Space Stuff

[Robert]

NASA, Roscosmos: We're building a lunar space station!
Can't say where. Can't say when. Can't agree on Mars or Moon as target. But it'll happen!

Follow up op-ed to this by former ISS commander:
Op-ed: The Deep Space Gateway would shackle human exploration, not enable it
Former ISS Commander Terry Virts argues NASA does not need another space station.

 

[Robert]

Musk revises Mars ambitions

 

[Robert]

Musk revises Mars ambitions

His presentation:

 

[redrumloa]

Musk revises Mars ambitions

Elon Muskrat is a fraud.

 

[Robert]

Elon Muskrat is a fraud.

Elon Musk, on the other hand, now runs a company which has for the fifteenth* time on the trot landed an orbital rocket perfectly back on it's arse. They're doing it so well and so often that it's almost (but not quite) boringly routine.
A quite amazing feat, whatever you may think of him.

-EDIT-
*I got that wrong. It's actually the sixteenth time on the trot.

 

[Robert]

Hubble spies most distant comet zipping through Solar System

 

[Robert]

Bad news! Astroboffins find the stuff of life in space for the first time
We thought this stuff would turn up where there's already life. Turns out it's everywhere

 

[redrumloa]

Bad news! Astroboffins find the stuff of life in space for the first time
We thought this stuff would turn up where there's already life. Turns out it's everywhere

Actually no, just more proof of Panspermia. NASA always resorts to "Nothing to see here!!! Move along!!", as they did with this.

Marine Plankton Found On Surface Of International Space Station

Scientists examining samples taken from the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS) have made a rather unexpected discovery- traces of marine plankton and other microbes growing on the surface of the illuminators. What’s more, it seems they could have been living there for years.

 

[Robert]

Actually no, just more proof of Panspermia.

I wouldn't be so hasty in attributing this to panspermia and I certainly wouldn't go as far claiming it as proof.

And as far as I'm aware, the "marine plankton" was never confirmed as such and certainly not confirmed as living.
Russian news agency claimed it was marine plankton.
German space agency said it couldn't confirm what type of bacteria or even if it was alive up there:

the method by which the samples were analyzed in this case is disputed, as it cannot detect all kinds of bacteria and it also can not test whether the discovered bacteria are living and thriving or not.

NASA may well have said "nothing to see here" because, as yet, there isn't anything to get very excited about, other than the pretty-cool-in-itself probability that organisms (dead or alive) can somehow be transported up there from earth.

 

[Robert]

NASA tries an inflatable room on the space station

 

[Robert]

NASA tests supersonic parachute, to help us land on Mars

NASA has successfully tested a parachute designed for low-density atmospheres like that found on Mars.

The test saw the NASA Wallops facility launch a Black Brant IX rocket, a 58-footer often used for tests and sub-orbital missions, as part of the agency's Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment (ASPIRE).

All very cool but I wish they'd cut the CRAP (Contrived Reachy Acronym Pish).

 

[Robert]

SpaceX and OneWeb broadband satellites raise fears about space debris
Senators warn of “cascade” of collisions, ask FCC to work with NASA and FAA.

 

[Robert]

It’s official: Trump administration turns NASA back toward the Moon
"It means establishing a renewed American presence on the Moon."

 

[redrumloa]

It’s official: Trump administration turns NASA back toward the Moon
"It means establishing a renewed American presence on the Moon."

Hopefully it is not as hollow as the last few such presidential statements.

 

[redrumloa]

Hopefully it is not as hollow as the last few such presidential statements.

To elaborate more, the last human walked on the moon in December 1972, the year I was born and I was not even 1 year old. I'm starting to accept I probably won't live to see humans on Mars, but sweet jesus.. Can I at least see man back on the moon in my lifetime? Technology being about 1/2 century better, no one can tell me there is no scientific value to returning to the moon.

 

[Robert]

After a month off, SpaceX returns with two launch attempts in three days
Company remains on pace for 20 launches this year, smashing previous records.

-Edit-
By the time I posted this the first launch had already gone off without a hitch, as did the landing offshore on the drone barge, "Just Read the Instructions".
They're getting really good at this.

 

[Robert]

Odd, potato-shaped dwarf planet has ring, may not be a planet
Rings may be a common feature of objects that orbit outside of Neptune.

 

[Robert]

That makes three:
SpaceX successfully lands another reused Falcon 9 rocket

• The Falcon 9 was taking the EchoStar 105/SES-11 satellite to space
• It is the third time SpaceX has launched a reused booster
• Falcon 9’s first stage successfully landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which is stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
• Falcon 9’s first stage previously supported SpaceX’s 10th resupply mission to the International Space Station (CRS-10) in February of this year.

Well played folks!

 

[Robert]

Tiangong-1: Chinese space station will crash to Earth within months

 

[Robert]

Google adds planets and moons to Maps, but puts bits in the wrong places
Chocolate Factory can pick pets from people, can't hold a photo right way round