Shyster's thread of Spaaaace.

[crusherstasiak]

https://bigthink.com/technology-innovat ... belltitem4

[shafnutz05]

https://bigthink.com/technology-innovat ... belltitem4

This is fantastic! Love hard science stuff like this.

[Shyster]

This is fantastic! Love hard science stuff like this.

Then you should enjoy Scott Manley's video on the Nuclear Salt Water Rocket Engine:

[Shyster]

Unfortunately, after months of trying everything they could think of to get it to work, the scientists behind the NASA’s InSight lander have given up on efforts to drill into the Martian surface. The drill was supposed to go down around 16 feet, but it only made it around 2 feet before stalling out, and nothing worked to get it moving again. Other instruments on the lander continue to function.

RIP: Mars digger bites the dust after 2 years on red planet
https://apnews.com/article/mars-digger- ... baf084d16e

[Shyster]

Today was the date for the "Green Run": the first static firing of the core of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) program. The plan was a full eight-minute-long, flight-duration hot-hire test of the core tank and its four RS-25 engines, which are left over Space Shuttle Main Engines. The firing lasted only 67.7 seconds, well short of full duration and the minimum two-minute duration firing that NASA said would be necessary to call it a complete test. The abort was triggered by a Major Component Failure indication on Engine 4. I think the failure came before any of the engines moved for any of the gimbaling tests that were to be part of the full run.

Obviously a disappointment that will further delay the SLS, but this is why we test.

[Shyster]

[Gaucho]

It takes Neptune 165 years to orbit the Sun. It has only recently completed its first orbit since its discovery.

[shafnutz05]

It takes Neptune 165 years to orbit the Sun. It has only recently completed its first orbit since its discovery.

There was an interesting read a couple months ago about the temperature anomalies on Neptune and Uranus.

https://www.space.com/something-strange ... ptune.html

[Shyster]

Virgin Orbit yesterday successfully reached orbit and deployed nine NASA-sponsored cubesats with the second launch attempt of its air-launched LauncherOne rocket. The LauncherOne has two kerolox-fueled stages and can put around 300-500 kg into low Earth orbit, which makes it roughly comparable to such vehicles as the Rocket Labs Electron and the upcoming Indian Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV). The LauncherOne does have an advantage over other smallsat launchers in that being air launched from a modified 747, it can theoretically launch from just about anywhere in the world that can handle a 747, and likewise it can launch to pretty much any orbital inclination just by flying out over the ocean. Other launchers have to worry about overflying inhabited areas and are limited in reachable orbits by the locations of their fixed launch facilities.