The Astronomy Thread

Omayga · Mar 29, 2018

The Isaac Arthur stuff is great, thanks for pointing that out. I like to watch the youtube vids while at home and listen to the podcasts while on the road. His voice is extremely relaxing for some reason, his spech impediment is only noticeable for the first 5-10 mins and then I seem to get used to it

Tons of content from him though, its great!

Tuco · Mar 30, 2018

I'd be willing to give even odds on a 1 month avatar bet that the SRS never flies and is basically shit canned in favor of the BFR or a similar rocket.

At this point there just needs to be enough proof that SpaceX can do it, and enough political pressure to blow up the Congressional honeypot that NASA has become.

Lambourne · Mar 30, 2018

pharmakos said:
I just yesterday saw the Musk quote where he says that the first manned mission to Mars is highly likely to have people die... and I can't help but wonder if the company's attitude of striving to be the first to achieve might not be viewed as foolish recklessness when viewed through the lens of hindsight.

It probably will be but history shows that we (as a species) don't wait for optimal conditions, we leap as soon as we can. We explored the oceans with wooden sailing ships. It would have been much easier and safer with steam engines and radio beacons, but we paid the price and went anyway. Apollo would have been easier with the computers from even 10 years later.

Pioneering is dangerous work but it has always had a draw for some people, and as long as we can find enough risk takers, we will go as soon as we can.

Cybsled · Mar 30, 2018

There would be no shortage of people willing to take the risk...humans are natural explorers.

Mudcrush Durtfeet · Mar 30, 2018

pharmakos said:
I just yesterday saw the Musk quote where he says that the first manned mission to Mars is highly likely to have people die... and I can't help but wonder if the company's attitude of striving to be the first to achieve might not be viewed as foolish recklessness when viewed through the lens of hindsight.

They get a lot of flack by haters. Remember the people complaining about the auto launch?

so, CERTAINLY there will be those who view their actions as recklessness, whatever those actions might actually be.

Anywho, I think Musk was just being realistic, pointing out that in the infancy of human interplanetary travel, safety is NOT guaranteed. With that said, I'm sure they will do their best to keep things safe. After all, if it blows up, it ain't reusable and the plan won't work.

Tuco · Mar 30, 2018

I also think that Musk has endeared so much public approval for pushing the envelope, moving quickly and also creating a path toward more affordable space travel that deaths are a tolerable cost of progress.

Previous to SpaceX we'd have these monolithic space launches (like NASA wants to do with the SLS) that complete an objective and don't really implicitly go anywhere after that. After we landed on the moon a few times the space program decreased dramatically for a lot of reasons, but one was because the cost of sending people beyond earth's orbit was so high there was nothing really worth doing for the cost that entailed

With SpaceX it's like every new big objective met decreases the cost of additional travel. If all of Musks' dreams come true and we launch 20,000 LEO internet satellites + put some shitty colony on Mars, we'll have streamlined the path to space so much that there are huge possibilities for travel after that.

And by huge possibilities I mostly mean asteroid mining.

Tuco · Mar 30, 2018

meStevo · Mar 30, 2018

Nothing yet on Mr. Steven's effort 2 hours later...

FCC gave them the OK to do this though:

Edit:

Pharazon2 · Mar 30, 2018

Gonna be very disruptive if Starlink really goes live by 2024 (which i highly doubt but am hopeful for.) We're talking 1 Gbps wireless access for virtually anywhere on the planet. Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, etc all have to be scared to death that this may become a reality in the near future. Capacity will be an issue at the start, but over time? FCC did give some conditions for the approval, which makes sense:

Although we appreciate the level of detail and analysis that SpaceX has provided for its orbital debris mitigation and end-of-life disposal plans, we agree with NASA that the unprecedented number of satellites proposed by SpaceX and the other NGSO FSS systems in this processing round will necessitate a further assessment of the appropriate reliability standards of these spacecraft, as well as the reliability of these systems’ methods for de-orbiting the spacecraft. Pending further study, it would be premature to grant SpaceX’s application based on its current orbital debris mitigation plan. Accordingly, we believe it is appropriate to condition grant of SpaceX’s application on the Commission’s approval of an updated description of the orbital debris mitigation plans for its system.

Having read through SpaceX's proposal last year (link below), it seemed crazy that NASA's required human casualty probability threshold for re-entering satellites is only 1:10,000. SpaceX's actual calculations showed a 1:18,000 to 1:31,000 chance, but when you're crashing 1,000 satellites per year back to earth those odds don't look as good. NASA saw the same thing and are seemingly going to require more detailed end of life plans than SpaceX initially provided (page 53 on in the link). SpaceX's initial plans pretty much double the total number of satellites in orbit, and their lifespans will be only 5-7 years before they bring them crashing back down.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/download.do?attachment_key=1158350

Kharzette · Mar 30, 2018

Global pornhub is worth a few deaths

JK haha, but seriously, what will the ping times be like? I live in the wasteland and we only recently got 12mbit wireless.

Lambourne · Mar 30, 2018

Regular satellite internet uses geostationary satellites that orbit at 35,000 KM so by the time the signal has gone there and back down you're at 250ms already. Starlink will use satellites in low earth orbit only a few hundred km up so it should have much lower ping. On the other hand, you'll be constantly switching from one satellite to the other as they move beyond the horizon so there might be some spikes in ping time, not sure if they're going to be able to engineer their way around that.

Tuco · Apr 1, 2018

Kharzette said:
Global pornhub is worth a few deaths

JK haha, but seriously, what will the ping times be like? I live in the wasteland and we only recently got 12mbit wireless.

What makes Starlink different from other satellite solutions?
Other satellite solutions have much slower connection speeds and much longer ping times. Satellites in Geostationary orbit are 35,786 km (22,236 mi) away. That distance creates ping times on the order of about 600 to 1200ms. Since there will be over 4000 Starlink satellites they can be in lower orbits reducing the distance between the end user and the satellite. Shorter distance makes for better ping times and Starlink should operate around 25 to 50ms.

I think for a long time the value in Starlink will be giving access to fast internet to rural areas, not delivering better internet to urban or suburban areas.

The big downside to LEO is that the satellites will have their orbits and mechanical parts degrade due to atmospheric drag. So it's not like they can just launch a dozen thousand satellites and boom, problem solved. They have to continuously launch satellites. Nobody knows how frequently they'll need to replace them.

Aldarion · Apr 1, 2018

Looks like the chinese space junk wont be hitting the US; current predictions look like Africa
TIANGONG-1 Reenter - Decay Predictions + ONLINE 3D REAL TIME TRACKING

Anyone have other good tracking sites?

Dandain · Apr 4, 2018

X-Planes have always ruled. Here is the next one.

NASA’s aeronautical innovators are ready to take things supersonic, but with a quiet twist.

For the first time in decades, NASA aeronautics is moving forward with the construction of a piloted X-plane, designed from scratch to fly faster than sound with the latest in quiet supersonic technologies.

The new X-plane’s mission: provide crucial data that could enable commercial supersonic passenger air travel over land.

New NASA X-Plane Construction Begins Now

Borzak · Apr 4, 2018

HELP! My arms are about to fall off. Been grinding on a 16" telescope mirror the last few days. Had the mirror blank for a long time and decided to work on grinding it. I have about 8 hours into grinding so far. I'd go out and smoke a cigar but pretty sure my arms won't work to lift the cigar lol.

Malinatar · Apr 5, 2018

NASA wants to send flying swarms of robot 'bees' to explore Mars

meStevo · Apr 5, 2018

Virgin Galactic completes first rocket-powered test flight since 2014 – Spaceflight Now

Cybsled · Apr 5, 2018

It is kind of funny how they used to seem amazing, and now Space-X makes their attempts look quaint

khorum · Apr 5, 2018

I wonder if Branson slaps a hooker everytime he's reminded he couldve invested in SpaceX instead.

BrutulTM · Apr 6, 2018

I think this thread should be changed to "The space thread" or something similar. There is nothing about astronomy in here.

Honestly, does anyone actually spend time looking through a personal telescope as a hobby, or do people just buy them and then realize that magnified stars look exactly like unmagnified stars? My brother asked for a telescope for Christmas a couple years ago and I did a fair amount of research and bought him a decent beginner model. He used it a couple times, looked at the moon, Mars, and the rings of Saturn, which I'll admit was pretty cool, but he has never even set it up again and I don't really see why you would. There's really not much that's interesting to look at and even that stuff you don't need to see more than once.

The Astronomy Thread

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