The Astronomy Thread

LachiusTZ · Jan 29, 2016

I genuinely admire that man.

Dandain · Feb 3, 2016

This was a very good read. Quite relevant for all the talk in the thread and well written for even us casuals. The url has a hilarious typo of Tyranny to Tryanny.html though.

Its very well written about the Rocket Equation - If Earth was about 50% bigger - we couldn't get off the planet using a chemical rocket with our best known propellant. I can't possibly do this article justice by just copy pasting a small bit. I don't think anyone who frequents this thread would regret this read.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/st...0/tryanny.html

Khalan · Feb 3, 2016

That was super interesting and kind of puts into perspective how fucking hard space is.

WHITE PENIS_sl · Feb 3, 2016

nuclear rocket engines ftw

opiate82 · Feb 3, 2016

These Strange Structures Could Hint At Life On Mars | IFLScience

In 2008, NASA's Spirit rover captured an image showing lumpy "cauliflower" mineral deposits inside of Mars' Gusev crater. Smithsonian has reported that scientists are now thinking these innocuous-looking lumps and bumps could be the remnants of life on Mars.

Planetary geologist Steven Ruff and geobiologist Jack Farmer, both of Arizona State University in Tempe, found a distinct similarity between these Martian "micro-digitate silica protrusions" and structures found in the harsh badlands of El Tatio in the Atacama Desert of Chile. They presented their speculation a couple of months ago in a paper released at the American Geophysical Union.

Tuco · Feb 4, 2016

Dandain_sl said:
This was a very good read. Quite relevant for all the talk in the thread and well written for even us casuals. The url has a hilarious typo of Tyranny to Tryanny.html though.

Its very well written about the Rocket Equation - If Earth was about 50% bigger - we couldn't get off the planet using a chemical rocket with our best known propellant. I can't possibly do this article justice by just copy pasting a small bit. I don't think anyone who frequents this thread would regret this read.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/st...0/tryanny.html

good read. Why don't we have nuclear rockets?

Dandain · Feb 4, 2016

Tuco_sl said:
good read. Why don't we have nuclear rockets?

Most of it is in regards to what happens in the chance of a failure I think, but I didn't google this, and literally shot from the hip. Rockets aren't really all that safe - from a safety perspective like an automobile or even a commercial airliner. EDIT: Until we can land them, it might be orders of magnitude more expensive/difficult to build a nuclear reactor than even the difficulties of the pressure vessels required for modern chemical rockets.

khorum · Feb 4, 2016

Tuco_sl said:
good read. Why don't we have nuclear rockets?

There's a KSP mod for that! It uses the original NASA/JPL Project Orion spec that Freeman Dyson worked on. It's apparently got a clique of nuclear-pulse fanbois who've been working on it since.

Haven't tried the latest version, but you should be able to boost an entire Duna mission stack on one nuclear pulse rocket:

Brad2770 · Feb 6, 2016

Khalan · Feb 6, 2016

Yeah, super psyched to get that thing up in space. Gonna be amazing the type of photos that come out of it.

Palum · Feb 6, 2016

Hopefully they double check the lens this time BEFORE they put it in space.

LachiusTZ · Feb 6, 2016

Then there would be no drama... And that's no fun

Big Phoenix · Feb 6, 2016

khorum_sl said:
There's a KSP mod for that! It uses the original NASA/JPL Project Orion spec that Freeman Dyson worked on. It's apparently got a clique of nuclear-pulse fanbois who've been working on it since.

Haven't tried the latest version, but you should be able to boost an entire Duna mission stack on one nuclear pulse rocket:

Thats actually nuclear pulse propulsion. Nuclear rockets are pretty much nuclear reactors that use hydrogen instead of water for cooling.

Most of it is in regards to what happens in the chance of a failure I think, but I didn't google this, and literally shot from the hip. Rockets aren't really all that safe - from a safety perspective like an automobile or even a commercial airliner. EDIT: Until we can land them, it might be orders of magnitude more expensive/difficult to build a nuclear reactor than even the difficulties of the pressure vessels required for modern chemical rockets.

Nah. We had fully functioning ready to go into orbit and be used nuclear rockets in the 70s;

NERVA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So god damn retarded we scrapped it.

LachiusTZ · Feb 6, 2016

Yeah, we should have been on mars 40 years ago?... But politicians going to politic.

Wikipedia_sl said:
The Mars mission became NERVA's downfall.[2] Members of Congress in both political parties judged that a manned mission to Mars would be a tacit commitment for the United States to decades more of the expensive Space Race. Manned Mars missions were enabled by nuclear rockets; therefore, if NERVA could be discontinued the Space Race might wind down and the budget would be saved. Each year the RIFT was delayed and the goals for NERVA were set higher. Ultimately, RIFT was never authorized, and although NERVA had many successful tests and powerful Congressional backing, it never left the ground.

Current research, well as of a few years ago:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/ntrees.html

Can't get the links to work, it's under nuclear cryogenic propulsion stage. Fucking phone.

LachiusTZ · Feb 8, 2016

Double post.

LachiusTZ · Feb 8, 2016

Gravitational wave announcement Thursday from LIGO. Big things.

LachiusTZ · Feb 9, 2016

For people that dunno the difference.

Gravitational Waves vs. Gravity Waves: Know the Difference! : Discovery News

Teaser, looking real this time.

Announcement Thursday on Einstein's gravitational waves

Unrelated, but a +1 for "space is hard":
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/08/asia/north-korea-rocket-launch/

As an aside, we done use nuclear rockets cause environment / people reasons... Why doesn't north Korea give it the old college try? Lol. Guessing a lack of fissile material?

Dandain · Feb 9, 2016

Little more on the potential announcement. Apparently they watched two black holes collide - of 36 and 29 solar masses, the resulting object is like 62 solar masses and is spinning. Which is apparently called a Kerr black hole.

More Gravitational Wave Rumors: Colliding Black Holes?

LachiusTZ · Feb 10, 2016

Looks like the proposed 2017 budget cuts the funding to NASA by 300m.

Already starting to read that mars might get scrapped.

Sounds familiar.

The Astronomy Thread

I got Tuco'd!

Rogue Deathwalker Box

Trakanon Raider

Trakanon Raider

shitlord

Bronze Squire

I got Tuco'd!

Trakanon Raider

Murder Apologist

Avatar of War Slayer

Trakanon Raider

what Suineg set it to

Rogue Deathwalker Box

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer

Rogue Deathwalker Box

Rogue Deathwalker Box

Rogue Deathwalker Box

Rogue Deathwalker Box

Trakanon Raider

Rogue Deathwalker Box