#low Earth orbit (LEO)

[thepastisalreadywritten]

2 September 2022

Fresh off its success at the moon, India is now headed for the sun.

The nation launched its first-ever solar observatory today (Sept. 2), sending the Aditya-L1 probe skyward atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 2:20 a.m. EDT (0620 GMT; 11:50 a.m. local India time).

The PSLV deployed Aditya-L1 into low Earth orbit (LEO) as planned about 63 minutes after liftoff, sparking applause and high fives in mission control.

"Congratulations, India, and congratulations, ISRO [the Indian Space Research Organisation]," Jitendra Singh, India's Minister of State for Science and Technology, said shortly after deployment on ISRO's launch webcast.

"While the whole world watched this with bated breath, it is indeed a sunshine moment for India," Singh added.

The successful launch followed on the heels of another big milestone for India: On August 23, its Chandrayaan-3 mission became the first to land softly near the moon's south pole.

Chandrayaan-3's lander-rover duo are expected to conk out in a week or so, when the harsh lunar night falls at their touchdown site. But Aditya-L1's long journey has just begun.

A long road to a good sun-viewing spot

Aditya-L1 won't stay in LEO forever:

After a series of checkouts, it will use its onboard propulsion system to head toward Earth-sun Lagrange Point 1 (L1), a gravitationally stable spot about 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from our planet in the direction of the sun.

That destination explains the latter part of the mission's name. And the first part is simple enough: "Aditya" translates to "sun" in Sanskrit.

The 3,260-pound (1,480 kilograms) observatory will arrive at L1 about four months from now, if all goes according to plan.

But the long trek will be worth it, according to the ISRO.

"A satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the sun without any occultation/eclipses," ISRO officials wrote in an Aditya-L1 mission description.

"This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time."

Indeed, another sun-studying spacecraft is already at L1 — the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint NASA-European Space Agency mission that launched in December 1995.

(Several other spacecraft, including NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, are at Earth-sun Lagrange Point 2, which is a million miles from Earth, in the direction away from the sun.)

Solar flares, the coronal heating mystery and more

Once it's settled in at L1, the solar probe will use four three science instruments to study the particles and magnetic fields in its immediate surroundings and four others to scrutinize the sun's surface (known as the photosphere) and its atmosphere.

This work will help scientists better understand solar activity, including the dynamics of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), ISRO officials say.

Flares are powerful flashes of high-energy radiation, and CMEs are huge eruptions of solar plasma.

Both types of outburst can affect us here on Earth. Intense CMEs that hit our planet, for example, trigger geomagnetic storms that can disrupt satellite navigation and power grids.

(As a side benefit, such storms also supercharge the gorgeous light shows known as auroras.)

Aditya-L1 will also tackle the "coronal heating problem," one of the biggest mysteries in heliophysics.

The corona — the sun's wispy outer atmosphere — is incredibly hot, reaching temperatures around 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 million degrees Celsius), according to NASA.

That's about 200 times hotter than the solar surface, which is "only" 10,000 degrees F (5,500 degrees C) or so.

It's still unclear what is responsible for this startling and counterintuitive discrepancy.

(Why would it be hotter away from the sun's core, where the energy-producing nuclear fusion reactions are occurring?)

Aditya-L1 has other science goals as well. For instance, the mission also aims to more fully flesh out the solar wind, the stream of charged particles flowing constantly from the sun, ISRO officials said.

Aditya-L1 will measure the composition of the solar wind and attempt to determine how it is accelerated.

And Aditya-L1 will do all this work on the cheap:

The mission's price tag is about 3.8 billion rupees, or $46 million US at current exchange rates.

That's in the same ballpark as Chandrayaan-3

India's first successful moon-landing mission costs about 6.15 billion rupees, or $74 million US.

For comparison, NASA's most recent big-ticket sun mission, the record-setting Parker Solar Probe, costs roughly $1.5 billion.

This disparity should not be viewed as an indictment of NASA, however; labor costs are much higher in the United States than in India, among other differences between the two nations' economies.

Aditya-L1 is a coronagraphy spacecraft to study the solar atmosphere, designed and developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and various other Indian research institutes.

[dejoe]

LEO Satellites - How do they stay in orbit ?

On a clear evening what appears as a slowly moving trail of light could be starlink satellites. You might wonder who turned the lights on in them ?

These are starlink satellites that are placed in the Low Earth Orbit - around 200-800 Km from the earth's surface. This is very close to earth for an orbiting satellite. In fact the gravity experienced by these satellites would be almost the same as the gravity experienced at earth's surface.

To understand how they manage to be in orbit, let us to do a thought experiment. Say you throw a stone across a pond. the higher the force that you impart on it, the longer the distance it travels. Now imagine that you manage to impart a force so strong, that it travels the entire earth and comes around to hit you on the head. Well, that is what is happening with these satellites at around 200km above the earth's surface.

There are two major forces that are acting on such a rock that is orbiting around the earth - the gravity and the centrifugal force. While the gravity tries to pull the rock towards the earth the centrifugal force acts on the opposite direction counteracting it.

To understand centrifugal force, let us go back to the childhood play thing of the spinning disk and a post or a devil's wheel of Oktober fest.

The centrifugal force is the force that is pushing you outward from the spinning disk. The farther from the center, the bigger the force. The centrifugal force can also be increased by increasing the velocity. Thus, for an object to be at orbit without falling, it has to be as far as possible from the earth's surface, and/or have a higher velocity while revolving around the earth.

For an object to be in LEO, it must be travelling at around 7.8 km/s depending on the altitude. And these satellites revolve around the earth around 12-16 times a day, depending on the altitude.

Unlike geo-synchronous (GEO) satellites that are at an altitude of 36000 Kms and are stationary with respect to earth, these satellites move with respect to earth. Hence they need lots of satellites to cover the entire earth and they could need base stations to hand over signals. They also suffer from doppler, which must be corrected as well.

Though the air is less dense at 200km, LEO satellites still face significant air resistance, and they lose their altitude. To correct this they use rockets to boost their altitude three to four times a year. They are powered by solar energy with battery backup.

The International Space Station is also at a Low Earth Orbit, enabling faster and cheaper travel between the space station and the earth. Since the centripetal force and the gravity are equalized, the astronauts at the space station feel weightlessness or zero gravity.

The Starlink satellites reflect the sun, and hence they appear to shine, sparkle and shimmer!

[michaelgabrill]

The Benefits of Semiconductor Manufacturing in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for Terrestrial Use

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in semiconductor and in-space manufacturing collaborated on a white paper that outlines how microgravity benefits the production of semiconductors and related materials. Earth’s gravitational forces pose substantial barriers to quick, high-yield semiconductor production. Microgravity offers a path to overcome these barriers. There are also substantial practical benefits to incorporating LEO-based manufacturing […] from NASA https://ift.tt/1iTuDrL

[avnnetwork]

Connecting the World: Telecommunications Satellites Enhance Global Communication Networks

In an increasingly interconnected world, the role of telecommunications has never been more critical. The rapid growth of digital communication technologies has significantly transformed the way we live, work, and interact with one another. At the heart of this transformation lies a technology that orbits high above us – telecommunications satellites. These sophisticated machines play a pivotal role in bridging gaps across continents, bringing people closer, and enabling the seamless exchange of information on a global scale.

Telecommunications satellites are the backbone of modern communication networks. These satellites are designed to transmit signals across vast distances, overcoming the limitations of terrestrial infrastructure. By relaying signals from one point on the Earth's surface to another, they enable instant communication, regardless of geographical barriers. This capability has revolutionized various sectors, from media broadcasting to internet services, emergency communications, and more.

The Evolution of Telecommunications Satellites

The journey of telecommunications satellites began in the mid-20th century. Early experiments with satellite communication laid the groundwork for what would become a global network. The launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, in 1957 marked the dawn of the space age. However, it wasn't until the launch of the first geostationary satellite in 1965 that the true potential of satellite communication was realized. This satellite, positioned in a fixed location relative to the Earth's surface, could provide continuous coverage to a specific region, paving the way for real-time communication across the globe.

Since then, telecommunications satellites have evolved dramatically. Advances in technology have led to the development of more sophisticated satellites with greater capacity, reliability, and efficiency. Modern satellites are equipped with high-powered transponders, enabling them to handle large volumes of data transmission. These advancements have expanded the capabilities of satellite communication, making it an indispensable part of the global communication network.

How Telecommunications Satellites Work

The operation of telecommunications satellites is based on the principles of radio frequency transmission. These satellites receive signals from ground-based stations, amplify them, and retransmit them back to other ground stations. The process involves several key components:

Uplink: The transmission of signals from a ground station to the satellite. This is typically done using high-frequency radio waves.

Transponder: The component within the satellite that receives the uplink signal, amplifies it, and changes its frequency for retransmission.

Downlink: The transmission of signals from the satellite back to a ground station. This completes the communication loop, allowing the original signal to reach its intended destination.

Satellites are positioned in different orbits depending on their specific functions. Geostationary satellites, which orbit at approximately 35,786 kilometers above the equator, provide continuous coverage to specific regions. Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, positioned much closer to the Earth's surface, offer lower latency and are often used for services requiring real-time data transmission, such as internet connectivity.

Impact on Global Communication Networks

The impact of telecommunications satellites on global communication networks is profound. They have enabled a level of connectivity that was previously unimaginable, facilitating the seamless exchange of information across vast distances. Here are some key areas where their impact is most evident:

Media and Broadcasting

Telecommunications satellites have revolutionized the media and broadcasting industry. They enable the transmission of television and radio signals to remote and underserved areas, ensuring that people worldwide have access to information and entertainment. Live broadcasts of major events, such as sports competitions and political speeches, are made possible through satellite technology, allowing audiences to experience these moments in real time.

Internet Connectivity

In many parts of the world, terrestrial internet infrastructure is either insufficient or nonexistent. Telecommunications satellites provide a vital solution to this problem by offering internet connectivity to remote and rural areas. Satellite internet services have become increasingly popular, providing reliable and high-speed internet access to communities that were previously disconnected.

Emergency Communications

During natural disasters and emergencies, terrestrial communication networks are often disrupted. Telecommunications satellites play a crucial role in providing emergency communication services, ensuring that rescue and relief operations can be coordinated effectively. Satellite phones and portable satellite communication devices are essential tools for first responders and humanitarian organizations, enabling them to maintain communication in even the most challenging conditions.

Global Navigation Systems

Telecommunications satellites are also integral to global navigation systems. They provide the precise timing and positioning data required for navigation and location-based services. These systems are essential for various applications, including aviation, maritime, and land transportation, as well as for personal navigation devices used by millions of people worldwide.

Future Trends and Developments

The field of telecommunications satellites is continually evolving, driven by advancements in technology and increasing demand for connectivity. Several trends and developments are shaping the future of this industry:

High Throughput Satellites (HTS)

High throughput satellites represent a significant advancement in satellite technology. These satellites offer substantially increased data transmission capacity, enabling faster and more reliable communication services. HTS technology is particularly beneficial for providing broadband internet access to remote and underserved areas, helping to bridge the digital divide.

Constellations of LEO Satellites

One of the most exciting developments in satellite communication is the deployment of constellations of low Earth orbit satellites. These constellations consist of hundreds or even thousands of small satellites working together to provide global coverage. LEO constellations offer lower latency and higher data transfer rates compared to traditional geostationary satellites, making them ideal for applications such as internet of things (IoT) connectivity and real-time data services.

Advances in Satellite Manufacturing

Advances in satellite manufacturing are making it possible to produce smaller, more cost-effective satellites. These miniaturized satellites, often referred to as smallsats or cubesats, can be launched in large numbers, providing flexible and scalable communication solutions. The reduced cost of manufacturing and launching these satellites is driving innovation and enabling new players to enter the market.

Integration with Terrestrial Networks

The integration of satellite communication with terrestrial networks is another key trend. Hybrid networks that combine satellite and terrestrial technologies can offer seamless connectivity, ensuring that users have access to reliable communication services regardless of their location. This integration is particularly important for providing consistent internet coverage in areas with challenging terrain or sparse infrastructure.

Challenges and Considerations

While telecommunications satellites offer numerous benefits, there are also challenges and considerations to address. One of the primary challenges is the cost associated with launching and maintaining satellites. The development, launch, and operation of satellites require significant investment, which can be a barrier for some organizations.

Additionally, the increasing number of satellites in orbit raises concerns about space debris and collision risks. Ensuring the long-term sustainability of space activities requires careful management of satellite operations and the implementation of measures to mitigate the risk of space debris.

Conclusion

Telecommunications satellites have fundamentally transformed global communication networks, enabling instant connectivity and information exchange across vast distances. From media broadcasting and internet connectivity to emergency communications and global navigation, the impact of these satellites is far-reaching and profound.

As technology continues to advance, the future of telecommunications satellites looks promising. High throughput satellites, LEO constellations, and advancements in satellite manufacturing are set to further enhance the capabilities of satellite communication. By overcoming challenges and embracing innovation, telecommunications satellites will continue to play a crucial role in connecting the world, bridging gaps, and enabling a more connected and informed global community.

In a world where connectivity is essential, telecommunications satellites stand as a testament to human ingenuity and the relentless pursuit of progress. They embody the spirit of exploration and innovation, bringing people closer together and fostering a sense of global unity. As we look to the future, the continued evolution of telecommunications satellites promises to unlock new possibilities and drive the next wave of communication advancements.

[mindblowingscience]

The International Space Station (ISS) will be retired in 2030 after more than 32 years of continuous service. Naturally, there are questions regarding what will replace this station, which has served as a bastion for vital research and inter-agency cooperation in space. In the past, China has indicated that their Tiangong ("heavenly palace") space station will be a successor and rival to the ISS, offering astronauts from other nations an alternative platform to conduct research in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). As part of this plan, China recently announced plans to double the size of Tiangong in the coming years. This announcement was shared last Wednesday, October 4th, during the 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2023) in Baku, Azerbaijan. According to the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), three new modules will be added to Tiangong, which currently consists of the Tianhe Core Cabin Module (CMM) and two Laboratory Cabin Modules (LCM)—Wenhian ("Quest for the Heavens") and Mengtian ("Dreaming of the Heavens"). This expansion will be accompanied by extending the station's operational lifetime. According to the statement made by CAST, Tiangong will be in service for more than 15 years, 10 more years than previously announced. This means that China intends to keep Tiangong operational until 2037 or later, several years after the ISS is decommissioned and deorbited. As of the penning of this article, the station has been fully operational since late 2022 (a total of 894 days) and has been occupied for the past 764 days. The station has hosted 15 taikonauts (a maximum of three at a time) at orbital altitudes of 340 to 450 km (210 and 280 mi).

Continue Reading.

[talonabraxas]

The Sky This Week from May 31 to June 7: A Jupiter-Mercury conjunction

The parade of planets starts as two worlds come close and the Moon moves on down the line in the sky this week.

Friday, May 31 Although the Leo Trio of galaxies gets quite a lot of fame, these aren’t the only deep-sky objects to chase down within the Lion. With no Moon in the sky after sunset tonight, consider hunting down another of this constellation’s galactic gems: NGC 2903. In fact, many skywatchers wonder how Messier could have missed this gorgeous spiral, whose brightness is on par with other galaxies the Frenchman did spot in Leo.

NGC 2903 sits just below the big cat’s “chin.” To find it, first look west an hour after sunset, where Leo is slowly making its way down toward the horizon, now 50° high. You’ll easily spot the constellation’s alpha star, magnitude 1.4 Regulus, as one of the brighter suns in this region of sky.

From Regulus, see if you can find the rest of the Sickle asterism, which looks like a backwards question mark in the sky. The Sickle’s blade ends at 3rd-magnitude Epsilon (ϵ) Leonis; from this star, scan 3.3° west to land on 4th-magnitude Lambda (λ) Leo. And from there, simply drop 1.5° south to view magnitude 8.9 NGC 2903.

This spiral galaxy is roughly twice as long as it is wide, stretching about 12.6′ on its long axis. It is considered one of the finest NGC objects, and a medium-sized telescope (4 inches or so) will begin to resolve its brighter nucleus and fainter halo into distinct regions.

Sunrise: 5:34 A.M. Sunset: 8:22 P.M. Moonrise: 2:06 A.M. Moonset: 1:52 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (39%)

*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.

Saturday, June 1 June opens with a gorgeous dark evening sky that might allow you to catch a glimpse of noctilucent clouds floating high above the northern horizon. These stunning, reflective clouds are unique in that they are composed of ice crystals that condense largely on high-up dust particles left behind as meteorites streak into the atmosphere.

Noctilucent clouds form in the mesosphere, some 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the ground. Because they are so high up, they can remain in sunlight long after the Sun has gone down for those on the ground, thanks to the curvature of Earth. Thus, these clouds can appear to shine high in the sky even in the dark of night, while lower, “normal” clouds are dark blots without illumination.

There’s no special equipment needed to view noctilucent clouds, just a little luck and some patience. Step outside an hour or two after darkness falls and turn your gaze north. Note that even though they’re high in the atmosphere, these clouds may be low on your northern horizon depending on your latitude, so try to get to a viewing site where that direction is clear of both obstacles and artificial lights. Look for wispy, silvery clouds that appear lit up rather than dark or dusty. Like the aurora, noctilucent clouds can come and go, and displays may ramp up slowly — but hopefully the mild weather and moonless skies will allow for some additional stargazing even if no night-shining clouds appear!

Sunrise: 5:33 A.M. Sunset: 8:23 P.M. Moonrise: 2:30 A.M. Moonset: 3:05 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (28%)

Sunday, June 2 The Moon reaches perigee, the closest point to Earth in its orbit, at 3:16 A.M. EDT. At that time, our satellite will be 228,728 miles (368,102 km) away.

The Moon then passes 2° north of Mars at 8 P.M. EDT. Both are visible in the morning as part of the line of planets now shining in the pre-dawn sky. So, step outside early this morning about an hour before sunrise to find Mars and the Moon both in Pisces, standing 15° high at that time in the east.

The waning Moon lies west of Mars early this morning, sitting to the Red Planet’s upper right in the sky. By tomorrow morning at the same time, the Moon will be an even thinner crescent to the east of Mars, having moved to its lower left.

An hour before dawn, three planets in the six-world lineup are already visible. Mars and Saturn are both 1st magnitude, with Saturn far to Mars’ upper right (west) in Aquarius, nearly 30° high at this time. Neptune lies between them in Pisces, about 5.5° below magnitude 4.5 Lambda Piscium. The distant ice giant is magnitude 7.8 and requires binoculars or a telescope to spot.

Wait 30 more minutes, and Uranus (magnitude 5.8 — again, requiring optical aid) and Mercury (magnitude –1) have risen, with Uranus some 4.5° high and Mercury just 1.5° high. Magnitude –2 Jupiter is just rising at that time, and will need a bit longer to climb above the horizon. See if you can catch it just before sunrise, though be careful to look away and stop using binoculars or a telescope several minutes before the Sun rises from your location, which may differ from the time given below.

This lineup of planets will feature throughout the week, especially as the Moon passes through the line and Mercury and Jupiter meet in a close conjunction in just two days. Stay tuned!

Sunrise: 5:33 A.M. Sunset: 8:24 P.M. Moonrise: 2:54 A.M. Moonset: 4:18 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (18%)

Monday, June 3 Asteroid 2 Pallas is currently moving through Corona Borealis, now within the constellation’s southeastern border. Tonight, the 9th-magnitude asteroid sits just 20′ from a magnitude 6.5 field star, but there’s actually a much easier way to find it.

Because of its location and the rotation of Earth, you can let nature do the work for you. Center your telescope on magnitude 4.1 Epsilon Coronae Borealis and simply lock it in place without tracking, so the sky appears to drift past. Within 20 minutes, Pallas will be in the center of the field!

Corona Borealis has been recently making headlines for a different star: T CrB, a star just 1° southeast of Epsilon. Normally magnitude 10 and requiring the aid of binoculars or a telescope to see, T CrB is expected to suddenly and briefly flare sometime in the next few months, reaching a naked-eye magnitude of roughly 2. Tonight, Pallas is nearly 3.5° east-northeast of T CrB; it will close in on the variable over the next few weeks and pass within ¼° of the star later this month.

Sunrise: 5:33 A.M. Sunset: 8:24 P.M. Moonrise: 3:21 A.M. Moonset: 5:34 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (10%)

Tuesday, June 4 Let’s hop back to that parade of planets early this morning to check out a close conjunction as Mercury passes 0.1° south of Jupiter at 6 A.M. EDT.

At that time, sunrise has already reached the East Coast, while the two planets are just rising in the Midwest. Mercury lies just to the lower right of Jupiter and binoculars or a telescope will show both within the same field of view. No matter your time zone, you can catch the pair about 20 minutes before local sunrise, when they are some 2° to 3° high. It’s definitely a challenging view, but a rewarding one. Note that Mercury will continue sliding east over time, so those in time zones farther west may see Mercury directly below or even to the lower left of Jupiter in the sky.

They’re a stunning contrast — the solar system’s smallest and largest planet, together in one view! Mercury spans some 5″ and appears nearly 90 percent lit. Nearby, Jupiter is more than six times as wide at 33″ and is fully illuminated by the Sun. Its four Galilean moons are on display, though they will be hard to make out in the growing twilight. In the eastern half of the U.S., Europa is just finishing a transit across the disk, slipping off just 10 minutes before sunrise in the Midwest, so take care if you’re trying to follow the event. After that, Europa lies closest to the planet to the west, with Callisto farther west. Io lies closest to Jupiter on the east, and Ganymede sits farther east.

Moving down the line of planets, the Moon passes 4° north of Uranus at 9 P.M. EDT tonight.

And earlier in the day, Venus reaches superior conjunction at noon EDT, which is why it’s currently invisible in the bright glare of our star.

Sunrise: 5:32 A.M. Sunset: 8:25 P.M. Moonrise: 3:51 A.M. Moonset: 6:50 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (4%)

Wednesday, June 5 The Moon now passes 5° north of Jupiter at 10 A.M. EDT. The slim crescent will be a real challenge to observe, although according to longtime Astronomy contributor Stephen James O’Meara, there are some unique and beautiful effects to be seen if you can manage it.

See if you can catch the nearly New Moon in the sky shortly before dawn. If you do, you might experience the lunar blackdrop effect, which can cast dark stripes on the last illuminated bits of the lunar crescent. These stripes aren’t real, but are instead an illusion caused by both the diffraction of sunlight and the turbulence of our atmosphere, through which we are viewing the Moon (and all other celestial objects). In fact, you might notice these stripes dance, waver, or disappear and reappear if you’re able to follow the slim crescent over time. The more turbulent the atmosphere — and the poorer your local seeing — the more likely you are to see the stripes.

Particularly intrepid observers can try to catch this effect again tomorrow morning, just hours before the Moon finally reaches its New phase.

Sunrise: 5:32 A.M. Sunset: 8:26 P.M. Moonrise: 4:26 A.M. Moonset: 8:05 P.M. Moon Phase: Waning crescent (1%)

Thursday, June 6 New Moon occurs at 8:38 A.M. EDT this morning, leaving our sky dark, moonless, and perfect for deep-sky observers.

Longtime observers know that although the images of galaxies and nebulae we see are often stunningly multicolored, most objects don’t show off vivid hues through the eyepiece when visually observing. But some do, and one of these is NGC 7662, also called the Blue Snowball and the brightest planetary nebula in the constellation Andromeda.

You’ll want to catch this object in the early-morning sky, after around 3:30 A.M. local daylight time, when Andromeda has risen well above the eastern horizon. The Blue Snowball is located in the western portion of the constellation, just under 2.5° west-southwest of magnitude 4.3 Iota (ι) Andromedae. The nebula itself is magnitude 8.3 and roughly 30″ across; it’s easy to capture in most instruments. Smaller scopes will show a small, grayish smudge. But you’ll want a larger scope to pull out its deep blue color — something in the 8- to 10-inch or larger range is a good start, but bigger is better! Make sure to use high magnification as well for the best chances at a glimpse of its beautiful blue hue.

Sunrise: 5:32 A.M. Sunset: 8:26 P.M. Moonrise: 5:11 A.M. Moonset: 9:15 P.M. Moon Phase: New

Friday, June 7 Tonight offers the first of several chances in the coming days to catch Comet 13P/Olbers near NGC 2281, a 5th-magnitude open cluster in Auriga the Charioteer.

You’ll need to be quick, though, as the constellation is setting in the west just behind the Sun. An hour to an hour and a half after sunset, you’ll want your telescope trained on eastern Auriga, just to the lower right of the bright stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini. Tonight, Olbers lies some 5.7° north-northwest of magnitude 3.6 Theta (θ) Geminorum and just 2.2° southwest of NGC 2281. The comet is currently around 8th magnitude, so a few magnitudes fainter than the open cluster but still bright enough to pick up in relatively small scopes as long as the atmosphere is clear and calm. An observing site that is slightly elevated above its surroundings and with a clear western horizon will help, too.

Discovered by William Herschel in 1788, NGC 2281 is a loose collection of young stars spanning about ¼°. Astronomers estimate the cluster is some 435 million years old. It is among many open clusters in Auriga, including the three Messier objects M36, M37, and M38. Of these, M37 is believed to be closest to NGC 2281 in age, based on the clusters’ rotational rates.

Sunrise: 5:31 A.M. Sunset: 827 P.M. Moonrise: 6:04 A.M. Moonset: 10:15 P.M. Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (2%)

The Sethian Gnosis by talon Abraxas

[lonestarflight]

Comparison between the enlarged VentureStar and the X-33.

"This artist's rendering depicts the NASA/Lockheed Martin X-33 technology demonstrator alongside the Venturestar, a Single-Stage-To-Orbit (SSTO) Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). The X-33, a half-scale prototype for the Venturestar, is scheduled to be flight tested in 1999. NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, plays a key role in the development and flight testing of the X-33. The RLV technology program is a cooperative agreement between NASA and industry. The goal of the RLV technology program is to enable signifigant reductions in the cost of access to space, and to promote the creation and delivery of new space services and other activities that will improve U.S. economic competitiveness. NASA Headquarter's Office of Space Access and Technology is overseeing the RLV program, which is being managed by the RLV Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, located in Huntsville, Alabama. The X-33 was a wedged-shaped subscale technology demonstrator prototype of a potential future Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) that Lockheed Martin had dubbed VentureStar. The company had hoped to develop VentureStar early this century. Through demonstration flight and ground research, NASA's X-33 program was to provide the information needed for industry representatives such as Lockheed Martin to decide whether to proceed with the development of a full-scale, commercial RLV program. A full-scale, single-stage-to-orbit RLV was to dramatically increase reliability and lower costs of putting a pound of payload into space, from the current figure of $10,000 to $1,000. Reducing the cost associated with transporting payloads in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) by using a commercial RLV was to create new opportunities for space access and significantly improve U.S. economic competitiveness in the world-wide launch marketplace. NASA expected to be a customer, not the operator, of the commercial RLV. The X-33 design was based on a lifting body shape with two revolutionary 'linear aerospike' rocket engines and a rugged metallic thermal protection system. The vehicle also had lightweight components and fuel tanks built to conform to the vehicle's outer shape. Time between X-33 flights was normally to have been seven days, but the program had hoped to demonstrate a two-day turnaround between flights during the flight-test phase of the program. The X-33 was to have been an unpiloted vehicle that took off vertically like a rocket and landed horizontally like an airplane. It was to have reached altitudes of up to 50 miles and high hypersonic speeds. The X-33 program was managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center and was to have been launched at a special launch site on Edwards Air Force Base. Due to technical problems with the liquid hydrogen tank, and the resulting cost increase and time delay, the X-33 program was cancelled in February 2001."

Date: September 23, 1999

source

NASA Identifier: NIX-ED97-43929, ED97-43938-1

[wordsandrobots]

IBO reference notes on . . . the battle at the low-orbit station

So. According to Gundam Wiki (citing an official Twitter message that's cited in turn without a link on an English-language message board), the shoulder-mounted bazooka that Akihiro uses in his second deployment in the Graze Custom was acquired during the battle in Mars orbit that forms the bulk episode 5, 'Beyond the Red Sky', when Tekkadan manage to run rings around Colonel Coral Conrad and shady trader Orcus (remember Orcus?). This struck me as rather curious, since I couldn't remember a point in that fight where it would have made sense for anybody to mug a Graze for its weaponry, much less a bazooka-equipped Graze actually appearing among the Gjallarhorn forces.

Being a diligent sort of obsessive, I decided to go back and watch the episode in full, to check my memory. This led to noting a number of (to me) interesting things and since nobody can stop me, I'm going to jot them down here.

First up, the Graze contingent for this episode mostly consists of the rather nice blue models labelled alternatively in secondary material as the 'Ares type' or 'space type'. The latter seems the most useful term since we see this livery repeat at various other locations later on, most significantly as part of the Dort Colony garrison and Gaelio's intercept squadron in Earth orbit. We can assume this is the general-purpose colours for Gjallarhorn 'suits operating in space, outside of elite units like the Arianrhod Fleet or those under the Seven Stars direct control (e.g. the yellow/gold versions the Issues use in Urdr Hunt).

Like a lot of the Graze's design, this seems to be a callback to the Leos from Gundam Wing, which featured a similar green/indigo distinction for ground/space (although space Leos are much more purple).

This episode is the series' first major space battle and it showcases some brilliant shot composition. There's so much to love about how this fight is story-boarded, from the mobile suits flying at weird angles to one another, to the way in-cockpit views are used.

The right-hand image here is from the perspective of Ein Dalton's Graze, and his appearance demonstrates a small detail that's easy to miss if you haven't poured over the the concept art. While this is still the green Graze that Ein was piloting in the opening episodes (its arm having been replaced in the meantime), the waist-mounted boosters have been swapped for blue shoulder-mounted units, like the rest of the squadron deployed from the Ares space station.

This is because the space boosters are slightly different from the ground-use ones, featuring extra vernier jets. However, I'm not sure the gaps for those ought to have been drawn in the left screenshot here, since they're supposed to be at right angles to the main thrusters. You can see the correct rendering on the left, below. In a great bit of continuity, Ein is later shown assisting this particular Graze after it's lost one of its boosters. Good boy! (For all that he turned out to be a mite unbalanced, Ein begins as a very diligent soldier.)

Oddly enough given its ubiquity in the merchandising, the shot on the right will be the last time the green Mars-branch Graze is seen in action in the show. After this, Ein switches to using Gaelio's Schwalbe Graze, and opposition to Tekkadan comes from different Gjallarhorn units using other colour schemes. The Arianrhod Grazes that will become the mandated 'green enemy type' for Season 2 are a notably different shade and colour layout (left), and the next and final time the 'Mars green' Graze appears, it will be in the rather ignoble aftermath of Hashmal's rampage across the Chryse Planatia (right).

[EDIT: I belatedly realised the above is not quite true: Mars-green Grazes do in fact participate in the final battle of the show against Mikazuki and Akihiro, and the machine Iok commandeers after McGillis wrecks his custom model is painted in these colours. So that's actually a nice bookending. I was misremembering because most of the action is handled by the Graze Schild variants.]

Anyway, that's enough Graze appreciation.

Time for some blatant Eugene Sevenstark propaganda.

Up to this point in the show, Eugene has been positioned as something between a joke character and the obligatory Doubting Thomas. He's clearly got an ego, clearly has a chip on his shoulder regarding Orga's leadership, and his main contribution to a battle previously has been to run away (very effectively, saving Orga's life in the process, but still).

Then, with Gjallarhorn and Orcus bearing down on Tekkadan's spacehsip, Orga comes up with a plan to use a nearby mining asteroid to perform an insanely sharp handbrake turn in order to gain altitude over their pursuers. This involves launching an anchor into the asteroid and sling-shotting the Isaribi through a tight orbit before using an explosive charge to blow the anchor and release them. Given the speed with which this must be enacted, the charge has to be placed manually, using a mobile worker. Orga originally intends to do this himself but Eugene brashly volunteers in his place, saying that as leader, he shouldn't be doing everything himself and grumbling that the others let Orga have his way far too easily.

Both these will be important charaterisation for later.

What I want to talk about, however, is how this manoeuvre goes off. It starts reasonably enough, with the anchor being fired into the rock and Eugene racing down the cable to, uh, shoulder-barge the bomb into position.

He shoots the charge and it detonates, but the anchor struck deeper than expected and doesn't come free. Now, based on past expectations, one might expect Eugene to panic over this. He's certainly not seemed especially level-headed up to now, and perhaps even a bit of a paper-tiger.

Instead, he backflips the mobile worker to launch his fuel tank at the recalcitrant anchor.

I just -- this is the first time we have seen any of these boys operating in space and he just . . . does that. Split second decision-making, zero-g environment, no problem. And it works! The extra blast from the tank frees the anchor.

It's brilliantly rendered too, with Eugene's shots going wide for a long few seconds before he finally gets the range and blows the tank.

If that wasn't enough, we then get a moment of 'oh shit, what happened to Eugene?' as the screen whites out, the cable snaking in silhouette, before coming around again to show that he's managed to latch on to the anchor to ride it back to the Isaribi.

Not only is this a fantastic action sequence, showcasing the weight and physical interaction that IBO excels at, and not only does it cement Eugene's position as 'the guy you really want flying your spaceship', it also serves as excellent set-up for where his griping about Orga's leadership is eventually going to go. Because yes, Eugene complains about Orga charging ahead and raises some legitimate objections. But at the same time, he is fully prepared to take incredibly risky actions on Orga's say-so, both recognising the strategy is sound and trusting Orga enough to follow his lead regardless of personal friction.

This will pay off later in perhaps the worst way it could, when Eugene proves incapable of properly pulling Orga up on his 'I must do everything' tendencies until it's much too late, precisely because of this trust. For now, it's just a wonderful piece of showing-against-telling, highlighting that Eugene is a true part of the team -- whatever he says -- and a damn skilled one at that.

Also, and this is me stretching for interesting reads, but the fact he is *this* good in a mobile worker and in zero-g in general despite being canonically not great during ground battles or when using mobile suits is something I place in the 'neurodivergent Eugene' column. I mean, if that's the right term when we're talking about fighting ability using a human/machine interface. Basically I think there's the basis to argue Eugene just copes better in space, where he can move any way he wants, rather than being stuck under gravity and following a human template. Partly this is inspired by how he gallops his mobile worker during the battle at the CGS base, as if he's trying to jump into the air to escape Orlis Stenja's attempt to kill him and Orga. Mostly, it's this scene, and what it shows us about Eugene's skill level once the gang gets off the ground.

What was I supposed to be talking about?

Oh right, Tekkadan swiping Gjallarhorn components. Well, this episode does give us the Saga of the Schwalbe Cables, as McGillis and Gaelio use their souped-up Grazes against Barbatos and its newly painted shoulders (those are bits of Orlis' Graze. RIP).

McGillis manages to snag Mikazuki's forearm quite soundly, forcing Mika to eject the armour from the frame to make his escape. Bye-bye weirdly out-of-place buckler.

This tussle between the two pilots prompts the beginning of their mutual respect in combat, as they each recognise the other's skill (with some lovely framing to boot).

Meanwhile, Gaelio shouts a lot and generally makes a right nit of himself, also latching on to Barbatos and even making a good try at dragging it on to a lower orbit, before getting maced for his efforts.

His grappling cable remains latched to Barbatos' leg afterwards and Mika will later use this self-same claw weapon during the fight with the Turbines in a couple of episodes' time.

There is a slight animation snafu here, in that while the gauntlet from which the cable is launched is clearly still attached in the shot where we see Mika's mace hit Gaelio's Schwalbe Graze, it's missing from subsequent frames showing Barbatos on the Isaribi's tail. However, the intention is obviously supposed to be that the gauntlet remains connected, since it will replace the ejected forearm armour and be used to allow Mika to keep pace with Lafter's Hyakuri. This glitch aside, the connecting logic is extremely clear, as Tekkadan once more incorporate battlefield debris in place of missing parts of Barbatos' outer shell.

Speaking of continuity, this episode also establishes the unique nature of Ahab reactor signatures, not only by having Ein recognise the signal from Tekkadan's new Graze Custom as belonging to Crank Zent's Graze (see the second screenshot in this post) but also by showing one of McGillis' subordinates pattern-match Barbatos to an official database.

The entries here are fairly meaningless in terms of wider canon details but for posterity, here's a breakdown.

Barbatos aside, each frame number takes the form of a letter followed by a three, four or five digit number. Examples include 'E-978', 'R-3908' and 'C-09067'. These are shown to be equivalent to 'ASW-G-08', so presumably identify the specific frame/'suit. The second term appears to indicate the kind of mobile suit listed, since Barbatos' is 'GUNDAM TYPE'. Outside that, however, they don't accord with the more commonly used terms like Rodi, Graze or Geirail. We've instead got things like:

NORMAL WR-09

NORMAL PR

NORMAL 26 WW

NORMAL GERA

AUTO MUG

AUTO MUG 2

ANTI 809

And so on, with variations of these general formats. As I said, this isn't especially meaningful, though it does give us a code for Barbato's database entry (186.390.20) and, together with Ein's POV, establishes that Ahab signals take the form of bar graphs -- although, here at least, there is little in the graphics to indicate much difference between Crank's single-reactor Graze and the dual-reactor Gundam frame, a distinction described by the dialogue.

While we're on the subject of screens, we may as well take a look at the following two as well, which provide a little bit of additional world-building.

First we have the display from Orcus' ship, showing an overview of the battlefield. Interesting, it indicates Barbatos' frame code in full, suggesting this is broadcast as an IFF signal, which is rather funny given the extended search sequence that follows on Gjallarhorn's side.

We also see the Grazes in play identified using codes such as 'EB101', 'EB102', 'EB103' and so on. Now the Graze frame's model code is 'EB-06', indicating it is the sixth mobile suit Gjallarhorn have developed since the Calamity War (predecessor Geirail is EB-04). We can infer therefore that 'EB' is a standard designator for a Gjallarhorn 'suit, making it likely these are just generic IDs assigned from Orcus' perspective.

More interestingly, this screen picks out one of the structures in the vicinity of the battles as an 'orbital mass driver'. This is presumably the large satellite the shuttle skims past as it tries to evade the first three Grazes to come after Tekkadan.

Together with the mining asteroid, this is gives us a brief indication of industry going on in Mars orbit. What exactly the mass driver is being used to launch and where is never made clear, although we are told that Mars' main export is the 'half metal' used to dampen Ahab reactor emissions, so it's plausible this forms some part in that. It's a pretty nice design at least, using the same spherical core as Gjallarhorn's space stations and the larger space dock, but with an unusual asymmetric rotating boom and a stationary rectangular module on the end.

The second screen shown above is the attitude control program running aboard the Schwalbe Grazes, shown as McGillis commentates about Gaelio's inability to hit Barbatos. I love how this highlights that standard mobile suits are doing a lot of computing in order to enact what their pilots want. This is something that's been made explicit in Gundam shows right from the very start, but it's rarely more than a passing detail. In Iron-Blooded Orphans, by contrast, it's part of the central conceit that the Alaya-Vijnana allows people to operate machinery much more effectively, by making it a direct extension of their bodies. Gaelio can't hit Mikazuki explicitly because his Schwalbe's software struggles to predict Barbatos' more instinctive movements. We see the program cycling through different patterns as it attempts to lock on, and might infer this must go both ways, with the program analysing an enemy and deploying a corresponding attack or defence response.

We've seen before that Barbatos moves far more fluidly than the Grazes; this nicely underlines the point and provides a bit of technobabble to quantify the advantage that will carry Tekkadan so far. Gjallarhorn's mobile suits appear more robotic because they are -- something with interesting implications given we eventually learn that an excessive degree of weaponry automation caused the Calamity War, and that will provide a moment of sharp dissonance when the Graze Ein appears during the season finale, fully emoting with human-like gestures.

Alas, in all this, we never do get any hint this is where Tekkadan acquire the bazooka, if that was indeed the intention all along. To be fair, we don't see what Akihiro is doing after a certain point in the fight, so there's plenty of room to posit a missing scene. But I have to say, from a continuity management perspective, I would personally have had them recover it after the ground battle in the opening two episodes. For one thing, the alternative shoulder armour is painted dark green, in line with the land-based Grazes rather than the detachment from Ares. For another, that initial battle is one Gjallarhorn soundly lose, as opposed to 'merely' failing to stop the Isaribi escaping. Wouldn't it have made slightly more sense for the boys to happen upon an abandoned equipment module once Gjallarhorn's mobile workers had cleared out?

It's a very minor detail; the bazooka isn't even especially plot-relevant (more 'let's sell more toys!' relevant; yes I am writing this while building the Graze Custom kit, why do you ask?). There's a much more obvious continuity problem in 'Beyond the Red Sky' that you might already be aware, where after being visibly winged by one of McGillis' shots, the sub and dub script have Mika say "that would've hit me," as if the bullet had missed (not quite sure if that's confusion caused by the original Japanese in some way?). But this is just a case of the script or versions of the script not keeping pace with the animation, or simply being ambiguous -- and anyway, it can be rescued as part of the point being made by assuming that since Mika hasn't yet adjusted to treating Barbatos' thrusters as an extension of his body, he's treating this hit as a near miss.

The bazooka thing stands out far more in an episode that otherwise effectively sets various things up or builds on already-established details. It's a case of something going unjustified in the text, which is quite unusual for materiel in this show. Usually, we can trace exactly where each of piece of military hardware the boys use has come from, highlighting the persistent through-line about how important logistics are in the fight for survival.

I'm not surprised there were queries about it at the time, and while the answer listed on Gundam Wiki is serviceable enough, it does still rely on finding a convenient void in the action, rather than being textually established.

[Index of other writing]

[timberwind]

The pop-sci takeaway from the Apollo program is always "if we'd only kept building more Saturn Vs we'd be on Mars by now!", which is of course very tempting to believe - it's an iconic rocket, undeniably very cool. Unfortunately the truth is, imo, more along the lines of Saturn V being a historic mistake from the start; the post-Apollo stagnation was assured more or less the moment we agreed on taking the fastest route - a big booster lofting the whole mission at once.

So it's like, launch cost is almost entirely dominated by the fixed cost of infrastructure - this is why Shuttle became such a white elephant by the way, the original hopeful cost figures were predicated on a twenty-to-fifty a year flight rate. We achieved, at best, nine (and then more or less immediately after the Challenger happened, but this is a whole other tangent). Saturn V had two real payloads - the Apollo missions, and Skylab. In the absence of sustained 1969 mission cadence and all the enormous funding commitments that entailed, the huge fixed infrastructure of Saturn V would have rusted on the Cape Canaveral coast most of the year waiting for a single mission, even if they hadn't closed the production lines before the first piloted Apollo mission even launched.

How could this have been different? Plausibly we could have gone with an EOR (Earth Orbit Rendezvous) or even split LOR (Lunar Orbit Rendezvous) plan, much like the original plans proposed by Von Braun at the pre-NASA Army Balistic Missile Agency - flotillas of smaller Saturn 1B (~20t to LEO) or Saturn C3 (~50t to LEO) launches carrying the crew module, the Trans-Lunar-Injection stage, the lunar lander, and propellant for all of the above to staging points in Low Earth Orbit, where they'd be put together like god's own lego set and sent on their way. This, notably, would have allowed two things - one is amortization of the launch infrastructure over more flights, which also allows for learning-curve cost reduction as tooling gets better at handling successive launchers. The other is amortization of the enormous fixed cost of a space launch complex and it's concomitant "standing army" of technicians and their support staff over a great many launches. Notably, unlike the massively oversize Saturn V, those launchers would also have had the ability to cost-effectively launch other payloads during 'off season' - commsats, military birds, weather satellites, space probes, whatever - more cost effectively, driving down the effective cost of a single launch yet further.

This would all be water under the bridge, of course, if it hadn't convinced everyone since that we simply can't do missions to the Moon without a hundred tons of throw weight to LEO - after all, that's what the sole example looked like! One study carried out by the 2000s Augustine Commission (a government advisory group founded in the wake of the Ares Program's failure to produce a big new rocket), found that even then we could have achieved lunar missions with only slightly upgraded versions of the existing EELV (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle) fleet and some orbital aggregation. This was unfortunately discarded in favor of yet another big rocket though. I guess that's just the way things go, but it is unfortunate imo!

[medtech-mara]

A to Z common terms in the Time of the Red. Pt 2.

CHOOH2: Pronounced "Choo-Two". Streetslang for alcohol, as used in vehicle power plants. The vast majority of vehicles in the Time of the Red are fueled by an advanced form of alcohol with a higher burning temperature than normal methanol. Chromer: A 21st-century heavy metal rock fan. See also Chromatic Rock. Chromatic Rock: A type of heavy metal characterized by heavy electronics, simple rhythms, and violent lyrics. Conapt: A condominium apartment in a Corporate Zone. Cybered-Up: To get as much cyberware implanted as possible before going over the Edge. Data Term: A street corner information machine, with a screen, CitiNet inputs, and keyboard. 'Dorphs: Streetslang for synthetic endorphins, a designer drug that increases healing powers, limits fatigue, and produces a "rush" like a second wind. Exotic: A human biosculpted with non-human elements; fur, long ears, fangs, etc. The Face: The representative of a Megacorporation for legal purposes. Flatline: To kill. A dead person or thing. Go LEO: To make the trip into Low Earth Orbit, i.e., to visit one of the inner space stations.

pt. 1 >here<

[n2qfd]

Welcome to program 377 of Shortwave Radiogram.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Arlington, Virginia USA.

Here is the lineup for today's program, in MFSK modes as noted:

1:43 MFSK32: Program preview (now)

2:52 MFSK32: Slim Dubai skyscraper just one apartment wide*

7:55 MFSK64: Laser communications for historic moon flyby

13:10 MFSK64: This week's images*

28:39 MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)

Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

We're on X/Twitter now: @SWRadiogra

From New Atlas:

Incredibly slim Dubai skyscraper will be just one apartment wide

By Adam Williams

November 01, 2024

Work is currently underway on an extremely slim new skyscraper in

Dubai. Despite its supertall height of 380 m (1,246 ft), the

tower will be just one apartment wide – or 22.5 m (73 ft).

Not to be confused with the New Muraaba, the Muraba Veil is

designed by Pritzker Prize-winning RCR Arquitectes. It also

involves engineering firms WSP and Arup, with Muraba developing.

Inspired by traditional Arabian housing, it will be located on a

prime spot in Dubai and wrapped in a porous stainless steel

Mashrabiya-style mesh, or "veil," intended to take the sting out

of the harsh Dubai sun. Its interior will consist of 73 floors

and from the renders we can see it will be a lot longer than

wide, allowing it to fit 131 luxury residences.

The apartments themselves will range from two to five bedrooms,

with prices starting from AED18,000,000 (US$4.9 million). Each

spans the full width of the tower, providing unobstructed views

of the Dubai skyline and indoor-outdoor living. As you'd expect,

for that sort of money there will be lots of amenities, including

a restaurant, art gallery, cinema, an amphitheater, and even a

subterranean spa.

"Muraba Veil is our response to the unique landscape and culture

of Dubai," says Rafael Aranda, Founder at RCR Arquitectes. "Our

goal was to design a building that feels connected to its

surroundings while pushing the boundaries of what a skyscraper

can be. The Veil stands as an emblem of a new architectural

approach – one that reflects both heritage and modernity."

The Muraba Veil is the latest of several ultra-slender

skyscrapers that are either already completed or at the planning

stage, including 11 West 57th Street, and the Pencil Tower Hotel.

We've no word on the expected date of completion for the Veil at

this time.

https://newatlas.com/architecture/muraba-veil-dubai/

Image: The Muraba Veil is an incredibly thin supertall skyscraper

in Dubai that will have a width of just 22.5 m (73 ft) ...

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Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...

Before RSID: <<2024-11-09T23:08Z MFSK-32 @ 7780000+1500>>

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net

From Phys.org:

Communications user terminal prepares for historic moon flyby

By Ariana Tantillo

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

November 4, 2024

In 1969, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the

moon's surface—a momentous engineering and science feat marked by

his iconic words, "That's one small step for a man, one giant

leap for mankind." Three years later, Apollo 17 became NASA's

final Apollo mission to land humans on the brightest and largest

object in our night sky. Since then, no humans have visited the

moon or traveled past low Earth orbit (LEO), largely because of

shifting politics, funding, and priorities.

But that is about to change. Through NASA's Artemis II mission,

scheduled to launch no earlier than September 2025, four

astronauts will be the first humans to travel to the moon in more

than 50 years. In 2022, the uncrewed Artemis I mission proved the

ability of NASA's new spacecraft Orion—launched on the new

heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System—to travel farther into

space than ever before and return safely to Earth.

Building on that success, the 10-day Artemis II mission will pave

the way for Artemis III, which aims to land astronauts on the

lunar surface, with the goal of establishing a future lasting

human presence on the moon and preparing for human missions to

Mars.

One big step for lasercom

Artemis II will be historic not only for renewing human

exploration beyond Earth, but also for being the first crewed

lunar flight to demonstrate laser communication (lasercom)

technologies, which are poised to revolutionize how spacecraft

communicate. Researchers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory have been

developing such technologies for more than two decades, and NASA

has been infusing them into its missions to meet the growing

demands of long-distance and data-intensive space exploration.

As spacecraft push farther into deep space and advanced science

instruments collect ultrahigh-definition (HD) data like 4K video

and images, missions need better ways to transmit data back to

Earth. Communication systems that encode data onto infrared laser

light instead of radio waves can send more information at once

and be packaged more compactly while operating with less power.

Greater volumes of data fuel additional discoveries, and size and

power efficiency translate to increased space for science

instruments or crew, less expensive launches, and longer-lasting

spacecraft batteries.

For Artemis II, the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications

System (O2O) will send high-resolution video and images of the

lunar surface down to Earth—a stark contrast to the blurry,

grainy footage from the Apollo program. In addition, O2O will

send and receive procedures, data files, flight plans, voice

calls, and other communications, serving as a high-speed data

pipeline between the astronauts on Orion and mission control on

Earth.

O2O will beam information via lasers at up to 260 megabits per

second (Mbps) to ground optical stations in one of two NASA

locations: the White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New

Mexico, or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Table Mountain

Facility in Wrightwood, California. Both locations are ideal for

their minimal cloud coverage, which can obstruct laser signals as

they enter Earth's atmosphere.

At the heart of O2O is the Lincoln Laboratory–developed Modular,

Agile, Scalable Optical Terminal (MAScOT). About the size of a

house cat, MAScOT features a 4-inch telescope mounted on a

two-axis pivoted support (gimbal), and fixed back-end optics.

The gimbal precisely points the telescope and tracks the laser

beam through which communications signals are emitted and

received, in the direction of the desired data recipient or

sender. Underneath the gimbal, in a separate assembly, are the

back-end optics, which contain light-focusing lenses, tracking

sensors, fast-steering mirrors, and other components to finely

point the laser beam.

A series of firsts

MAScOT made its debut in space as part of the laboratory's

Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) LEO

User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T), which launched to

the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2023.

After a few weeks of preliminary testing, ILLUMA-T transmitted

its first beam of laser light to NASA's LCRD satellite in

geosynchronous (GEO) orbit 22,000 miles above Earth's surface.

Achieving this critical step, known as "first light," required

precise pointing, acquisition, and tracking of laser beams

between moving spacecraft.

Over the following six months, the laboratory team performed

experiments to test and characterize the system's basic

functionality, performance, and utility for human crews and user

applications. Initially, the team checked whether the

ILLUMA-T-to-LCRD optical link was operating at the intended data

rates in both directions: 622 Mbps down and 51 Mbps up. In fact,

even higher data rates were achieved: 1.2 gigabits per second

down and 155 Mbps up.

"This first demonstration of a two-way, end-to-end laser

communications relay system, in which ILLUMA-T was the first LEO

user of LCRD, is a major milestone for NASA and other space

organizations," says Bryan Robinson, leader of the laboratory's

Optical and Quantum Communications Group. "It serves as a

precursor to optical relays at the moon and Mars."

After the relay was up and running, the team assessed how

parameters such as laser transmit power, optical wavelength, and

relative sun angles impact terminal performance. Lastly, they

contributed to several networking experiments over multiple nodes

to and from the ISS, using NASA's delay/disruption tolerant

networking protocols.

One landmark experiment streamed 4K video on a round-trip journey

from an airplane flying over Lake Erie in Ohio, to the NASA Glenn

Research Center in nearby Cleveland, to the NASA White Sands Test

Facility in New Mexico, to LCRD in GEO, to ILLUMA-T on the ISS,

and then back. In June 2024, ILLUMA-T communicated with LCRD for

the last time and powered off

"Our success with ILLUMA-T lays the foundation for streaming HD

video to and from the moon," says co-principal investigator Jade

Wang, an assistant leader of the Optical and Quantum

Communications Group. "You can imagine the Artemis astronauts

using videoconferencing to connect with physicians, coordinate

mission activities, and livestream their lunar trips.

https://phys.org/news/2024-11-communications-user-terminal-historic-moon.html

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net

This week's images ...

Flowers in the indoor conservancy at the Minnesota Landscape

Arboretum. https://tinyurl.com/23u95lzm ...

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Looking like a face, this image combines mid-infrared light from

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, and ultraviolet and visible

light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The smaller spiral on

the left, IC 2163, passed behind NGC 2207, the larger spiral

galaxy at right. https://tinyurl.com/22xnqr33 ...

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pic_2024-11-09_231653z.png

Migratory birds fly in the Hongze Lake Wetland National Nature

Reserve in Suqian, Jiangsu province, China, October 30.

https://tinyurl.com/22gwwyh8 ...

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Scottish photographer David Gilliver uses a light sabre and long

exposure to create effects like this "Ribbon Dance."

https://tinyurl.com/27tgh3r9

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The Stone Bridge over Bull Run, west of Washington DC, at sunrise

November 3. https://tinyurl.com/27l5tzl7 ...

pic_2024-11-09_232142z.png

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Guelder Rose berries at the Lewes Urban Arboretum in Lewes,

England. https://tinyurl.com/27oonzcx ...

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Red autumn leaves at the Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire,

England. https://tinyurl.com/2dbm366f ...

pic_2024-11-09_232448z.png

A large tree in Gaithersburg, Maryland, showing its colors.

https://tinyurl.com/29yzqom8 ..

Our painting of the week is "Murnau [Germany], Street With Women"

(1908) by Wassily Kandinsky. https://tinyurl.com/2y2mj6bf ...

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[kaijuno]

My first thought when I heard about this (celestis.com; sending ashes into orbit) was Kessler syndrome and then obviously that song by the Weather Girls—wondering what you thought

So what Celestis does, is when you send up your ashes (in a LEO rocket with approximately 100+ other people’s ashes) it falls back down to earth because they don’t use Proper Space Rockets to send em up, but rather a Low Earth Orbit rocket that will fall back down to earth within minutes/hours. You might even get to see the rocket as it reenters the atmosphere, it’ll look like a shooting star. Except it’s your grandpa instead.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Crew-8 Astronauts Return to Earth

After seven months of living and working onboard the International Space Station (ISSInternational Space Station), astronauts of NASA’s eighth rotational SpaceX crew mission (Crew-8) splashed down safely off the coast of Florida. The mission, which is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, included NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. During their mission on station, the three NASA astronauts supported dozens of research investigations sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory®.

These investigations spanned many areas, including in-space production applications(Abbreviation: InSPA) InSPA is an applied research and development program sponsored by NASA and the ISS National Lab aimed at demonstrating space-based manufacturing and production activities by using the unique space environment to develop, test, or mature products and processes that could have an economic impact., life and physical sciences, and technology development, all aimed at bringing value to humanity and enabling a robust market in low Earth orbit(Abbreviation: LEO) The orbit around the Earth that extends up to an altitude of 2,000 km (1,200 miles) from Earth’s surface. The International Space Station’s orbit is in LEO, at an altitude of approximately 250 miles. (LEO).

Below highlights a few of the ISS National Lab-sponsored projects the Crew-8 NASA astronauts worked on during their mission.

Several investigations focused on in-space production applications, an increasingly important area of emphasis for the ISS National Lab and NASA.

A project from Cedars Sinai Medical Center aims to establish methods to support the in-space manufacturing of stem cells, which can be matured into a wide variety of tissues. These methods will be used for future large-scale in-space biomanufacturing of stem cell-derived products, which could lead to new treatments for heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and many other conditions.

Redwire Corporation partnered with Eli Lilly and Company and Butler University on a series of investigations leveraging Redwire’s Pharmaceutical In-space Laboratory (PIL-BOX), a platform to crystallize organic molecules in microgravityThe condition of perceived weightlessness created when an object is in free fall, for example when an object is in orbital motion. Microgravity alters many observable phenomena within the physical and life sciences, allowing scientists to study things in ways not possible on Earth. The International Space Station provides access to a persistent microgravity environment.. Results from this research could lead to improved therapeutics to treat an array of conditions. These projects continue Eli Lilly’s space journey, as the company has launched multiple investigations to the orbiting laboratory over the years for the benefit of patient care on Earth.

The astronauts supported the third experiment in a series of projects from the University of Notre Dame to improve ultra-sensitive biosensors. The biosensors can detect trace substances in liquids, including early cancer biomarkers. By using laser heating to control bubble formation in microgravity, the team improved particle collection—a key step in boosting sensor sensitivity. This research, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, could transform early and asymptomatic cancer detection and other medical diagnostics.

The crew conducted phase two of a technology development project from Sphere Entertainment to test Big Sky—the company’s new ultra-high-resolution, single-sensor camera—on the space station. In the first phase of the project, which launched in November 2022, astronauts tested a commercial off-the-shelf camera on the ISS to collect baseline information. During the second phase, the astronauts tested Big Sky to validate the camera’s function, operations, and video downlink capabilities in microgravity. Big Sky is being developed by Sphere Entertainment to capture content for Sphere, the next-generation entertainment medium in Las Vegas.

In the final days before their departure from the space station, the Crew-8 astronauts supported projects that recently launched on NASA’s ninth rotational crew mission (Crew-9).

One is a student-led project from Isabel Jiang, a recent high school graduate from Hillsborough, CA, who is now in her first year at Yale. Jiang is the winner of the 2023 Genes in Space student research competition, founded by Boeing and miniPCR bio and supported by the ISS National Lab and New England Biolabs. Jiang’s experiment investigates the effect of radiation and the space environment on mechanisms for gene editing. Results could help develop methods to better protect astronauts and shed light on genetic risks for certain diseases during spaceflight.

Another is an investigation from the U.S. Air Force Academy and Rhodium Scientific to compare the root growth of Arabidopsis plants, a member of the mustard family, at two different orbital altitudes. Plants grown on the space station in LEO for four to six days will be compared with similar plants grown on the recent Polaris Dawn mission, which flew in the same type of vehicle at a higher orbit for approximately the same amount of time. Results could provide insights into the production of crops for long-duration space missions and in high-radiation environments.

IMAGE: SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts (top to bottom) NASA's Jeanette Epps, Mike Barratt & Matthew Dominick, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin onboard the ISS. Credit NASA

[adomainname]

Satellites: Their Orbits, Tracking Systems, and Essential Uses

Satellites: Their Positions, Tracking, and Importance

Satellites have become an essential part of modern life, orbiting Earth and providing us with services ranging from communication and navigation to weather forecasting and space exploration. As of 2024, thousands of active satellites are circling our planet, each performing a specific role to enhance the quality of life on Earth. This article delves into the positioning of satellites, how they are tracked, what they track, and the significance of their roles.

Types of Satellite Orbits and Their Positions

Satellites are positioned in various orbits depending on their intended functions. These orbits determine how close the satellite is to Earth, how fast it moves, and what areas it covers.

Low Earth Orbit (LEO): Altitude: 180 km to 2,000 km Satellites in LEO include most Earth observation satellites, the International Space Station (ISS), and some communication satellites. These satellites are closer to the Earth, enabling them to capture high-resolution images. Functions: Used for imaging, remote sensing, and some communication purposes. Examples: ISS, Earth observation satellites like Landsat.

Medium Earth Orbit (MEO): Altitude: 2,000 km to 35,786 km Satellites in MEO are mainly used for navigation. This orbit offers a good balance between coverage and latency. Functions: GPS satellites and other global navigation systems. Examples: GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo satellites.

Geostationary Orbit (GEO): Altitude: 35,786 km above the equator Satellites in GEO move at the same rotational speed as Earth, meaning they stay fixed over one location on Earth. These are mostly communication and weather satellites. Functions: Used for television broadcasts, weather monitoring, and some types of communication. Examples: Weather satellites (GOES series), telecommunication satellites.

Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO): Orbit shape: An elongated orbit with one point closer to Earth (perigee) and another point much farther away (apogee). Functions: Ideal for regions at high latitudes, providing prolonged coverage over areas like Russia and parts of Canada. Examples: Molniya satellites for communication in Russia.

How Satellites Are Tracked

The sheer number of satellites in space, combined with space debris, means tracking them is essential to avoid collisions and ensure their functionality. Ground stations and dedicated space agencies continuously monitor satellites. Several methods are used to track satellites:

Radar and Ground-Based Systems: Ground stations use radar to track satellites in LEO. These systems bounce radio waves off the satellite and measure the time it takes for the signal to return. By doing this repeatedly, they can track a satellite's location and speed.

Global Positioning System (GPS): Satellites in higher orbits like MEO or GEO are tracked using onboard GPS receivers. GPS helps calculate the satellite’s position and relay that data back to Earth.

Optical Tracking: Telescopes and cameras are used to visually observe satellites in higher orbits. This method is particularly useful for tracking objects that do not emit radio signals or need to be monitored for their physical characteristics.

Space Surveillance Networks: Agencies such as the U.S. Space Surveillance Network (SSN) and similar organizations in other countries continuously monitor satellites and space debris. They catalog objects and issue alerts for potential collisions.

What Satellites Track

Satellites are equipped with various sensors, cameras, and instruments to track a wide array of data on Earth, in space, and beyond:

Weather and Climate Data: Satellites such as NOAA’s GOES series monitor weather patterns, hurricanes, and long-term climate changes. They provide crucial data for meteorological services.

Earth Observation: Satellites like Landsat capture high-resolution images of Earth's surface. These images are used for mapping, agricultural planning, disaster response, and environmental monitoring.

Navigation Signals: GPS and other GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) satellites send signals that are used for navigation by smartphones, vehicles, ships, and airplanes worldwide.

Communication: Satellites facilitate global communication by relaying TV, radio, and internet signals across vast distances.

Space Exploration: Space telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope track distant galaxies, nebulae, and black holes, helping scientists study the universe.

Military Surveillance: Many satellites are designed for defense purposes, tracking missile launches, military movements, or spying on potential threats.

Number of Satellites in Space

As of 2024, there are approximately 8,000 operational satellites orbiting Earth. The exact number fluctuates as new satellites are launched and old ones are decommissioned. Additionally, space agencies and private companies like SpaceX continue to launch large satellite constellations, such as Starlink, which alone has over 5,000 satellites in orbit for global internet coverage.

The Usefulness of Satellites

Satellites have become indispensable in modern life, serving a wide variety of purposes that impact everyday activities and critical global functions:

Key Functions of Satellites:

Communication: Satellites enable long-distance communication by transmitting data, television, and internet services. Without them, global broadcasting and real-time communication in remote areas would be impossible.

Navigation: Systems like GPS help millions of people navigate in real-time. They are also vital for the functioning of aviation, maritime travel, and even agricultural practices.

Earth Observation: Satellites provide high-resolution imagery of Earth, helping with disaster management, urban planning, agriculture, and environmental monitoring. For instance, they can track deforestation or observe glaciers' melting rates.

Weather Forecasting: Weather satellites provide the data needed for accurate predictions, storm tracking, and climate monitoring. This information is critical for preparing for natural disasters like hurricanes or floods.

Scientific Research and Exploration: Space telescopes and interplanetary satellites gather data on space phenomena, expanding our understanding of the universe. Satellites also conduct scientific experiments in the microgravity of space.

Defense and Security: Satellites are used for military surveillance, early-warning systems, and missile detection, playing a crucial role in national security.

Satellite Highlights in Brief:

Types of orbits: LEO, MEO, GEO, HEO, each serving different purposes.

Tracking methods: Radar, GPS, optical tracking, and space surveillance networks.

Data tracked by satellites: Weather, Earth observation, navigation signals, space exploration, and military surveillance.

Number of active satellites: Approximately 8,000.

Key roles: Communication, navigation, weather forecasting, Earth observation, scientific research, and defense.

In conclusion, satellites are essential tools for global communication, navigation, monitoring Earth's environment, and scientific discovery. As technology advances and the number of satellites continues to grow, their impact on our daily lives will only increase. Whether improving how we predict the weather, navigate through traffic, or explore the universe, satellites will continue to be a critical resource for humanity.

Go To How Satellites Work and What They Track

[spacenutspod]

With ‘Thousand Sails,’ China joins the race to fill up Low Earth Orbit with mega-satellite constellations. It’s getting crowded up there in Low Earth orbit (LEO). By now, flocks of Starlinks have become a familiar sight, and the bane of astrophotographers as the ‘vermin of the skies.’ Now, several new competitors have joined the fray, with more waiting in the wings. Perhaps, you’ve seen one of these curious-looking ‘satellite trains,’ and wondered what they were. Certainly, the advent of satellite trains courtesy of Starlink have added to the annals of purported UFO videos shot via smartphone across YouTube. Now, more agencies worldwide are getting into the game in 2024, assuring that the next ‘star’ you wish on at dusk may, in fact, be an artificial satellite. Approaching An Artificial Sky Streaks and trails due to the increasing number of Starlinks in orbit have also become a standard feature in modern deep sky images. While techniques to remove these have been pioneered by astrophotographers, these will continue to impact deep sky astronomy. This impact extends to sky surveys soon set to come online such as the Vera Rubin Observatory, set to see first light early next year in 2025. The first batch of Thousand Sails satellites in orbit, shortly after launch. Credit: Nick James. SpaceX has implemented mitigation plans in response, including use of sun visors on first generation satellites, diffuse ‘dielectric mirror’ material on newer Version 2 (V2) platforms, and angling solar arrays. These have seen some success. Certainly, spotters have noted that the new Version 2’s have a bluer tint, and seem to shine at magnitude +7 once they’re boosted into their respective orbital slots. This is near the +7 magnitude threshold called for by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Radio noise from these new communications satellite constellations is also an issue that astronomers now have to contend with. LOFAR (The Netherlands Institute for Astronomy’s Low Frequency Array) notes that “new observations with the LOFAR radio telescope…have shown that the second generation ‘V2-mini’ Starlink satellites emit up to 32 brighter unintended radio waves than satellites from the previous generation.” Enter China’s ‘Thousand Sails’ Initiative China also recently joined the competition in LEO, with the launch of a Long March-6 rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center with 18 satellites for Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST). This is part of the company’s ‘Thousand Sails’ initiative. The first batch of Thousand Sails satellites head to orbit. Credit: CNSA. Dubbed China’s answer to Starlink, This will see an initial 1,296 satellites for the constellation placed in orbit by 2027. The company also has plans to expand the network to 12,000 satellites into the 2030s. This first batch went into a polar (sun-synchronous) orbit, and the resulting satellite train was spotted in orbit shortly after launch. The Long March 6A booster fuel dump from the first Thousand Sails deployment, shortly after launch. Credit: Dan Bush/Missouri Skies. And there’s more in store. China also launched a Long March 6 rocket on September 5th, with 10 new satellites for Geely Group Automotive. These are part of the company’s effort to build a communication network for autonomous vehicles. An artist’s impression of Geely Group satellites in orbit. Credit: Geely Group. As a follow-on this month, China also launched a Long March-6 rocket on October 15th with another batch of 18 satellites headed into a polar orbit. This group is also part of the Thousand Sails constellation. Satellite spotters have already tracked these in orbit, with an estimated brightness of up the +4th magnitude when near the zenith on a visible pass. Keep in mind, China isn’t beholden to any obligations to mitigate the impact that satellite constellations might have on the night sky…nor do any formal international standards exist. More Mega Satellite Constellations to Come Not to be outdone, SpaceX is putting up more than just Starlink. Last month, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on September 12th, with the first five Bluebird satellites. These are ASTMobile’s follow-on to the BlueWalker-3 test satellite, still in orbit. With a phased-array antenna 10-meters across when deployed, BlueWalker-3 reaches magnitude 0. The company plans to put 110 of these potentially brilliant Bluebirds in orbit over the next few years. A Bluewalker antenna unfolded on Earth. Credit: ASTMobile. OneWeb is also still putting satellites in orbit. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine War has forced the company to forego Soyuz launches. Instead, OneWeb now relies on competitor SpaceX to get into orbit. The OneWeb satellite constellation currently hosts 660 satellites in orbit, right around the initial target number set by the company Eutelsat-OneWeb for nominal operation. The company began offering services through residential providers last year, including Hughesnet, Viasat and ironically, Starlink. Starlink’s current status is 7,125 satellites in orbit, with 23 more planned tonight with the launch of Starlink Group 6-61 from the Cape. 12,000 satellites in orbit are planned for in the coming years, and the constellation could extend to a total of 34,400 satellites in future years. Not to be outdone, the Unites States’ Department of Defense is putting its own dedicated satellite constellation in space. Dubbed Starshield, the network already has 73 satellites in orbit, and a total of more than a 100 are planned. As expected, the DoD is already shaping up to be Starlink’s (and SpaceX’s) biggest customer. Hunting Satellite Trains Other bright reflectors are making themselves seen in the night sky as well. ACS-3 (the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System) was launched this past April on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket. The mission successfully unfurled this summer on August 29th. ACS-3 is the latest in a batch of satellites to attempt to test solar sail technologies in orbit. Mission planners could use this tech on future missions for maneuvering, propulsion or reentry disposal. Previous missions, including NanoSail-D2 and Planetary Society’s Light Sail have struggled with this tech, demonstrating just how difficult it’s turning out to be. ACS-3 is definitely tumbling: we’ve seen it flare up to 0 magnitude (as bright as Vega) on a good pass. This seems to be very angle dependent. You can track these missions and more on Heavens-Above. The leaders for the first two batches of respective Thousand Sail groups are 2024-140A and 2024-145A. Plus, Heavens-Above tracks Starlink batches (which are once again going up at a furious rate) on a dedicated page. We saw the most recently launched Starlink Group Batch 8-19 this past weekend… and that was from under the bright lights of downtown Bristol, Tennessee. The Promise and Peril of Mega-Sat Constellations To be sure, we’re a huge consumer of roaming WiFi. If we can continue our career and online exploits from a remote basecamp, then that’s a good thing… but there also needs to be oversight when it comes to what we’re collectively doing to our night sky as a resource. Are we headed towards a future where artificial stars in the night sky outnumber real ones? Perhaps, the best thing that amateur satellite trackers can do now, is to chronicle what’s happening, as the Anthropocene era leaves its mark on a brave new night sky. The post China’s ‘Thousand Sails’ Joins Starlink as the Latest Mega-Satellite Constellation in Orbit appeared first on Universe Today.

[clonerightsagenda]

Ok last 'the gang is working at Goddard now' post from discord before I call it a night, assuming tumblr will let me post this one

Kat only loosely related, but although the Hephaestus doesn't have a CAPCOM (too far away) I wonder if closer low Earth orbit Goddard installations have one and if they, like NASA CAPCOMs, are all former astronauts. Probably not, I would think, since if you've got 1 person filtering all communication you'd probably want it to be one of Cutter's more… informed people. now imagining Jordan doing a CAPCOM stint since she's comms Jordan: What, you say the hull isn't damaged but you were hit by something. Was it round? Perhaps…. melon-shaped? Klein who's up doing a satellite launch from a station or whatever: I'll kill you Gill Klein’s just never gonna live that down huh Kat unfortunately he literally didn't Gill Rip Kate : ) but also :’ ( Also remind me what CAPCOM means because I’m like “the video game company?” Gill Concept: the Hephaestus crew doing a shift or two on CAPCOM to unwind after a long day of dismantling Goddard Futuristics from the inside out Kat capsule communicator basically they're the single line of communication between astronauts and the ground, to streamline stuff and they're usually astronauts because they know what the crew is doing more personally "In the context of potential crewed missions to Mars, NASA Ames Research Center has conducted field trials of advanced computer-support for astronaut and remote science teams, to test the possibilities for automating CAPCOM." hm. Maybe Goddard has AI capcoms Gill The Sensus series’ predecessor line, perhaps Kat Some poor asshole on a low orbit station: We've got an ammonia leak Automated CAPCOM: Please choose from the following options. Press 1 for a personnel issue. Press 2 for a maintenance issue Astronaut: We're dying Kate Pfff Kat someone: we've got some crew hostility in one of the low orbit stations Minkowski: Put Eiffel on CAPCOM for a few days. Either they'll calm down or they'll unite in being annoyed by him instead. Win win Kate Their secret weapon Gill Minkowski likes doing CAPCOM to unwind but Lovelace finds it stressful bc she’s way worse about being a backseat driver Kat Minkowski: Finally normal simple problems to solve. It is usually a pretty simple, boring job. Until something goes wrong Gill meanwhile, Lovelace: What do you MEAN you've never had to duct-tape a water reclamation system back together?? Kat Haha yeah. Former astronaut capcoms have creative solutions LEO crew who can get new supplies shipped up basically whenever: We could just… trash this broken part and order a replacement Lovelace: Why when you can mcgyver this solution with only moderate risk to life and limb Gill the Hephaestus Mission and the crew themselves gain such a reputation that when the rumors start circulating that Minkowski got her current job by killing Marcus Cutter ("and did you ever meet Marcus Cutter?") half the company is lowkey terrified of her Kate “Ohhh look at YOU with your cushy life, you can just order a NEW part. Back in MY day my boss came up there personally with a gun and shot at us” Kat Haha It’s a very different life being right next to earth easy mode Gill LEO crewmember whispering to another one while their commander is on the phone: God, I hope we don't have to go through a teambuilding exercise run by Isabel Lovelace… Kat Although I suppose it makes it even easier for cutter to send goons up to harass you Kate True… “Hey, can we have a new part?” “No, but you can have Victor Riemann! Have fun!”

Gill Alternatively: "Uh… we think we need a new part… ma'am." Minkowski: …okay? Let me get the word out to the supply team. "You're… not gonna send Warren Kepler and his minions with them like Mr. Cutter used to, are you?" Minkowski: What? No. Most of them didn't even come back from Wolf 359. "/sighs and other noises of audible relief, oh thank god!" Kat now imagining SI5 showing up for no goddamn reason on a resupply shuttle and the mission commander being like "i didn't order you" and closing the hatch crewmember: don't those burn up on re-entry commander: not my problem Gill Telling command you need help? Admitting human weakness? That's a Kepler-ing. Kat Yeah well does it admit human weakness to have to be let onto the station before you burn up with all the dirty laundry and other garbage when the capsule gets sent back thru the atmosphere Eiffel hearing about life on LEO stations: I can't believe this. They got new underwear sent up to them though it's a dangerous game… .Terry Virts had two consecutive underwear shipments explode thanks space x Cutter: The Andromeda station's psych evals are too far in the green. Blow up their next three laundry shipments.