March 3, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Video of lunar impact seen from Hiratsuka Observatory in Japan
They estimate the new crater to be about 65 feet wide.
- Russians Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin will today move their seat harnesses into the new Soyuz capsule, while American Frank Rubio will do it on March 6th
I’m not sure why this wasn’t done immediately, by all three, immediately after the arrival of the Soyuz capsule on February 25, 2023. If there had been a major issue the three men would have either had to scramble to make the new Soyuz usable as a lifeboat, or would have been forced to use the improvised lifeboat arrangement in the Dragon Endurance capsule and the leaking Soyuz capsule, despite having a good vessel available.
- A graph showing the steady and slow decay of Hubble’s orbit
The decay was brought up because Hubble now orbits just below SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, and thus some are concerned its work will be hindered by them. I think this is a non-issue. More important is that decay. If Hubble is going to be remain in space, work on a rescue mission must begin soon.
- Chinese satellite inspecting American military satellites in geosynchronous orbit
China has launched a number of these classified inspection satellites, designed to surveil other satellites. As long as they do no harm to others, the satellites are doing nothing wrong, or different than what Russia and the U.S. do.
- Chinese pseudo-company Sepoch now plans first test launch of its stainless steel rocket in 2025
As Jay notes, “Wow stainless steel! Who would of thought of that?”
- Astra identifies the cause of its last launch failure
In reading their conclusions, I came away with the impression that this rocket had a lot of weak links, any one of which could cause a failure. No wonder the company abandoned it after this launch to focus on a new rocket.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Video of lunar impact seen from Hiratsuka Observatory in Japan
They estimate the new crater to be about 65 feet wide.
- Russians Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin will today move their seat harnesses into the new Soyuz capsule, while American Frank Rubio will do it on March 6th
I’m not sure why this wasn’t done immediately, by all three, immediately after the arrival of the Soyuz capsule on February 25, 2023. If there had been a major issue the three men would have either had to scramble to make the new Soyuz usable as a lifeboat, or would have been forced to use the improvised lifeboat arrangement in the Dragon Endurance capsule and the leaking Soyuz capsule, despite having a good vessel available.
- A graph showing the steady and slow decay of Hubble’s orbit
The decay was brought up because Hubble now orbits just below SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, and thus some are concerned its work will be hindered by them. I think this is a non-issue. More important is that decay. If Hubble is going to be remain in space, work on a rescue mission must begin soon.
- Chinese satellite inspecting American military satellites in geosynchronous orbit
China has launched a number of these classified inspection satellites, designed to surveil other satellites. As long as they do no harm to others, the satellites are doing nothing wrong, or different than what Russia and the U.S. do.
- Chinese pseudo-company Sepoch now plans first test launch of its stainless steel rocket in 2025
As Jay notes, “Wow stainless steel! Who would of thought of that?”
- Astra identifies the cause of its last launch failure
In reading their conclusions, I came away with the impression that this rocket had a lot of weak links, any one of which could cause a failure. No wonder the company abandoned it after this launch to focus on a new rocket.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Astra was advertising the ability to launch from.anywhere. everything could be set up from shipping containers. And yet the hardware was built with “thin margins”. Margins so this they failed a launch in FL.
I hope 4.0 has many upgrades.
This may be one of the most important finds in history—a way to lessen friction:
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-03-machine-stabilizes-mechanical-friction-conditions.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSy-9rMg74U
I’ve been thinking a lot about space elevators recently and want to throw this out here:
Suppose you have two big statites with cables that cross each other in the form of the letter ‘X’
Now—the solar sail statites can tack towards or away from each other—meaning the point of intersection can be raised or lowered.
At that intersection—you have a flying windlass. As the intersection point lifts—it spins its own tether inward and up.
As the intersection point lowers—it trails out more line to the surface.
The result?
A payload can be lifted off a body using only the pressure of sunlight alone.
No elevator car needed.
Maybe I’m confused, but don’t statites orbit around the sun, using solar pressure to maintain a lower orbit than they’d normally be capable of at that orbital velocity? And wouldn’t the planet rotating under them rather make the whole thing pointless, since the line would be moving at hundreds of miles per hour relative to the surface?
I guess you could ameliorate that problem by dropping your line near or at the poles, but that has all sorts of issues as well what with the harsh climate and isolation. And I’m not so sure the geometries work out all that well.
And considering the distances involved with statites (too close and you’re stuck in an Earth orbit, not a solar one) you’ve probably got materials issues to work out, too.
But I certainly haven’t worked the math, and I might be misunderstanding your description.
A lunar-elevator…maybe Mercury…less rotation.
If it won’t melt…Venus?
Having two payloads separated by a tether/net hit by a more solid asteroid could accelerate quickly…cut the tether when the wrap comes in the direction you want to go in.
In the news;
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-im-sticking-up-for-science/