Fifth Avenue Forum

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

This is fantastic! Love hard science stuff like this.

This is fantastic! Love hard science stuff like this.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."

I watch this once a year. One of the greatest presidential speeches ever.

My local weatherman:



I don't think I've seen sat photos of it.

Here's a neat experiment. The upcoming first launch of the Firefly Aerospace Alpha smallsat launcher will be carrying an experimental drag sail from Purdue University which, if the launch is successful, will be used to speed the de-orbit of the second stage. The idea is that a light-weight drag sails could be added to future satellites and vehicle stages and deployed to speed orbital decay when the item in question has reached the end of its useful life. That could speed de-orbit times, which for some satellites is in the years. As launch altitude increases, so does the time for an orbit to naturally decay through the tiny, tiny amount of atmospheric drag that exists even in space. Speeding up that de-orbit time with a drag sail would make a huge difference and would lower the risks of space collisions and space junk.

https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/release ... earth.html

I hope the Firefly launch is successful. The first launch of a vehicle often goes awry.

The Mars missions that launched last summer are starting to arrive. The first was the United Arab Emirates Al-Amal (“Hope”) probe, which executed a successful insertion burn to place the craft into an initial 1,000 x 49,380 km capture orbit. The probe will spend the next three months adjusting itself into its primary, equatorial science orbit of 22,000 x 43,000 km.

The next to arrive will be the Chinese Tianwen-1 mission, which is due to enter Mars orbit tomorrow. Tianwen-1 will begin to prepare for a later landing attempt of the mission's rover, expected around May. The third mission will be the U.S. Perseverance rover, which will attempt a landing on February 18.

The Chinese Tianwen-1 mission successfully executed a Martian insertion burn and is now in orbit of the red planet. The craft is currently in a highly eccentric, equatorial capture orbit. Over the next couple of months, it will execute a plane change and then tune its orbit into a lower, polar orbit, before attempting a landing of the on-board rover. The planned touchdown site for the rover is the Utopia Planitia section of Mars, which is a massive impact basin.

only a little related to space. why is Temperature not considered a fundamental force of nature like Gravity? It seems to have an equally important role in shaping the universe.

Temperature is the manifestation of the amount of energy a certain thing or system has. It's related to the movement of the constituent particles of the system. So its really just a roundabout way of referring to energy.

Temperature is the manifestation of the amount of energy a certain thing or system has. It's related to the movement of the constituent particles of the system. So its really just a roundabout way of referring to energy.

the Big Bang happens and for a moment, there’s only energy. But then it quickly cools and turns to matter. Seems like temperature was sort of “there” before the energy was - which is the same as gravity and electromagnetism

'Any evidence for Planet Nine is gone': Scientists dispute probability of mystery planet
https://www.cnet.com/news/any-evidence- ... ry-planet/

A few years ago a paper postulated the existence of a as-yet-undetected planet beyond Neptune with a mass of 5 to 10 times Earth's mass based on the unique orbits of a number of known trans-Neptunian objects. That kicked off a search for this potential Planet Nine. A new paper says that selection bias may have been in play, and it throws cold water on the idea of a Planet Nine. While this new paper does not rule out the existence of Planet Nine, it does say that those orbits can be explained without the presence of a new trans-Neptunian planet.

only a little related to space. why is Temperature not considered a fundamental force of nature like Gravity? It seems to have an equally important role in shaping the universe.

I'm trying to remember high school physics, but I think it is because the 4 fundamental forces measure interactions between things and cannot be.... simplified? Temperature is a measurement of a thing or system of things.

Something like, I don't know. I'm just here for the Mars stuff.

SpaceX lost a booster on a Starlink launch last night. There was a lot of flame still visible after the shutdown of the reentry burn, and I didn't hear any callouts for the landing burn. Looks like an engine may have failed during the reentry burn, and the vehicle may have been on fire after that. Some seagulls likely got a nice view of an explosion as core 1059 hit the water.

Today will be a good day. Fingers crossed.