The Astronomy Thread

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C

Captain Suave

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Sanrith Descartes said:
I had read it was over 5m across. 6 feet will burn up in the atmosphere wont it?
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From the link you posted:

"Asteroid 2018VP1 is very small, approx. 6.5 feet, and poses no threat to Earth! It currently has a 0.41% chance of entering our planet’s atmosphere, but if it did, it would disintegrate due to its extremely small size," NASA Asteroid Watch said on Twitter.

The part that amazes me is that we can detect and track stone refrigerator at all.
 
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Mudcrush Durtfeet

Mudcrush Durtfeet

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Gavinmad said:
Depends on velocity, composition, and entry angle, but generally speaking I wouldn't expect a 6 foot meteor to be capable of much. The Chelyabinsk meteor (2013) was 20m but came in so fast and shallow that it burst in mid-air.
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The Chelyabinsk meteor sounds like it was approximately 1000 times the volume of this 6 foot rock.
 
Sadre Spinegnawer

Sadre Spinegnawer

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Rockets on secret missions tomorrow.
arstechnica.com

The big Delta IV Heavy rocket will try to loft a classified mission tonight

Ready to see that pre-liftoff fireball.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

edit: this is the official banner for the mission. Apparently it is only a one-wolf mission, no moon.
ULA-NROL-44-mission-image.jpg
 
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Kharzette

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I remember us talking in here about the big energies involved in hitting tiny grains of dust or gas while going up near C. A book I just read (scifi) had a cool thing where they ambushed a big arkship (like a 30 mile long asteroid hollowed out) by pumping gas out of a gas giant into the path of the oncoming ship, which had slowed down to .25 C or so.

It messed that ship up BAD hitting that gas. I've no idea if the author did the math but I was surprised how it ablated tons of rock off the front in seconds.

I remember in the revelation space books they would put like a mile of ice on the front of their ships to soak up dust impacts.
 
Furry

Furry

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Just a salt? I remember when mudcrush was the guardian of stupid ideas, the one garbage can who would make sure nothing was of value. Now here we are, with him giving salts like a common khorum. This forum is truly on it's death bed.
 
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Mudcrush Durtfeet

Mudcrush Durtfeet

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Furry said:
Just a salt? I remember when mudcrush was the guardian of stupid ideas, the one garbage can who would make sure nothing was of value. Now here we are, with him giving salts like a common khorum. This forum is truly on it's death bed.
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Says the negative number disbeliever!
 
Oldbased

Oldbased

> Than U
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Slightly different video maybe of it. Was wonderous.


7 years to go from 1 to 10 launches. 7 more to go from 10 to 100+ launches.
Now launching grain silos for fun.
SpaceX is really pissing all over these big "space agencies" that barely do shit.
 
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Ukerric

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Oldbased said:
SpaceX is really pissing all over these big "space agencies" that barely do shit.
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Yea. When they announced that SLS would cost 30% more, my first reaction was "Are they putting it on the Apple Store?"
 
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Oldbased

Oldbased

> Than U
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Ukerric said:
Yea. When they announced that SLS would cost 30% more, my first reaction was "Are they putting it on the Apple Store?"
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That is just a shrimp on a captain's deluxe platter though.
How many shitty space agencies are there that barely have a functioning rocket.
Then there is all the horseshit contracts to get a few people to the moon, which by the time they go, they'll probably just land and dock at the Musk International Moon Port.
 
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Ukerric

Ukerric

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Oldbased said:
Then there is all the horseshit contracts to get a few people to the moon, which by the time they go, they'll probably just land and dock at the Musk International Moon Port.
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Even if they don't land at the Musk space base, they'll launch from Musk's spacepad:
www.masten.aero

SpaceX to Launch Masten Lunar Mission in 2022 — Masten Space Systems

Launch to deliver Masten’s lunar lander carrying NASA and commercial payloads. MOJAVE, Calif. – August 26, 2020 – Masten Space Systems announced today that it has selected SpaceX to launch Masten Mission One (MM1). As part of MM1, Masten’s lunar lander will deliver nine NASA-sponsored science and
www.masten.aero www.masten.aero
 
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