircraft it was."

2) The visible-light footage shows scattered clouds. It's not unusual for contrails to start and stop as a jetliner moves through different layers of air and humidity.

3) Jet exhaust drops ambient air temperature not far behind a jet. And hot air is hard to see on an infrared camera; it doesn't give on anywhere near the infra-red light as a hot solid object. So that's not infra-red footage. It's regular-light footage converted to black & white and reversed.

4) The CEFAA - "the Chilean government agency which investigates UFOs" - seems to be the pet project of one retired Chilean Air Force general (Ricardo Bermudez) with a long history of UFO claims, making speeches at UFO conferences long before this incident.

5) In fact the story seems to have percolated up from UFO sites to Russia Today and HuffPo, rather than any Chilean Navy news release to the press.

[Vrede too]

Not that I'm taking a side, but according to the article:

My take:

1) It's a UFO not as in "aliens", but as in "The helicopter crew didn't know whose aircraft it was."

No radar blip is odd.

2) The visible-light footage shows scattered clouds. It's not unusual for contrails to start and stop as a jetliner moves through different layers of air and humidity.

Contrails supposedly occur at higher altitudes.

3) Jet exhaust drops ambient air temperature not far behind a jet. And hot air is hard to see on an infrared camera; it doesn't give on anywhere near the infra-red light as a hot solid object.

They're saying that it's not jet exhaust.

So that's not infra-red footage. It's regular-light footage converted to black & white and reversed.

Source?

4) The CEFAA - "the Chilean government agency which investigates UFOs" - seems to be the pet project of one retired Chilean Air Force general (Ricardo Bermudez) with a long history of UFO claims, making speeches at UFO conferences long before this incident.

Ah, the article should have mentioned that.

5) In fact the story seems to have percolated up from UFO sites to Russia Today and HuffPo, rather than any Chilean Navy news release to the press.

Ah, the article should have mentioned that.

[Vrede too]

Explained: Chilean Navy "UFO" video - Aerodynamic Contrails, Flight IB6830

Now I'll take a side.

Not that I'm taking a side, but according to the article:

My take:

1) It's a UFO not as in "aliens", but as in "The helicopter crew didn't know whose aircraft it was."

No radar blip is odd.

The radar was looking in the wrong place and at the wrong altitude.

2) The visible-light footage shows scattered clouds. It's not unusual for contrails to start and stop as a jetliner moves through different layers of air and humidity.

Contrails supposedly occur at higher altitudes.

It was actually at a higher altitude than the helicopter folks thought.

3) Jet exhaust drops ambient air temperature not far behind a jet. And hot air is hard to see on an infrared camera; it doesn't give on anywhere near the infra-red light as a hot solid object.

They're saying that it's not jet exhaust.

So that's not infra-red footage. It's regular-light footage converted to black & white and reversed.

Source?

It is infrared footage.

4) The CEFAA - "the Chilean government agency which investigates UFOs" - seems to be the pet project of one retired Chilean Air Force general (Ricardo Bermudez) with a long history of UFO claims, making speeches at UFO conferences long before this incident.

Ah, the article should have mentioned that.

This new article mentions that.

5) In fact the story seems to have percolated up from UFO sites to Russia Today and HuffPo, rather than any Chilean Navy news release to the press.

Ah, the article should have mentioned that.

[Vrede too]

Set Your Alarms! A Full Moon, Comet, AND Lunar Eclipse Will All Appear This Weekend

[rstrong]

Set Your Alarms! A Full Moon, Comet, AND Lunar Eclipse Will All Appear This Weekend

Um, lunar eclipses *only* happen during a full moon.

[Vrede too]

You should write a stern note to POPSUGAR.

[Vrede too]

India puts record 104 satellites into orbit (from a single rocket)

rstrong, what kinds of things do "nano satellites" do?

[Mr.B]

The existence of the "Borg" is being realized.

[rstrong]

rstrong, what kinds of things do "nano satellites" do?

Pretty much anything the big ones do, not as well, but for much less cost.

Being very small and low mass (say, laptop size) they're cheaper to launch. Cheaper still because they usually hitch rides a few at a time as secondary payloads on a launch of a big (say, bus size) expensive satellite.

They won't have the electrical power of large satellites, so they won't have the transmitting power. A telescope won't have lens size of a larger satellite. Since you're hitching a ride you usually don't get to pick an optimal orbit.

But there's still a lot you can do, for low cost and low risk. Monitor crops or herds, test solar sails, examine stars. Take simultaneous measurements around the earth with a swarm of satellites.

[Vrede too]

Thanks.

Trump on Mars, facing left.



About 60% of us would like to see him buried up to his neck.

Suspended 'spoon' stretches out

Take a look at the center of this image from NASA's Curiosity rover. You might see a long-handled spoon stretching out over the landscape, casting a shadow below. Is this a sign that cooking is a popular hobby on Mars? Unfortunately, no. Mars doesn't have the same pull of gravity we have on Earth, so fragile formations like this one have a chance of holding up and not just crumbling down to the ground.

Pretty cool.

[Vrede too]

India puts record 104 satellites into orbit (from a single rocket)

ISRO PSLV-C37 Launch with Onboard Camera and Stage/Satellite Separation events

[Vrede too]

CRS-10 | Falcon 9 First Stage Landing

Closer view at the bottom of this article:

Here’s a drone’s eye view of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 landing
This doesn’t get old

[Boatrocker]

CRS-10 | Falcon 9 First Stage Landing

Closer view at the bottom of this article:

Here’s a drone’s eye view of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 landing
This doesn’t get old

Since the golden age of sci-fi in books, movies and on TV, vertical landing on tail fins has been a staple feature. Yet, it is one of the hardest, and most recent accomplishments we've attempted.
Neat.

[rstrong]

Since the golden age of sci-fi in books, movies and on TV, vertical landing on tail fins has been a staple feature. Yet, it is one of the hardest, and most recent accomplishments we've attempted.
Neat.

48 years isn't all that recent. The Apollo Lunar Module landed on a tail of fire as God and Heinlein intended.

You could also count the 1961 Bell Rocket Belt.

Since then there's the McDonnell Douglas DC-X and NASA DC-XA in the 1990s.

There's various vehicles from Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space Systems which competed in the Northrop Grumman / NASA Lunar Lander Challenge. Masten and Moon Express have recently been flying them in preparation for the Google lunar XPRIZE and NASA's Lunar CATALYST initative.

NASA's Project Morpheus and Mighty Eagle were used to test control software, propellants and sensors.

Blue Origin has been demonstrating vertical landings with a variety of vehicles since 2005.

In addition to the Falcon 9, SpaceX's Dragon 2 is designed to eventually land on rockets. It's already flown in space, used it's rockets for a pad abort test and done hover tests.

The only non-American vehicle flown that I'm aware of was by the Japanese Space Agency in 1999-2003. But it was small-scale even by Armadillo Aerospace standards.

[Boatrocker]

Since the golden age of sci-fi in books, movies and on TV, vertical landing on tail fins has been a staple feature. Yet, it is one of the hardest, and most recent accomplishments we've attempted.
Neat.

48 years isn't all that recent. The Apollo Lunar Module landed on a tail of fire as God and Heinlein intended.

You could also count the 1961 Bell Rocket Belt.

Since then there's the McDonnell Douglas DC-X and NASA DC-XA in the 1990s.

There's various vehicles from Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space Systems which competed in the Northrop Grumman / NASA Lunar Lander Challenge. Masten and Moon Express have recently been flying them in preparation for the Google lunar XPRIZE and NASA's Lunar CATALYST initative.

NASA's Project Morpheus and Mighty Eagle were used to test control software, propellants and sensors.

Blue Origin has been demonstrating vertical landings with a variety of vehicles since 2005.

In addition to the Falcon 9, SpaceX's Dragon 2 is designed to eventually land on rockets. It's already flown in space, used it's rockets for a pad abort test and done hover tests.

The only non-American vehicle flown that I'm aware of was by the Japanese Space Agency in 1999-2003. But it was small-scale even by Armadillo Aerospace standards.

I'm aware of all those, but this is sort of a case of slenderness ratio. Landing a needle under control, with all that dead load balanced on top of the engines has always been more trouble than it was worth. Until the tech caught up.

[Vrede too]

NASA‏ Verified account
@NASA

At 10am ET: Watch as @AstroPeggy receives a congrats call from @POTUS for breaking US record for total days in space https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

Latest Trump Tweet:

#CongratsPeggy! https://t.co/e1q36nKT8g

(Liked by 6220 idiots.)

Peggy Whitson

... Her first space mission was in 2002, with an extended stay aboard the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 5. Her second mission launched October 10, 2007, as the first female commander of the ISS with Expedition 16....

Peggy Whitson arrived at the International Space Station on November 19, 2016 on Expedition 50/51, which was launched on November 17, 2016 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.... In March 2017, her mission was extended by an additional 3 months at the International Space Station as she will take a vacant seat on Soyuz MS-04 for re-entry, accompanied by NASA’s Jack Fischer and Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos....

Apparently, she gets as far away from GOP POTUSes as she can.

[O Really]

Well, he's in a "congrats" mood, having just congratulated the poor legless guy he pinned the Purple Heart to.
Want to start a petition? Tell Donald Trump recipients of the Purple Heart are to be thanked, not congratulated.
(sorry to tangent the topic)

[Vrede too]

"So I heard about this, I wanted to do this myself. Congratulations on behalf of Melania and myself and the entire nation. Tremendous, tremendous job, congratulations."
-- Chickenhawk President* Trump