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[TehOh]

Titan's clouds (distinct from the haze) shown in infrared.

http://arstechnica.com/science/news...tan-cassini-mission-sees-seasonal-changes.ars

At the Cassini colloquium today (should show up on NASA tv eventually), they were going over some of the findings. Really neat stuff.

They think that one of those circular white spots (I think it is on that infrared view of the globe) is actually an ice volcano. Like, it's too cold on the surface for real magma. This volcano spews this gunk that is basically ice, methane, and a bunch of other chemicals.

Also, Saturn's south pole is actually this massive hexagon-shaped storm. It's really weird, because it has these sharp corners. It also has its own version of the aurora borealis.

 

[AndersTheSwede]

They think that one of those circular white spots (I think it is on that infrared view of the globe) is actually an ice volcano. Like, it's too cold on the surface for real magma. This volcano spews this gunk that is basically ice, methane, and a bunch of other chemicals.

A cryovolcano? Like those on Enceladus? Amazing. Would never have thought Titan had the conditions for that.

 

[TehOh]

A cryovolcano? Like those on Enceladus? Amazing. Would never have thought Titan had the conditions for that.

Yup, cryovolcano was the exact term that I was looking for. Enceladus is the one with the crazy plume, right?

Someone asked what they would do with Cassini once the mission was over, and the idea came up of smashing it into one of Saturn's rings. It would be awesome if they could do it slowly enough to get some images back of the rings up close.

 

[AndersTheSwede]

Yup, cryovolcano was the exact term that I was looking for. Enceladus is the one with the crazy plume, right?

Ya.

You need to personally march into the admin office and order them to send a rover to Titan. Screw mars, damn planet died a billion years ago sadly. Any body that can sustain liquids on its surface is way more interesting.

 

[TehOh]

You need to personally march into the admin office and order them to send a rover to Titan. Screw mars, damn planet died a billion years ago sadly. Any body that can sustain liquids on its surface is way more interesting.

I personally agree.

Also, that is one goddamn gorgeous picture.

 

[DrForester]

http://www.livescience.com/php/mult...on.+Credit:+NASA/ISS/Earth+Observatory&title=

Sarychev Peak on Matua Island is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, northeast of Japan. Astronauts took this photo of an eruption on June 12. The plume appears to be a combination of brown ash and white steam. The vigorously rising plume gives the steam a bubble-like appearance; the surrounding atmosphere has been shoved up by the shock wave of the eruption. Credit: NASA/ISS/Earth Observatory

 

[Twig]

I knew when I saw there was a new post in this thread for the first time in almost a week it would be something awesome.

 

[Youta Mottenai]

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-5t4de6jjI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-5t4de6jjI

 

[UraMallas]

Are there any really good screen savers of slowly rotating galaxies, or anything similar?

 

[TehOh]

If you're interested, LCROSS will be doing a close pass-by of the moon tomorrow morning. This is a swing around in order to build up power for the impact later this year.

The cool part is that they will be broadcasting a live stream here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/lunarswingby/

It's 5:10 AM on the west coast, so a little early for me. Still pretty rad.

Oh, and DrForester, I REALLY want a copy of that photo in a larger size. Hmm, might see if I can find someone to contact for that.

 

[Windu]

So apparently the first ever spaceport began construction on the 19th:

Spaceport America (New Mexico)

Website

Wikipedia Page

 

[xBerserker]

I don't think this was posted in this thread yet, but I found this beast searching through links late last night. released in early 2006, it's the largest image of a galaxy to date. This monster is 15,852 x 12,392 pixels large. Click on the image below if you dare.

source

The full jpg image is about 63MB, my image viewer crashed while zooming in on this galactic mammoth. The original uncompressed tif image weighs in at 455MB! I wanted to download it, but I feared my computer would self implode just thinking about loading up an image that huge. Anyways, enjoy

wow

http://www.livescience.com/php/mult...on.+Credit:+NASA/ISS/Earth+Observatory&title=

Great shot!

 

[Extollere]

Just curious, but what did medieval folk think the bands of the milky way were? I'm assuming if anything they were even more visible then (what with less light pollution etc.).

I just watched Cosmos so I can answer this now. They thought the Milky Way was "The Backbone of The Night".

 

[UraMallas]

Speaking of Cosmos, the whole series is up for streaming on Netflix.

 

[olore]

Awesome thread

 

[Android18a]

Round these parts, it's hard to see any stars at night at all. You can make out the more prominent ones like the North Star, but the night sky is generally just a plain dark blue here (midlands, UK).

I'm sure the UK is one of the worst places for light pollution. If you've ever travelled in a plane at night to or from the continent, you'll have noticed that when you look down at the UK from above, it's just a sea of lights. Roads, towns, villages... you don't see many areas where there's no light at all. It becomes so much more apparent when you're over, say, France or Spain. You have huuuuuge areas where there's no lights down there at all, and the night sky often looks amazing in those kind of places.

It makes me sad.

 

[Extollere]

So how long will it take before the public gets to see new pictures from the Hubble after its most recent service? Weeks? Months? Longer? I want new pictures from space sammit!

 

[Hootie]

Did any Space-GAFers happen to catch the season premiere of Nova scienceNOW on PBS last night? I saw Neil DeGrasse Tyson(aka Mr. Awesome) on the Colbert Report but totally forgot to watch it.

And are there any places online where I can watch it?

 

[XMonkey]

Speaking of Cosmos, the whole series is up for streaming on Netflix.

http://www.hulu.com/cosmos

For freeeee

 

[laserbeam]

So now a new system is being proposed for returning to space and the moon and yet again its more lackluster everytime they make a new proposal. Now it would carry no more than 2 astronauts.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090630/ap_on_sc/us_sci_moon_rocket

 

[xabre]

I wish they wouldn't keep changing their minds and just stick was originally proposed a few years back.

 

[laserbeam]

It is pathetic and I would hope NASA would feel ashamed of themselves that 40 years later our "new" Space travel systems will be worse than what we had when we first went to the moon as far as capacity etc.

 

[xabre]

I know, who knows at this point when humans will be getting back to the Moon, or god forbid Mars. It certainly would be pretty interesting to see where we'd be now if a proper Lunar Colony had been established following the Apollo missions.

 

[jett]

It is pathetic and I would hope NASA would feel ashamed of themselves that 40 years later our "new" Space travel systems will be worse than what we had when we first went to the moon as far as capacity etc.

It's really sad. 40 years later and we have done little to nothing in terms of space travel. Where's my moon base goddamnit.

 

[iidesuyo]

To be honest, I'm not that intertested in space flights. The space agencies should rather invest the money into some advanced robot missions.

Like the Cryobot/Hydrobot, which would examine the suspected ocean under the ice crust of the Jupiter moon Europa.

 

[Walshicus]

Like the Cryobot/Hydrobot, which would examine the ocean under the ice crust of the Saturn moon Europa.

Breaking news!

 

[Yazus]

Please, Moonbase and then SRF mission plz

Also, awesome thread, the pics makes me shiver. I'm sure we are not alone in this universe... it might be nearly infinite...

 

[Walshicus]

So apparently the first ever spaceport began construction on the 19th:

Spaceport America (New Mexico)

If I knew who in the business I had to beg to be transferred there... damn. Branson came down the other day - should have pestered him then.

 

[laserbeam]

Please, Moonbase and then SRF mission plz

Also, awesome thread, the pics makes me shiver. I'm sure we are not alone in this universe... it might be nearly infinite...

Moonbase becomes even more unlikly if they keep shrinking the new launch system. Cant have a thriving Base on the moon when our spaceships only carry 2 people.

 

[Vinci]

Moonbase becomes even more unlikly if they keep shrinking the new launch system. Cant have a thriving Base on the moon when our spaceships only carry 2 people.

Where's that damn space elevator I've heard about?

 

[Quazar]

Where's that damn space elevator I've heard about?

Waiting for nanotech

 

[Vinci]

Waiting for nanotech

Then yeah, they need to get on that shit. In fact, nanotech should be in everything already - what's taking so long?! Where are my flying cars?

What has technology done for me lately?

 

[laserbeam]

I just have a hard time finding a space elevator feasible for now due to costs. They are bitching about an intial 36 billion to get a new space "fleet" going.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

Waiting for nanotech

Even with nanotech it still may be impossible for Earth. Now Mars, on the other hand would be relatively easy.

 

[itschris]

Even with nanotech it still may be impossible for Earth. Now Mars, on the other hand would be relatively easy.

And one on the moon would be even easier!

Because of the Moon's lower gravity and lack of atmosphere, a lunar elevator would have less stringent requirements for the tensile strength of the material making up its cable than an Earth-tethered cable. An Earth-based elevator would require materials at the edge of what is even theoretically possible (e.g. carbon nanotubes), whereas a lunar elevator could be constructed using high-strength commercially available materials such as Kevlar or Spectra.

Compared to Earth, there would be few geographic and no political restrictions on the location of the surface connection. Due to the lower gravity, the connection point of a lunar elevator would not necessarily have to be directly under its center of gravity, and could even be near the poles, where evidence suggests there might be frozen water in deep craters that never see sunlight; if so, this might be collected and converted into rocket fuel.

Jerome Pearson has proposed a cable design using M5 fiber that would weigh only 6100 tonnes including a massive counterweight, that would be capable of lifting or depositing loads of 2000 N (about 1200 kg mass) at the base. The counterweight could potentially be lifted from the lunar surface.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_space_elevator

 

[thelegend69697]

For any Facebook people out there. I have a Star Gazing fan page setup. I try to keep fans up to date on night sky happenings and share cool pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/0stargazing0

 

[Teknoman]

First images from the Lunar orbiter:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc_20090702_a.html

Reached the moon June 23 and sent these back:

Pretty sharp.

 

[TehOh]

To be honest, I'm not that intertested in space flights. The space agencies should rather invest the money into some advanced robot missions.

I agree. Human spaceflight is what pulls in the public interest, but the real science happens in the robotic missions.

 

[Koshiro]

So this made me say wow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPQvTgD2quQ

Footage from cameras mounted on the shuttle system's solid rocket boosters. So you watch the shuttle take off and head on up towards fixing Hubble, but then as the boosters detach you stay with them and come back down. Great stuff.

 

[msv]

So this made me say wow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPQvTgD2quQ

Footage from cameras mounted on the shuttle system's solid rocket boosters. So you watch the shuttle take off and head on up towards fixing Hubble, but then as the boosters detach you stay with them and come back down. Great stuff.

On board camera footage is nice! Don't know if it's been posted yet but the LRO launch footage is great. Cool to see it go higher and higher, gradually, seeing the earth move farther away each minute.

 

[msv]

I agree. Human spaceflight is what pulls in the public interest, but the real science happens in the robotic missions.

Don't know about that, creating efficient, safe, spaceous environments for people can be as much of a challenge as creating robots to explore. But I agree, there's just more possibilities with unmanned space exploration. We need to go to Europa already.

 

[FiRez]

I never clicked this thread until now because I thought it was about Star Trek.
I was just bored and said "let see why this thread is so big" and now I recognize how wrong I was

 

[laserbeam]

Whats the point of going to Europa etc if we cannot even consistently go to the Moon.

 

[fallout]

Whats the point of going to Europa etc if we cannot even consistently go to the Moon.

I think he meant that we need to go to Europa with an unmanned mission. It's well within our capabilities, but would still be a little "pricey".

 

[laserbeam]

I think he meant that we need to go to Europa with an unmanned mission. It's well within our capabilities, but would still be a little "pricey".

Well yeah but still if we cannot even consistently do a manned mission to something 1 day away it gets to be pointless to study a moon even farther away. Europa is great but I think we need to be getting priorities right. Unmanned exploration is supposed to be the precursor to manned exploration yet we have all but abandoned Manned exploration

 

[Lucky Forward]

First images from the Lunar orbiter:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc_20090702_a.html
Pretty sharp.

Each image shows a region 1,400 meters (0.87 miles) wide, and features as small as 3 meters (9.8 feet) wide can be discerned.

I wonder if the Lunar orbiter would be able to image the Apollo landing sites and see traces left behind (e.g. LM descent stage)...and finally shut the conspiracists up once and for all.

 

[Windu]

Well yeah but still if we cannot even consistently do a manned mission to something 1 day away it gets to be pointless to study a moon even farther away.

 

[msv]

Whats the point of going to Europa etc if we cannot even consistently go to the Moon.

Who cares about the Moon. Let's go to Europa consistently!

I think he meant that we need to go to Europa with an unmanned mission. It's well within our capabilities, but would still be a little "pricey".

Indeed. Just look at it. Ice! Cracks!

Mission proposed for 2020.

Titan seems interesting as well, with liquid hydrocarbon lakes and a dense atmosphere.

 

[Blyss]

But what is there to discover on our moon? Nothing!

We should definitely stop wasting time on that stupid rock that we've got hanging there and focus on other shit.

 

[fallout]

Well yeah but still if we cannot even consistently do a manned mission to something 1 day away it gets to be pointless to study a moon even farther away. Europa is great but I think we need to be getting priorities right. Unmanned exploration is supposed to be the precursor to manned exploration yet we have all but abandoned Manned exploration

I think you've got that wrong. Unmanned missions are meant as cheaper, safer alternatives to manned missions. And I'm not exaggerating on the cheaper part, either--manned missions are insanely expensive. You could probably send hundreds of unmanned missions to Mars for the price of a single manned mission.

Sure, you can do more with people there, and it's more valuable in the long term for humanity, but there's a certain cost vs. reward analysis that you have to do. If a robot can do 90% of the science, why spend so much more just to eek out that last 10%? It'll be necessary some day, but not yet.