Today the focus is on testing and man-rating the spacecraft. Once operational, it can then assume some of the space repair and refurbishing missions. For example, Hubble could use a repair mission for the inertial wheels. It would also allow a return to the moon. Then there is going anywhere on the globe in about 30 minutes. Bob Wilson
With ETC(SS) approval, we could use this thread for random Space stuff. There is a lot of that: Astronauts Swap Harrowing Tales from NASA's Historic Lunar Flights | Space
I appreciate the courtesy, but it's OUR forum. I'm looking forward to seeing Bob and Doug test-drive the Dragon. Heck... I'm looking forward to seeing the next launch!! I'm hoping that we put another flag on the Moon before the last of those Apollo explorers are gone, but for now I'm content to watch two boosters do a choreographed landing in PCan and perhaps another one landing on OCISLY. Perhaps also followed by a return to human space flight. Haste makes waste, but in space exploration an overabundance of caution can be bad too....
Take off, you hoser! That was one of their most common phrases. Never realized they actually meant it literally.
Satellite in low-earth orbit, 700 kg, revised to many smaller pieces. India shoots down a weather satellite, declares itself a “space power” | Ars Technica Only a few nations have done this, and their sense of pride is not universally shared.
Meh. Although I did find the usual comments about the "militarization of space" and orbital littering to be entertaining......as usual. Low-riders are considered to be under about 1300 miles, provided they don't wobble much. This can still leave stuff littering the highways and byways of space for a very long time....but the satellite that India hit was smallish (1500lbs more or less) and surfing along at less than 190 miles out (up?) This represents something of a technical problem, but it's pretty straight forward.....and India seems to have chosen a target whose fragments will de-orbit before the end of the year.....ish. I've always been amused by the term "shoot down" a satellite.....but that's me being me again. I think that India's intended audience is their nucular armed neighbor and that space is doing what space does, which is to be a convenient place to demonstrate that it might not be in one's best interest to mess with the demonstrator. Se also: "Si vis pacem, para bellum,” Fun Fact: The aforementioned Latin phrase inspired the popular 9x19mm 'Parabellum' pistol round's name....ah.....'trigger' subject unintended. India lives in a rough neighborhood. Sometimes? Shooting skeet in your backyard is a good way to make other houses on your block a better bet for a midnight break-in.
Analogy stands, to the extent one can hit hypervelocity skeet after traversing a turbulent atmosphere. ++ Mostly I wish to discuss Moon. Fifty years of solitude with only diaper bags and other debris left behind is not impressive. There is or soon will be relatively inexpensive means to gently deposit 10 tons (or more) on lunar surface. Low-power microwaves can solidify 'that soil' into bricks. Robotic vehicles can stack bricks up; even better at 1/6 Earth gravity. If more decades pass without Hotel Selene being built, that will not be impressive either. If costs are too high, it suggests to me that humans are not clever explorers at this juncture. Inspired in part by: US boots on the Moon in 2024? It won't be easy
India shooting was not appreciated by: NASA: India anti-satellite missile test a 'terrible thing' says chief - CNN This skeet was in low-Earth circular orbit ~300 km. Hoping it is appreciated that bits go into non-circular orbits. When they bottom out, maybe get caught by atmosphere. When they top out, maybe reach space-station levels and cause bother there.
I never was really good at billiards, but one presumes that converting an SUV-sized object into fragments will not propel those fragments hundreds of kilometers further out - even in a micro-gravity environment. Otherwise....certain other ah......."assets" in orbit would mot need nearly as much maneuvering fuel. So.... If an object in a roughly 300km orbit comes back home in say....about a month (ish - depending on lots and lots of stuff) and......a 400km object takes roughly a year then I think that we can safely say that India is guilty of littering and it's a shame and everything but I would come up well short of using the term "terrible" to describe this event. Compared with activities conducted by the big three, this is like saying that dropping a piece of TP on the highway is the same thing as the Exxon Valdez leak. They're both kinda sorta the same thing - but not really.
It's not quite like billiards. Impact energy causes disassembly (or perhaps not). Now the 'target' has more energy and moves towards a higher orbit. New kinetic E has been converted to potential E. Target descends and gets its kinetic back, then ascends again. Cycle continues until atmospheric drag intrudes.
"A better target..." Um , maybe. Latest info on asteroids is that they (at least some) seem to be loosely held together. Perhaps should not be surprising. Gravity is weak glue unless one has a lot of it. Hit a rubble pile and create many smaller rubble piles. If all those have non-earth-crossing trajectories, you did well. Otherwise, it was preparation for a fireworks show later.
Not the worst intro to orbital mechanics: Introductory Orbital Mechanics for Dummies — Ryan Spielvogel | SciFi Doc It stands out for showing no equations.
Largest earth animal ever (probably) is currently living blue whale. Almost 5 times heavier than humpback above. While blues can move at up to 50 km/hr, physics persists. Blue could get almost 10 meters above sea surface, should an urge come. That is only 1/3 of body length. In other words, a spectacular fail. Eighty tons of fin whale can do this: link Although 40-ton humpbacks make more a habit of it. mgh = 1/2 mv^2 So the saying goes.
Keep in mind that the more non-circular debris orbits with a significantly higher apogee, must also have a significantly lower perigee. That low perigee will bring them down very rapidly, maybe even within a single orbit. This works only for targets hit in low earth orbit, where there is little margin above the satellite-destroying atmosphere.
Just so. India expects its 'dispersion' to self resolve over weeks to months. Meanwhile, ISS drivers will be playing dodge ball. To all readers, maybe you don't appreciate how great it is to live in pre-Kessler-syndrome times. I much hope that it persists.
Kesslerized LEO and MEO satellites simply cannot throw trash at GEO satellites. That's such a very good thing.
