The Astronomy Thread

Cybsled

Cybsled

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Kajiimagi said:
but isn't that pretty much exactly what they did in 69-72?
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They did have bags for poop (they had to do extra stuff to make sure the bags wouldn't bloat afterwards and some astronauts just avoided pooping rather than use the bags), but if I recall most urine was collected on Apollo using a device that would route most of it to a tank where it got vented into space. So even back then they weren't just stowing a bunch of bags of piss around the module
 
Araxen

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We are getting close!!

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Cad

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1775584228911.png


I like this one better than the one everyone keeps posting, but they're both awesome. However many billions for cool pictures, but they are cool!
 
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Kirun

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"The one everybody keeps posting" is one of the most famous photos in humanity's history - they recreated "Earthrise".
 
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Kajiimagi

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Power went out on us this morning (3rd time ever and I've lived here 11 years) & I was opening windows. Saw the moon and thought about people being up there. Wild times.
 
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meStevo

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Hard to comprehend sometimes even if you're into this stuff, but I love stuff like this.

(jerking joke goes here)

 
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Gravel

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Anyone got a good link to an explanation of how all of these moon missions actually work? I was really thinking about it differently today, and I was thinking I always see little graphics of it where it's on 2 or 3 planes, and essentially we just shoot a space ship towards the moon, do a loop (or loops) around it, and slingshot back.

But today I'm like, wait, in all of these we're breaking free of Earth's gravitational field, but how come nothing is accounting for the fact that the Earth and moon are hurtling through space in an entirely separate axis? Essentially we're throwing the spaceship in a single direction, but the Earth and moon are making a giant orbit around the sun. The second we're in that gap between handing off between Earth orbit and moon orbit, wouldn't the thing just get stuck out in the middle of space as the Earth and moon both keep traveling tens of thousands of miles per hour around the sun?

Or am I missing a step where the spaceship somehow manages to maintain a consistent orbit around the Earth that mirrors the moon, while also moving towards it? That way it'd always be traveling "towards" the moon, as opposed to just catching it on one of its orbits?
 
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Cad

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Gravel said:
Anyone got a good link to an explanation of how all of these moon missions actually work? I was really thinking about it differently today, and I was thinking I always see little graphics of it where it's on 2 or 3 planes, and essentially we just shoot a space ship towards the moon, do a loop (or loops) around it, and slingshot back.

But today I'm like, wait, in all of these we're breaking free of Earth's gravitational field, but how come nothing is accounting for the fact that the Earth and moon are hurtling through space in an entirely separate axis? Essentially we're throwing the spaceship in a single direction, but the Earth and moon are making a giant orbit around the sun. The second we're in that gap between handing off between Earth orbit and moon orbit, wouldn't the thing just get stuck out in the middle of space as the Earth and moon both keep traveling tens of thousands of miles per hour around the sun?

Or am I missing a step where the spaceship somehow manages to maintain a consistent orbit around the Earth that mirrors the moon, while also moving towards it? That way it'd always be traveling "towards" the moon, as opposed to just catching it on one of its orbits?
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When they choose the trajectory for the lunar insertion orbit, they aim for where the moon is going to be at the time the ship gets there to be captured by the moon's gravity for the slingshot - thus accounting for the proper motion during the travel time, and the relative motion (the moon is still orbiting the earth as well) that you have to account for.

It's a great question and you learn orbital mechanics and hohmann transfers pretty quick if you try Kerbal Space Program, it's a cute little game, I highly recommend it if you're into space stuff. Warning, super addictive.
 
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Gravel

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That's kind of what I was also wondering about. I've got to say, if I were an astronaut that's putting an awful lot of faith in the math of the guys who plan the mission. Miss the moon's orbit and off into space you go.
 
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Cybsled

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That was a real concern during Apollo - NASA and the Nixon administration even had a whole plan on how to handle it should the unthinkable happen

Thankfully NASA had/has a lot of extremely smart people. Think of every probe that is sent out that succeeds - the moon in comparison is cakewalk compared to the moon of a planet in the outer solar system
 
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Cad

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Gravel said:
That's kind of what I was also wondering about. I've got to say, if I were an astronaut that's putting an awful lot of faith in the math of the guys who plan the mission. Miss the moon's orbit and off into space you go.
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I would imagine it's a "measure twice, push the button once" type of scenario for sure.

If you remember the apollo 13 mission/movie/whatever the computer was off due to power usage (the... 1960's "computer" anyway) and they had to fire the retro rockets to re-enter earth's orbit and try to hold the ship steady manually by holding earth steady in the window.

It is absolutely remarkable to me that they never had any serious accidents doing that shit. We went to the moon with today's equivalent of tin can and string. It's fucking AMAZING.
 
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Burns

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Gravel said:
That's kind of what I was also wondering about. I've got to say, if I were an astronaut that's putting an awful lot of faith in the math of the guys who plan the mission. Miss the moon's orbit and off into space you go.
Click to expand...
The math would be the least of my concerns since, for these calculations al least, it's pretty much solved and has been tested by every single space mission humans have ever launched, which is a lot. Also, it's not like only two or three people are doing the calculations, but 100s. They release the dates of the launch windows and whoever wants to do the math, can. Plenty of people like doing those calculations.

Furthermore, it's pretty easy to put "faith" in something when anyone can learn the math (orbital mechanics), if they want to. I wouldn't be surprised if the astronauts are required to learn the math so they can make preliminary corrections if something happens (Apollo 13).

Here is an animated graphic of the path Orion made (plotted in Kerbal?). Also, it's always fun to think about how no atom on earth is in the same place twice.:
 
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Gravel

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Burns said:
The math would be the least of my concerns since, for these calculations al least, it's pretty much solved and has been tested by every single space mission humans have ever launched, which is a lot. Also, it's not like only two or three people are doing the calculations, but 100s. They release the dates of the launch windows and whoever wants to do the math, can. Plenty of people like doing those calculations.

Furthermore, it's pretty easy to put "faith" in something when anyone can learn the math (orbital mechanics), if they want to. I wouldn't be surprised if the astronauts are required to learn the math so they can make preliminary corrections if something happens (Apollo 13).

Here is an animated graphic of the path Orion made (plotted in Kerbal?). Also, it's always fun to think about how no atom on earth is in the same place twice.:
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was talking about. Everything always leaves out the earth and moon hurtling around the sun part. Which makes the entire prospect insane to me. Thanks for that.
 
Cad

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Gravel said:
That's exactly what I was talking about. Everything always leaves out the earth and moon hurtling around the sun part. Which makes the entire prospect insane to me. Thanks for that.
Click to expand...
But if you're going between the earth and the moon, and you launch from the earth, you aren't like "standing still" and the earth and moon run off and leave you. You have the same relative motion they do, and you are also orbiting the sun when you do a hohmann transfer from earth/moon. You don't have to account for the motion around the sun because the Earth, moon, and you are all orbiting the sun the same way.

Screenshot 2026-04-09 at 8.14.39 PM.png
 
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