The Astronomy Thread

Ukerric

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How bright is a cool brown dwarf? Could there be enough light emitted to reflect enough of the light to have an "all day of light" type of effect?
Not very much in visible light. Because they're cool (no H2 fusion), they're mostly bright in infrared.

(which is why all those artist concepts of TRAPPIST-1 are absolutely junk)
 
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meStevo

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Your thoughts? Reuse launch, Falcon Heavy launch reschedule, crewed launch this autumn, or they are building an antigravity Dragon 3 spaceship?

Sending 2 space tourists out beyond the moon and back in 2018.

SpaceX plans to send crewed mission beyond moon in 2018

This will be the first time in 45 years humans will return to deep space, said the company in a news release, and will go "faster and further" than any humans before them.

SpaceX expects the mission to take place some time in late 2018, after it sends a crewed NASA Dragon craft to the International Space Station.

"We have been approached by private individuals," said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, on a call with reporters on Monday. "This is a private mission with paying customers, who have placed significant deposits," Musk said, but added that they have so far not authorized the company to reveal their names.​
 
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Aaron

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Hot diggedy! Looks like we'll be seeing some seriously awesome shit in the near future! :D
 
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Ukerric

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Rough guestimates flying in KSP's IRC yesterday was that it will probably be below 150M $ per seat. Considering that the ISS/Mir holiday was around 80M$, it'll be a bargain.

(the two tourists will have more room than the old Apollo, since Dragon 2 is for 7 crew members, and they'll be only 2 of them)
 
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Burnem Wizfyre

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Musk should take the ride, nothing beats a free ride. If I owned the company I'd go, though probably on the second or third trip.
 
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Tripamang

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Musk should take the ride, nothing beats a free ride. If I owned the company I'd go, though probably on the second or third trip.

If he dies it's all over, and all his companies are sunk. I don't think you'll see him launch off to anywhere until this is all self sustaining and doesn't all hinge on him personally. Depending the gains they make it's probably a decade or more out.
 
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Burnem Wizfyre

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If he dies it's all over, and all his companies are sunk. I don't think you'll see him launch off to anywhere until this is all self sustaining and doesn't all hinge on him personally. Depending the gains they make it's probably a decade or more out.

I get what your saying, still if I were him I'd not be able to resist.
 
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Tuco

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SpaceX orbiting the moon with a human is pretty cool, but I'm personally more interested to see how cheaply they can get a person to and from the ISS.
 
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Cybsled

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To be sure, although that is only an intermediary goal. Eventually the ISS will be retired and I think the appetite will be for something lunar as opposed to LEO.
 
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Oldbased

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SpaceX orbiting the moon with a human is pretty cool, but I'm personally more interested to see how cheaply they can get a person to and from the ISS.
Does SpaceX have any documentation on cost savings for landing and reusing booster?
I know that uses more fuel, resources and I assume total rebuild of engine/parts of booster.
I agree it is better than letting them sit in the ocean though.

Growing up I was most fascinated by rockets by the very fact it has all that precision, technology and is only used once and basically planned to sink into the bottom of the ocean after 1 use.
I also used to question why the space shuttle was designed to jettison its boosters instead of carrying them into space and after dumping its cargo have the booster split in half and go back into the bay for reentry.
 
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Cybsled

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The Space Shuttle was Nixon's refusal to back Van Braun's humans-to-Mars program. Space pickup truck lol
 
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