The Universe

[dorlomin]

SpaceX has won the competition to build the Artemis Lunar Lander. 

So it will need it up and running by 2024. Or well however long it takes Boeing to unfuck themselves and get SLS running. 

[Boot Agent]

On 13/04/2021 at 02:49, Bairnardo said:

Theoretically speaking, if an alien lived 10 light years from earth and was looking our way, that alien would see what I was doing 10 years ago as "live". If that alien took umbrage with what he saw, and decided to come here in his craft that travelled slightly faster than the speed of light to kill me, would he do so in my past? And if so, what would happen to current me?

The bad news is the aliens are already here and living among us, the good news is they haven't found you irritating enough to kill you yet.

[Shadow Play]

In keeping with space etc. I worked out tonight that if you were able to fold a piece of paper 50 times the thickness of the paper would measure more than the distance from earth to our moon*.  That is how boring the Forfar v United game was tonight 

* For the avoidance of any doubt I didn’t actually fold a piece of paper 50 times to check my calculations.

[Cyclizine]

1 hour ago, Shadow Play said:

In keeping with space etc. I worked out tonight that if you were able to fold a piece of paper 50 times the thickness of the paper would measure more than the distance from earth to our moon*.  That is how boring the Forfar v United game was tonight 

* For the avoidance of any doubt I didn’t actually fold a piece of paper 50 times to check my calculations.

If standard printer paper is 0.1 mm thick then I get 2⁵⁰ × 0.1 mm ≈ 112 600 000 km, that's nearly 300 times further than the moon is from earth or just over ⅔ of the distance to the sun.

Probably at least one order of magnitude errors in there somewhere

[tamthebam]

Supposedly you can't fold a piece of paper in half more than 7 times.

I suppose if you had a rubber band strong enough you could launch a paper airplane at the moon. Earth Re-entry on the return journey would be a bit of a bugger though.

[Arch Stanton]

On 13/04/2021 at 16:19, The Moonster said:

I have an excellent image of Bairnardo climbing up the Kelpies with a neon sign saying "SMELL YER MAW" and waving it at space.

The aliens will see that and say "Oh look, a little Earth man."

[tamthebam]

1 minute ago, Arch Stanton said:

The aliens will see that and say "Oh look, a little Earth man."

I think he's also had experience of disappearing down wormholes too...

[dysartrovers]

I have an excellent image of Bairnardo climbing up the Kelpies with a neon sign saying "SMELL YER MAW" and waving it at space.

And the aliens going that's bairnardo giving us the code that he wants to come home

[Fullerene]

3 hours ago, Shadow Play said:

In keeping with space etc. I worked out tonight that if you were able to fold a piece of paper 50 times the thickness of the paper would measure more than the distance from earth to our moon*.  That is how boring the Forfar v United game was tonight 

* For the avoidance of any doubt I didn’t actually fold a piece of paper 50 times to check my calculations.

If you started with a piece of A4 paper, it is about 210mm wide and length 297mm.  After you had folded it about 50 times, it would be about 50 atoms wide and length 70 atoms.

Useful to know.

[dorlomin]

11 hours ago, dorlomin said:

SpaceX has won the competition to build the Artemis Lunar Lander. 

So it will need it up and running by 2024. Or well however long it takes Boeing to unfuck themselves and get SLS running. 

The plan is roughly this. SLS should launch an uncrewed Orion test vehicle late this year early next year, this is Artemis I.

In 2023 the SLS\ Orion will send a test crewed vehicle round the Moon Artemis  II. (Bit like Apollo IIX)

In 2024  the second crewed SLS\Orion will go to the Moon, this time of a SpaceX lander prepositioned and land the crew on the Moon to start exploring for water. That will be Artemis III. (Apollo XI)

From 2024 a space station to replace the ISS will be being built in Lunar orbit (called Lunar Gateway, its now being built) to allow long duration exploration of the Moon. 2028 the construction of a lunar base will begin. 

Last week contracts were awarded for the early stages of a nuclear thermal rocket. This is a rocket type that is much faster than chemical rockets. A basic test article is hoped for by 2024. This is aimed at making exploration beyond Earth much faster. 

By the end of this year NASA should have 3 certified crewed vehicles. The current Falcon 9/Crew Dragon (going up again to ISS in a couple of days), United Launch Alliance's Atlas V\Starliner that will test in June and the NASA SLS\Orion. There plan is to never be dependent on one vehicle again in case it is taken of the flight line due to problems\ a disaster. 

From 2024 ISS will have private sector research modules aimed at companies wanting to examine how they would use space for things like manufacturing. Not a new idea, this was on Shuttle but now the costs to space are falling that it might be viable. In about 2028 NASA will no longer use ISS, its mission focus will shift to human travel beyond Earth orbit. 

 

SpaceX have sold tourist spots on a Crew Dragon for later this year. They are now up to 10 reuses of their boosters. So they are hoping to keep reusing these and their capsules to make them getting people to space much cheaper for the commercial era ISS and tourism

Well interesting times if you are a fan of humans exploring space. 

 

(The other news here is that NASA thinks SpaceX will have Superheavy flying in 3 years. Given that they are assembling it now that is a fair guess. I supposed it does not need to be reusable for Artemis. But still they will be testing the propulsive landing soon. The Starship upper stage is  the bit that everyone keeps seeing explode. This is the much harder component to develop and not needed for the Moon mission. )

Edited April 17, 2021 by dorlomin

[Theroadlesstravelled]

Aliens visiting us from another galaxy?

Physics says no.

[Shadow Play]

9 hours ago, Cyclizine said:

If standard printer paper is 0.1 mm thick then I get 2⁵⁰ × 0.1 mm ≈ 112 600 000 km, that's nearly 300 times further than the moon is from earth or just over ⅔ of the distance to the sun.

Probably at least one order of magnitude errors in there somewhere

 

9 hours ago, tamthebam said:

Supposedly you can't fold a piece of paper in half more than 7 times.

I suppose if you had a rubber band strong enough you could launch a paper airplane at the moon. Earth Re-entry on the return journey would be a bit of a bugger though.

I knew I couldn’t fool the good people of P&B.  The number of people that can’t get their head around exponential growth is frightening.  When you ask the question most people reckon the height would be anything from 10cm to a metre!

[DA Baracus]

9 hours ago, tamthebam said:

Supposedly you can't fold a piece of paper in half more than 7 times.

I suppose if you had a rubber band strong enough you could launch a paper airplane at the moon. Earth Re-entry on the return journey would be a bit of a bugger though.

Mythbusters tried it and I think got 8 or 9 folds, but had to use literal heavy machinery to do so.

[Fullerene]

4 hours ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

Aliens visiting us from another galaxy?

Physics says no.

Yes.  The nearest galaxy is 25,000 light years away so I suspect you are right.

In the meantime there are more than 100 billion stars in this galaxy so I guess that is where all the aliens come from.

[Hillonearth]

9 minutes ago, Fullerene said:

Yes.  The nearest galaxy is 25,000 light years away so I suspect you are right.

In the meantime there are more than 100 billion stars in this galaxy so I guess that is where all the aliens come from.

This popped up on my Youtube feed a while back...looks like they'll be from the Local Group or nowhere, 'cos that's as far as we're making it

 

[dorlomin]

Mars helicopter should be go for tomorrow. 

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

Chopper live.

First Flight of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter: Live from Mission Control - YouTube

 

[dorlomin]

The distances involved are mind blowing. I can remember Sojourner and thinking what an achievement that was. Now this is science fiction level achievements, to be flying on another planet. 

[dorlomin]

[dorlomin]

NASA can now generate oxygen on Mars.