Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  2 weeks ago

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@planet4589 : "When I was a kid 🧒, it was #LEO. Now, the frontier is out near the #asteroid belt, and the #Moon and #Mars are becoming part of where humanity just hangs out, maybe not yet as people, but with #robots. Meanwhile, #LEO is so normalized that it doesn’t take a #SpaceAgency to deal with it. You just call #SpaceX. Thousand years from now, perhaps more people live off Earth 🌌 than on it" https://www.cearkadia.edu.pl/jonathan-mcdowell-on-retiring-from-harvard-and-leaving-the-u-s

#SpaceExploration#SpaceHistory

Daniel Fischer
Daniel Fischer  ·  2 months ago

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How cool - and tragic - is this?!? The small Japanese rover #Yaoki that travelled to the #Moon on the ill-fated #Athena lander has been busy *inside* its transport box (that it couldn't leave without Athena's help), taking this picture which shows a slice of Moon through a slit and tried out various mechanics: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000021.000075722.html - had it been deployed to the surface it would probably have worked well.
Christian Fröschlin
Christian Fröschlin  ·  2 months ago

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Time lapse #astrophotography of sunrise over Montes Caucasus on last night's first quarter #Moon. Covers 4 hours of real time. 79 x 1500 x 35 ms Ha 35 nm in Celestron 8" + 2.5x powermate.
Closeup view of jagged terrain at the lunar terminator. The peaks of Montes Caucasus throw long shadows that initially extend into the terminator but shorten drastically over the course of the animation. Also as the animation loops the moon appears to shrink a tiny bit this is due to a change of distance as the observer rotates on Earth.
Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  2 months ago

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Early next month, #IM2 is targeting a touchdown at 84.6° south latitude, just 160 km from the #Moon’s 🌙 south pole. It will deploy an #ice-mining drill 🕳️ and mass spectrometer, a miniaturized rover, and a unique “hopper” craft. Its first hop will reach a height of 20 m with two additional hops aiming to reach 50 m then 100 m. On its fourth and fifth hops, it will leap in and out of a permanently shadowed region inside a 20 m-deep #crater. https://www.astronomy.com/space-exploration/intuitive-machines-preps-im-2-mission-for-moon-launch-this-week

#ISRU#MoonMining

Simeon Schmauß
Simeon Schmauß  ·  2 months ago

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Another one bites the (Moon)dust!

This is Intuitive Machines' #IM2 lander that once again toppled over after trying to land on Mons Mutons near the lunar south pole.

The picture had lots of detail hidden in the shadows which I brought out in processing.

#IntuitiveMachines#CLPS#NASA#Moon#Earth

Fisheye picture from the lunar surface taken by a camera attached to the top of the IM2 lander. The lander has fallen over on it's side and the legs point towards the small half lit earth in the far distance. The crater partially lies in the shade, which covers most of the foreground. A small hill is visible on the horizon. fisheye picture from the lunar surface taken by a camera attached to the top of the IM2 lander. The lander has fallen over on it's side and the legs point towards the small half lit earth in the far distance. The crater partially lies in the shade, which covers most of the foreground. A small hill is visible on the horizon.
Fisheye picture from the lunar surface taken by a camera attached to the top of the IM2 lander. The lander has fallen over on it's side and the legs point towards the small half lit earth in the far distance. The crater partially lies in the shade, which covers most of the foreground. A small hill is visible on the horizon. fisheye picture from the lunar surface taken by a camera attached to the top of the IM2 lander. The lander has fallen over on it's side and the legs point towards the small half lit earth in the far distance. The crater partially lies in the shade, which covers most of the foreground. A small hill is visible on the horizon.
Fisheye picture from the lunar surface taken by a camera attached to the top of the IM2 lander. The lander has fallen over on it's side and the legs point towards the small half lit earth in the far distance. The crater partially lies in the shade, which covers most of the foreground. A small hill is visible on the horizon. fisheye picture from the lunar surface taken by a camera attached to the top of the IM2 lander. The lander has fallen over on it's side and the legs point towards the small half lit earth in the far distance. The crater partially lies in the shade, which covers most of the foreground. A small hill is visible on the horizon.
Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  2 months ago

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The X marks Blue Ghost's landing site on the Moon, seen against the current lunar phase. The spacecraft touched down shortly after sunrise, hence the long shadows.

#science #blueghost #moon

Phil Stooke
Phil Stooke  ·  2 months ago

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My last map has a box labelled 'Fig. 175B'. Just a reminder that these are placeholders for figure numbers in a future project which I will be talking about later in the year.

Let's zoom in on that boxed area. This map shows the landing ellipse shown in a 2009 publication. A smaller box zooms in towards the landing site. A wrinkle ridge is just visible within it.

#maps #moon #luna17 #lunokhod1

Phil Stooke
Phil Stooke  ·  2 months ago

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Finally that zoom-in sequence leads to this. Box A in the previous post refers to A here, which takes us to B with the lander itself. Box C in the previous post refers to box C here and the link to D, the rover's final parking place. Tracks from Lunokhod's wheels are visible around Luna 17 and the parked rover. We will be following the traverse in a set of maps like the Apollo EVA maps. But first, let's consider how we know where Luna 17 landed. #maps #moon#Luna17#Lunokhod1
Four maps which show the locations on the Moon of Luna 17 and Lunokhod 1. They follow the previous 3 posts, going from a broad region to a small area - the post before this - containing two boxes labelled A and C. That A refers to the top left map here, which leads to B, showing Luna 17 on the surface. That C leads to the bottom left map here which leads to D, showing Lunokhod 1. Wheel tracks are visible around the lander and rover.
Four maps which show the locations on the Moon of Luna 17 and Lunokhod 1. They follow the previous 3 posts, going from a broad region to a small area - the post before this - containing two boxes labelled A and C. That A refers to the top left map here, which leads to B, showing Luna 17 on the surface. That C leads to the bottom left map here which leads to D, showing Lunokhod 1. Wheel tracks are visible around the lander and rover.
Four maps which show the locations on the Moon of Luna 17 and Lunokhod 1. They follow the previous 3 posts, going from a broad region to a small area - the post before this - containing two boxes labelled A and C. That A refers to the top left map here, which leads to B, showing Luna 17 on the surface. That C leads to the bottom left map here which leads to D, showing Lunokhod 1. Wheel tracks are visible around the lander and rover.
Phil Stooke
Phil Stooke  ·  2 months ago

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Zooming in again we see the ridge very clearly. I will have something to say about it soon. Among the scattered craters are two more boxes. The lower one shows the position of the lander. The upper one shows the final resting place of the rover. I make sequences of maps like these so people can easily find a small spacecraft in a large image (LRO NAC images are 50,000 pixels long and 5000 pixels wide, that's a lot of pixels to search through).
#maps #moon #luna17 #lunokhod1
Phil Stooke
Phil Stooke  ·  2 months ago

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Now it's very clear where Luna 17 landed. we have LRO images good enough to show the lander and rover and the wheel tracks. But what did we know before LRO? My first Moon atlas came out before LRO (so it was swiftly rendered out of date and some of my speculation was shown to be wrong). This illustration shows what I thought about the landing site in about 2005 when I was doing that work. Tracking and orbit data gave us a position accurate to within about 10 km. #maps #moon#Luna17 #lunokhod1
Phil Stooke
Phil Stooke  ·  2 months ago

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Here is that Soviet-era map. My shaded relief version, based on this, shows a large crater near the middle - the largest one in the map. Naturally I tied to match it to the orbital data. But it doesn't really exist if you check the LRO data, so I can use that as an excuse for not getting it right. Maybe it was a very subtle depression rather than a distinct crater. #maps #moon #luna17 #lunokhod1
Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  12 months ago

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#Moon 🌙 scouts will all be #robotic, designed to build a foundation for #astronauts 👨‍🚀 to follow about two years later. There is need for transporting 🚀 large masses of equipment and materials from #Earth. An #IntuitiveMachines lander is set to reach the Moon later this year. #NASA’s #JPL will release a “swarm” of robot-explorers equipped with stereo cameras 📹 and charged with creating photorealistic #3D maps 🗺️ of the #lunar terrain https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinholdenplatt/2024/04/27/robot-explorers-futuristic-spacex-starships-set-to-transform-the-moon/

#SpaceRobot#SpaceLogistics#Starship

Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  last year

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Breaking the full-size #humanoid speed world record (the previous record was about 2.5m/s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83ShvgtyFAg

Soon on the #moon 🌙 ? "The #Chinese 🇨🇳 firm shows its first humanoid to achieve a linear walking speed of 3.3m/s" https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/unitree-world-record-fastest-humanoid-robot

#SpaceRobot

Daniel Pomarède
Daniel Pomarède  ·  2 months ago

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A Dragonfly for Titan

A new eight-rotor robotic probe will head to the solar system’s most Earth-like moon. Here’s what its team is doing to prepare.

Check out this extensive paper by Matthew R. Francis for Eos, AGU's science news magazine

https://eos.org/features/a-dragonfly-for-titan

#Dragonfly#Titan#Saturn#Moon #satellite #solarsystem #planetaryscience #science#STEM #engineering #drone#AGU#Eos #news #magazine

Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

#Astronauts 👨‍🚀 travelling to #Mars would encounter #radiation ☢️ levels higher than humans have ever experienced, and be exposed to them for much longer.

To protect them, the #spacecraft would either have to be much bulkier, making launches expensive and difficult, or be made of more efficient #shielding 🛡️ materials. https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-missions/how-will-humans-survive-the-journey-to-mars

#RadiationProtection#LunarGateway#Artemis#Moon

Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  last year

Content Warning

One of the biggest impediments to reform was @senbillnelson , the former #US senator from #Florida who represented #KennedySpaceCenter and now runs #NASAhttps://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/21/get-your-boy-elon-in-line-nasa-tell-all-recounts-turmoil-over-private-space-race-00041085

(The same guy who now wonders whether #China 🇨🇳 might be faster on the #Moon 🤦‍♂️)

#SpacePolitics#SpaceRace

Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  4 months ago

Content Warning

📆 2025 preview :

• #Moon 🌙 deliveries by #Astrobotic, #IntuitiveMachines and #Firefly Aerospace.
• #SPHEREx will create a map of the universe 🌌
• #ESA's 🇪🇺 #SpaceRider #spaceplane orbital test flight
• #Japan's 🇯🇵 lunar lander and micro-rover
• #Tianwen2 🇨🇳 collects samples from a #NEA ☄️
• #BepiColombo at #Mercury
• #EuropaClipper at #Mars
• #NASA’s #Lucy #asteroid flyby
• #JUICE at #Venus
https://www.astronomy.com/space-exploration/space-missions-coming-in-2025

• #SierraSpace#DreamChaser test mission to the #ISShttps://www.planetary.org/articles/calendar-of-space-events-2025

Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  2 years ago
🤔 Why isn't the #ISS (partially) recycled (by #SpaceRobot) and parts ⚙️ or raw material used for the #LunarGateway (maybe for #RadiationProtection instead of #luggage 🛍️)? The #BBC article doesn't cover this https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/why-is-the-iss-being-retired-and-what-will-happen-to-it

The #LaunchCost 💰 were very high to bring this material to #orbit 🚀 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station

Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  2 years ago

Content Warning

#ESA 📆 05/06/2020 #Orbit #recycling ♻️ : An idea submitted to the #OpenSpace Innovation Platform (#OSIP) proposed that orbital #debris 🗑️ could be used for in-situ resource manufacturing on the #Moon 🌙 https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/06/Orbit_recycling

How about #ISRU of #ISS components ? 🤔

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