The Astronomy Thread

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Ukerric

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Remember that the Arianespace's CEO famously said that doing a reusable launcher would be bad, because he wouldn't have enough work for his employees. Before being ousted.

Well, the french state auditors are also lamenting this poor view: French auditor says Ariane 6 rocket too conventional to compete with SpaceX

"too cautious"
It also criticizes the choices European leaders made in 2014, when they selected the design for its next-generation rocket, the Ariane 6.
The best recommandation
any new public funds committed to rocket development should be spent on "technical innovation," rather than supporting existing contractors.
 
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meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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So Ultima Thule is actually pretty flat.

1549654233875.png


 
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Ukerric

Bearded Ape
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And the Great Mars Scam is gone:

Mars One company goes bankrupt - SpaceNews.com

Since no one bit the bait of "exclusive worldwide broadcasting rights" for umpteen billions, they had to throw in the towel and file for bankruptcy. At least they probably got enough application fees for their "astronauts" to keep it up for a little while...
 
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MusicForFish

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Any thoughts guys?

Russian Satellite Registers Unknown Physical Phenomena in Earth's Atmosphere
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - An ultraviolet telescope installed on the Russian satellite Lomonosov has registered light "explosions" in the planet's atmosphere, whose physical nature has not been explained so far, the director of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Russian State University said in an interview with Sputnik.
"With the help of the telescope, we have obtained even more important results than we expected. It looks like we have encountered new physical phenomena… We do not yet know their physical nature… For example, during Lomonosov's flight at an altitude of several dozen kilometers, we have registered several times a very powerful 'explosion' of light. But everything was clear underneath it, no storms, no clouds," Mikhail Panasyuk said.
 
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iannis

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Any thoughts guys?

Russian Satellite Registers Unknown Physical Phenomena in Earth's Atmosphere
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - An ultraviolet telescope installed on the Russian satellite Lomonosov has registered light "explosions" in the planet's atmosphere, whose physical nature has not been explained so far, the director of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Russian State University said in an interview with Sputnik.
"With the help of the telescope, we have obtained even more important results than we expected. It looks like we have encountered new physical phenomena… We do not yet know their physical nature… For example, during Lomonosov's flight at an altitude of several dozen kilometers, we have registered several times a very powerful 'explosion' of light. But everything was clear underneath it, no storms, no clouds," Mikhail Panasyuk said.

Cosmic rays? I barely remember something about a type of radiation which interacts with the upper atmosphere. Important function of the ionosphere.

Not that specifically, but it may be evidence of a specific low energy interacting with our atmosphere which has been predicted but never observed.

Not that I know, that's a niave guess. Something like that. Some form of radiation coming through space hitting the not-vaccum of our near earth area and making something pop.
 
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MusicForFish

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Cosmic rays? I barely remember something about a type of radiation which interacts with the upper atmosphere. Important function of the ionosphere.

Not that specifically, but it may be evidence of a specific low energy interacting with our atmosphere which has been predicted but never observed.

Not that I know, that's a niave guess. Something like that. Some form of radiation coming through space hitting the not-vaccum of our near earth area and making something pop.

I think it has something to do with the booms we've been experiencing in the last couple of years. And I think you may be right. Something impacting our shields. Maybe we're passing through a cloud of whatever in the universe.
 
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iannis

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I think I'll take a wait and see approach.

Elon Musk Says You’ll Soon Be Able To Sell Your House And Move To Mars

Mr Musk answered: “Very dependant on volume, but I’m confident moving to Mars (return ticket is free) will one day cost less than $500k and maybe even below $100k.

“Low enough that most people in advance economies could sell their home and move to Mars if they want.”

I remember in 4th grade we had a teacher who used to tell us that by the time we were her age there would be tourism to the moon.

It was a hopeful thing to think, but really not a stupid thing to think.
 
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Lambourne

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iwanttobelieve.jpg

Growing up in the 80s all the popular science magazines were about space stations and how we'd have a moon base by 2000. I'd pretty much given up on ever going to space but what if this madman actually pulls it off...
 
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MusicForFish

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Mudcrush Durtfeet

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I remember in 4th grade we had a teacher who used to tell us that by the time we were her age there would be tourism to the moon.

It was a hopeful thing to think, but really not a stupid thing to think.

Someone has paid SpaceX for a trip around the moon, so maybe not too long now...
 
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Ukerric

Bearded Ape
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I remember in 4th grade we had a teacher who used to tell us that by the time we were her age there would be tourism to the moon.

It was a hopeful thing to think, but really not a stupid thing to think.
Nobody felt this title was stupid either, at the time:
Space1999_Year1_Title.jpg
 
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LachiusTZ

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We could have had a moon base etc.

But instead we killed brown people on the other side of the planet for a couple decades.

And before that etc...
 
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Ukerric

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At the moment, you want the chinese to announce they're going to have a fixed base for landings in... say, 10 years. With expected permanently manned habitat 5 years later.

And plop, Moonbase Alpha is scheduled "before the end of the decade".
 
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Cybsled

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It comes down to money in the end. If the Americas had been discovered and they were some barren place /w no resources of value, then the European nations wouldn't have bothered to continue investing in colonizing those areas and they never would have developed like they did in our timeline.

Until you can make the enterprise profitable, then very few nations or companies are going to invest the massive funds to support such an endeavor.
 
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BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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I think if we had kept up the space program at the level it was in the apollo years there could have easily been a moon colony by 2000. The problem is that the moon is kind of lame and it's hard to keep people excited about spending billions to colonize a cold, dead rock.
 
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