Space Travel and Technology

[Huntn]

Very interesting. We need to get people back into space travel, other than the ISS if we can afford it.

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NASA flies a helicopter on Mars, the first time an aircraft has flown on another planet​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/04/19/nasa-ingenuity-helicopter-mars/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/04/19/nasa-ingenuity-helicopter-mars/ <--Second one was inserted using insert link.

NASA successfully flew its four-pound helicopter from the surface of Mars early Monday in the first powered flight of an aircraft on another planet, a feat that NASA officials compared to the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903.
At about 3:30 a.m. Eastern time, the twin, carbon-fiber rotor blades began spinning furiously, and the chopper, called Ingenuity, lifted off the surface of the Red Planet. It reached an altitude of about 10 feet, where it hovered, buffeted ever so slightly by the wind, turned 96 degrees and then came softly back to the Martian surface in an autonomous flight that lasted just about 30 seconds, the space agency said.

 

[SuperMatt]

Very interesting. We need to get people back into space travel, other than the ISS if we can afford it.

View attachment 4647​

NASA flies a helicopter on Mars, the first time an aircraft has flown on another planet​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/04/19/nasa-ingenuity-helicopter-mars/

NASA successfully flew its four-pound helicopter from the surface of Mars early Monday in the first powered flight of an aircraft on another planet, a feat that NASA officials compared to the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903.
At about 3:30 a.m. Eastern time, the twin, carbon-fiber rotor blades began spinning furiously, and the chopper, called Ingenuity, lifted off the surface of the Red Planet. It reached an altitude of about 10 feet, where it hovered, buffeted ever so slightly by the wind, turned 96 degrees and then came softly back to the Martian surface in an autonomous flight that lasted just about 30 seconds, the space agency said.

I saw this on TV. The speed of the rotors had to be 10x faster than on Earth because the atmosphere of Mars is much less dense. Incredible that they were able to do this!

 

[lizkat]

Upcoming NASA event: a launch window will open on Nov 24 2021 for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The window extends through February 15, 2022. Purpose is to hit the smaller of a duo of asteroids and measure the redirection of the larger asteroid's orbit. Naturally we're going to try to do this quite far away from this planet... around 11 million kilometers... so the targeted pair of objects won't be reached until next September. A camera satellite designed by the Italian Space Agency will be aboard, to be deployed from the spacecraft a couple days before impact.

https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=DART

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is designed to evaluate the kinetic impact technique by striking an asteroid with a spacecraft at high relative velocity and observing the resulting change in orbit. The test involves flying the DART spacecraft at high relative velocity into the smaller of two asteroids that are co-orbiting in a binary pair, and using Earth-based observations before and after the impact to study the effects on the orbit. It will also carry the LICIA Cube CubeSat, which will be released prior to the encounter to image the impact and its result. DART along with the ESA Hera mission make up the international Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) collaboration.

Anyway tonight at 7pm NASA will have a press conference about DART's upcoming launch,

NASA Live - NASA

NASA TV live: Watch live broadcasts from NASA Television and NASA's social media channels, and a schedule of upcoming live events including news briefings, launches and landings.

www.nasa.gov

 

[Huntn]

Upcoming NASA event: a launch window will open on Nov 24 2021 for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The window extends through February 15, 2022. Purpose is to hit the smaller of a duo of asteroids and measure the redirection of the larger asteroid's orbit. Naturally we're going to try to do this quite far away from this planet... around 11 million kilometers... so the targeted pair of objects won't be reached until next September. A camera satellite designed by the Italian Space Agency will be aboard, to be deployed from the spacecraft a couple days before impact.

https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=DART

Anyway tonight at 7pm NASA will have a press conference about DART's upcoming launch,

NASA Live - NASA

NASA TV live: Watch live broadcasts from NASA Television and NASA's social media channels, and a schedule of upcoming live events including news briefings, launches and landings.

www.nasa.gov

Outstanding, why sit here like… sitting ducks.

 

[jbailey]

https://talkedabout.com/threads/james-webb-space-telescope.2656/post-109022

 

[lizkat]

Update on the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test:

NASA hopes to hit an asteroid now in case we really need to knock one away later

(WaPo, paywall removed)​

The craft was launched last November 23, is expected to hit its target asteroid at a deflective angle and move its orbit around a larger paired asteroid by about 1%, enough to be able to detect through a telescope. The spacecraft will steer itself for the last hours of flight. Expected collision time is 7:14pm EDT Monday, September 26, 2022. Hope it goes well!

 

[fischersd]

Anyone else think we'll f-up the Double Asteroid Redirection Test and force ourselves into the situation of having to redirect a planet killer?

Not that mankind tends to mess up when we start playing god.

 

[Roller]

Anyone else think we'll f-up the Double Asteroid Redirection Test and force ourselves into the situation of having to redirect a planet killer?

Not that mankind tends to mess up when we start playing god.

No, I'm confident that this won't put us in peril. Missing the target is the worst possible outcome, because someday we're going to have to deflect something much larger, and Hollywood won't be there to save us.

As for playing god, I'd say what we've done to ruin our planet falls more into that category, sadly.

 

[fischersd]

No, I'm confident that this won't put us in peril. Missing the target is the worst possible outcome, because someday we're going to have to deflect something much larger, and Hollywood won't be there to save us.

As for playing god, I'd say what we've done to ruin our planet falls more into that category, sadly.

You don't play billiards, do you?

As for what we've done to the planet - yes, Earth needs to get much more creative with it's creation of Viruses, so it can eradicate this infestation that's killing all other life.

 

[Nycturne]

Anyone else think we'll f-up the Double Asteroid Redirection Test and force ourselves into the situation of having to redirect a planet killer?

Not that mankind tends to mess up when we start playing god.

The redirection test is such that it is changing the orbit of a small asteroid orbiting a larger asteroid, not the orbit of the duo as a whole. The force we’re planning to impart is small enough that if we want to use the billiards analogy, it’s a bit like exhaling angrily (not blowing) at the cue ball. It’s mostly to test our ability to hit a moving object in space than it is to test the forces we can impart. We already have a pretty good notion of the laws of motion.

Also, by doing the test while the asteroids are near Earth, as the asteroids are at perihelion, means that any forces imparted to the duo’s orbit due to the change of the smaller asteroid’s orbit are going to affect their aphelion, where the asteroids are farthest away from Earth.

 

[lizkat]

Waiting for the cartoonists to pick up on this.... i have a caption ready.

"look ma, they're messing around with Jimmy's toys now."​

 

[lizkat]

Five minutes away now for the DART mission's moment of collision! WOW - hit it!​

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NASA Live - NASA

NASA TV live: Watch live broadcasts from NASA Television and NASA's social media channels, and a schedule of upcoming live events including news briefings, launches and landings.

www.nasa.gov

 

[Roller]

Five minutes away now for the DART mission's moment of collision! WOW - hit it!​

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NASA Live - NASA

NASA TV live: Watch live broadcasts from NASA Television and NASA's social media channels, and a schedule of upcoming live events including news briefings, launches and landings.

www.nasa.gov

Watching the last few minutes as Dimorphos grew on the screen and details on its surface became increasingly clear was amazing. It’d be funny if the smaller asteroid broke apart because we hit the sweet spot.

 

[lizkat]

Watching the last few minutes as Dimorphos grew on the screen and details on its surface became increasingly clear was amazing. It’d be funny if the smaller asteroid broke apart because we hit the sweet spot.

Yeah, right? I think they def didn't want to do that. Just nudge it and now measure orbit changes... and hope they don't have to call on the knowledge sometime to move something threatening "or else".

Everybody looked soooooo happy afterwards. Lot of time, engineering, persnickety assembly went into that mission. Pretty great day for the teams.