Space and Science BS Thread

Apollo CSM?

 

Yup, Saturn 1B and Saturn V. 1B’s for leo test flights plus some later Skylab missions plus Apollo-Soyuz and the big boy for the moon shots. Both used the S-IVb as the final stage to orbit. It was all of a piece though with both being initially developed for the same program and using the csm.

 

Not sure how we missed the https://spaceflightnow.com/2025/03/...alcon-9-rocket-from-the-kennedy-space-center/ Fram 2 mission. First humans to do polar orbit.

 

Ars interview with the pilots about starliner... https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/...starliner-was-like-when-its-thrusters-failed/

 

It wasn’t really hyped. And if I may say so, me leaving Twitter has really put a dent in the posts here.

In any case, it’s not widely publicized but there’s higher exposure galactic radiation and solar particles during high inclination orbits and the thinking is this will result in higher chances of cancer.

On the fun side, there’s an opportunity to participate in the mission from the ground-
AN URGENT CALL FOR AURORA PHOTOS:Last night, four first-time astronauts soared into space onboard a Falcon 9 rocket and became the first humans to orbit over Earth's poles. Part of their mission is to study "weird auroras"--and they need our help. Aurora photos taken from the ground during the next 3 to 5 days may help the pioneering astronauts of Fram2 interpret their own space-based images. Find out how to participate on today's edition of Spaceweather.com.

 

Hadn’t heard they waived flight rules just to dock. This reads something like a Mir story….
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/04/the-harrowing-story-of-what-flying-starliner-was-like-when-its-thrusters-failed/

Screw anyone who would distort the truth for any reason.

Good luck to the Starliner 2 crew.

 

Fram2 landed, first one in the pacific.

 

The last of the Turtles has flown!
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/20...es-International-Space-Station/4491744095248/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Astronaut_Group_22

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Kim
An extraordinary American

 

I wonder how many versions there will be of Starship and what they will look like and do. Obviously we’ll be looking at HLS and crewed Mars transit/landing ships but there are fuel depot, tanker, cargo only(with minimal or no life support only such as needed to access/offload), Space Force rapid relocation ships, and Starlink but it seems to me there would likely be other versions, some with return capability and some without. Starlink won’t be the only satellite format especially if/when we have larger core modules than can be launched on F9 or FH so there will probably be some other means than the Pez dispenser whether it’s similar to Neutron or the Space Shuttle or something else entirely. I’m sure that if the DOD gets it’s way there will be need to know versions we won’t know about whether as manned or unmanned, armed or not. But for now it’s safer to just consider the commercial tasks ahead and imagine what it will take to accomplish them. Is there any reason to think that the booster could be used with something other than a Starship stacked on top? Simply (or not so simply) replace the core stage and SRB’s of Artemis with a reusable booster and launch whatever payload you need. Like, maybe a much moar bigly DART?

 

Pretty much inevitable once there’s something to fight over and access is available. Hopefully the fact that both the moon and anything else we might fight over is so plentiful it won’t be worth it but we are nothing if not contentious. For now I think there’s more risk of a Kessler event either self inflicted or spawned by an unusually dense meteor swarm.

 

This is a pretty amazing way 3D printing can improve medicine. damn wrong link.
They’ve come up with 3D printed titanium that both mimics the flexibility of bone and allows and promotes bone growth into the socket and ball backing matrices so that glue and screws are no longer needed and the stress cracks that commonly lead to replacements are no longer an issue.

 

This is one of Scott Manleys better efforts. Things that may not work on earth but could on the moon or even be Taylor made for it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TAFaUvS18V4
My thinking is that water ice might be too precious a resource to be used for fuel when there are other more plentiful options that don’t compete with its need(water is more than fuel, it’s life). Turn solar wind & cosmic radiation from a hazard into a resource. Water is it’s own best use when the amount is limited. It cannot be recovered or recycled when made into fuel and exhausted in a vacuum. Within an atmosphere where it is somewhat contained it’s a different story but that’s not the case on the moon. Enceladus would be a different kettle of fish where water is THE most abundant resource for just about anything.

 

Yes.

I mean first fully reusable upper stage. It's like asking how many variants of the DC-3 or C130 there's gonna be.

And since they're resuable, at some point we're gonna go to Al's Flight Proven Rocket Mart, weld some stuff together, and get a ride up on a SH.

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasas-hubble-space-telescope-marks-35-years-from-launch/

 

We’ll, it’s not like Nelsen didn’t have ideas of his own when he took the job so I think it will be more about how open Isaacman is to the reasons his idea was declined back then and whether it makes more or less sense in the current budget situation. Keep in mind that POTUS proposes a budget but congress and the senate actually make it law so the radical cuts looming may or may not happen. Those are a lot of jobs, companies, and back room support being ditched with many projects worth of investment being pissed away for nada. I guess we’ll see who he is soon enough and where NASA will be allowed to go.

 

Ships are one thing, the stuff that allows us to tag along and do things upon arrival are the basis for a huge industry. Cutting funding for NASA to help develop that industry when it could mean control of where jobs become available seems short sighted.

 

Firm 'maybe'. Unless you mean specific states for pork reasons, that heck with that. But let's say for example, TDRS. Which, btw is getting not-replaced. From the link

Does NASA really need to do it in house? Can the same ability be procured as a (for bid) service, with N number of accepted bids to keep competition around)? Note that during Polaris Dawn and Fram2, the data was mostly transmitted via Starlink. Via Ars

... 200-2000 times higher bandwidth than the ISS. That's a revolution.

Let's look at Earth Observation. That too, can be done as a service. Look at Planet, Maxar, and Iceeye. Again, at the same altitudes and bands, vastly better and more rapidly refreshed imagery. Granted, there are bands which the commercial birds don't have, but that could be contracted out with common hardware with the commercial folks as much as possible. No need to keep folks in house for that, and NASA, in those cases can concentrate on being a customer.

Don't get me wrong - there are instances where the commercial market isn't close enough yet, and so that might be kept in house. But the idea of doing way more while spending the same amount (or heck, slightly less) is pretty intriguing. Not just to me, but to NASA. Which is why CRS, Commercial Crew, CLPS, LCRNS, etc, have took off.

 

I’m not saying keep the pork but that we should be spending that money to expand the very industries that we do have a head start in and require to go to the moon and Mars rather than recreate industries abandoned decades ago because we can no longer compete in those low tech, low wage industries. Expanding on what you pointed to in your last paragraph. Lead where we have the advantage.