The Astronomy Thread

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Oldbased

> Than U
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Meanwhile, Elon has Starships parked all over waiting on the sme Gov to stop fingering themselves and is launching and LANDING 2+ a week now.
 

Captain Suave

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
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Meanwhile, Elon

I've mentioned this before, but my brother-in-law who works at JPL on the Mars sample return mission is legit worried that by 2028 SpaceX is going to have a guy waiting on Mars to take a selfie with their lander and then beat it home to Earth. My cousin at SpaceX thinks this is plausible, and it would be absolutely in character for Musk to actually do it if he could.
 
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Oldbased

> Than U
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I've mentioned this before, but my brother-in-law who works at JPL on the Mars sample return mission is legit worried that by 2028 SpaceX is going to have a guy waiting on Mars to take a selfie with their lander and then beat it home to Earth. My cousin at SpaceX thinks this is plausible, and it would be absolutely in character for Musk to actually do it if he could.
Well, He already has a ride up there floating about. Just need to charge up the batteries.
 

Aaron

Goonsquad Officer
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Haven't followed the SLS shitshow a lot but with the recent news about the (failed) launches I decided to check it out. I watched a video by Scott Manley, as well as a few others, and was at first shocked and then bewildered to discover that that this isn't new tech, but mostly just refurbished Shuttle tech on this thing. The engines are shuttle engines, the main booster is just an elongated shuttle booster, the side boosters are shuttle boosters. The only new thing on it is the Orion module. How the fuck did it take so much money to build this 40+ year old sack of shit?
 
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Edaw

Parody
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How the fuck did it take so much money to build this 40+ year old sack of shit?
whydi.jpg
 
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Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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How the fuck did it take so much money to build this 40+ year old sack of shit?
Because ever since the end of Apollo NASA has been one gigantic grift(hell it probably was then but at least it had a black and white patriotic goal). Everything about it has been about maximizing jobs/money into the districts and states of key Senators. According to this guy SLS' contracts where specifically written to maximize that;

 
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Tripamang

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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Haven't followed the SLS shitshow a lot but with the recent news about the (failed) launches I decided to check it out. I watched a video by Scott Manley, as well as a few others, and was at first shocked and then bewildered to discover that that this isn't new tech, but mostly just refurbished Shuttle tech on this thing. The engines are shuttle engines, the main booster is just an elongated shuttle booster, the side boosters are shuttle boosters. The only new thing on it is the Orion module. How the fuck did it take so much money to build this 40+ year old sack of shit?

If you want another laugh, Orion had its test flight in 2014 and that's on top of its redesign in 2010. Boeing is just garbage and should be excluded from bidding on anything.
 
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Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
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This is from Wikipedia, but I'm amazed at how optimistic this is.

Orion's first launch, and the first use of the Space Launch System, was originally set in 2016, but was scheduled to launch in 2022 as the Artemis 1 mission, with robots and mannequins aboard. According to plan, the crewed Artemis 2 launch will take place in 2024, the Artemis 3 crewed lunar landing in 2025, the Artemis 4 docking with the Lunar Gateway in 2027, and future yearly landings on the Moon thereafter.

They're literally expecting to get to the moon with 3 launches. The first unmanned, second 2 years later with a crew, and then landing on the moon a year after that. Like, are you fucking kidding me?

And agreed on Boeing. If I could divulge some of the stories I would, but I'm not impressed with how Boring operates. I'm amazed planes aren't constantly falling out of the sky.
 

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
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If you want another laugh, Orion had its test flight in 2014 and that's on top of its redesign in 2010. Boeing is just garbage and should be excluded from bidding on anything.

Boeing should stick to what it is good at, building planes. Oh wait, never mind.
 

Ukerric

Bearded Ape
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They're literally expecting to get to the moon with 3 launches. The first unmanned, second 2 years later with a crew, and then landing on the moon a year after that. Like, are you fucking kidding me?
At that point, SpaceX will launch daily, and weekly for crewed launches.

Mark my words. (okay, slightly exxagerating, but they're aiming for 100 launches in 2023)
 

Mudcrush Durtfeet

Hungry Ogre
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They're saying they expect that it will be 'weeks' before another SLS launch attempt is made.

My hope, vain as it is, would be 'never'.
 

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
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They're saying they expect that it will be 'weeks' before another SLS launch attempt is made.

My hope, vain as it is, would be 'never'.
Based on what I've read, there are windows they can launch in and it means waiting until I think the 20th. The window for that last cancellation the other day was only 2 hours. If they miss that window it'll probably be October.