** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

[Orionaut]

Skylon doesn't exist yet, although it's single stage to orbit.
When it does exist as it's single stage to orbit it has a small payload due to all the extra mass it has to haul up.
So it would never be able to achieve the same as a big rocket.

Skylon will be good for getting people up, or light weight stuff, it will never be able to get 100ton+ payload into orbit, reusable rockets for getting infrastructure, fuel etc up. Falcon 9 can't get anywhere near 100tons up, but they're working on a Big ******* rocket.

Do a web search for "BAC Mustard" and "Sea Dragon" for comparative purposes

Years ago I managed to find (And saved) a PDF of NASA stuff referring to post Saturn launchers, but I cannot find the link now. An interesting read, Gas cored nuclear engines etc !

 

[Cosimo]

Tim Peake brushes his teeth:

A first for Blue Origin as it re-launches the New Shepard rocket booster that it launched into space two months ago:

 

[Cosimo]

Tim Peake doing some housework:

 

[Cosimo]

A look at CubeSats and the ExoMars programme:

 

[chris.tarry85]

Can someone spec me a couple of books that are a cross between a coffee table book and a good read?

Basically I want something with lots of good pictures, but some good details in too.

Something from Mercury to the Space Shuttle era preferably

Thanks!

 

[Cosimo]

Can someone spec me a couple of books that are a cross between a coffee table book and a good read?

Basically I want something with lots of good pictures, but some good details in too.

Something from Mercury to the Space Shuttle era preferably

Thanks!

I think that a good starting point would be (look on Amazon):

Nasa: The Complete Illustrated History Hardcover – 28 Sep 2005 by Michael H. Gorn

Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon, 1963 - 1972 Hardcover – 15 May 2013 by David West Reynolds

Lots of information and very well illustrated.

 

[Cosimo]

Tim Peake has a wash...

 

[platypus]

There's loads of awesome things about space. Watching someone have a wash is not one of them.

 

[Cosimo]

Rollout of a Proton-M/Briz-M with the Eutelsat 9B satellite which is due for launch on the 29th:

 

[Glaucus]

Elon Musk will announce Mars Colonial Transport at International Astronautical Congress - Guadalajara, Mexico; 67th IAC (September 26-30, 2016)

Damn so far away, still going to be great.

 

[Cosimo]

SpaceX performed a successful test of its parachute system for the Crew Dragon spacecraft near Coolidge, Arizona, as part of its final development and certification work with NASA's Commercial Crew Program:

 

[Cosimo]

Nice timelapse video shows the preparations for LISA Pathfinder’s launch at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The video spans three weeks, from 12th November 2015 until the launch on 3rd December:

 

[Cosimo]

The week:

 

[Cosimo]

EDRS-A node (the first building block of the European Data Relay Satellite) riding piggyback on the Eutelsat 9B communications satellite, launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Proton rocket:

 

[Cosimo]

^^^

The Proton-M/Briz-M with the Eutelsat 9B satellite launch:

 

[Cosimo]

Tim Peake prepares his breakfast:

 

[Cosimo]

Curiosity Self-Portrait at Martian Sand Dune

This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at "Namib Dune," where the rover's activities included scuffing into the dune with a wheel and scooping samples of sand for laboratory analysis.


The scene combines 57 images taken on Jan. 19, 2016, during the 1,228th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The camera used for this is the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) at the end of the rover's robotic arm.


Namib Dune is part of the dark-sand "Bagnold Dune Field" along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. Images taken from orbit have shown that dunes in the Bagnold field move as much as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year.


The location of Namib Dune is show on a map of Curiosity's route at http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=7640. The relationship of Bagnold Dune Field to the lower portion of Mount Sharp is shown in a map at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16064.)


The view does not include the rover's arm. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. This process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity self-portraits taken at sample-collection sites, including "Rocknest" (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16468), "Windjana" (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18390) and "Buckskin" (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19807).


For scale, the rover's wheels are 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide.


MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.


More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

 

[Cosimo]

Animation of the 42nd spacewalk this time by the Russian crew members Yuri Malenchenko and Sergey Volkov:

Their objectives are to deploy and retrieve several experiment packages on the Zvezda and Poisk modules and install devices called gap spanners, which will be placed on the hull of the station to facilitate the movement of crew members on future spacewalks.

Malenchenko and Volkov also will install the Vinoslivost experiment, which will test the effects of the space environment on various structural material samples, and test a device called the Restavratsiya experiment, which could be used to glue special coatings to external surfaces of the station’s Russian segment.

The pair will retrieve the EXPOSE-R Experiment, a collection of biological and biochemical samples placed in the harsh environment of space. The EXPOSE program is part of ESA’s (European Space Agency) research into astrobiology, or the study of the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe.

The spacewalk will be the 193rd in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the sixth spacewalk for Malenchenko and the fourth spacewalk for Volkov. Malenchenko will be designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1) and Volkov will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2). Both will wear Russian Orlan spacesuits bearing blue stripes.

The walk starts at 13:10 GMT (08:10 EST) tomorrow and will be live here:

http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv

 

[Cosimo]

Tim Peake with an in-flight educational event about life aboard and research with students and schools in the UK:

 

[Cosimo]

Atlas V GPS IIF-12: Encapsulation and Payload Mate

Launch from SLC-41 Cape Canaveral is on the 5th at 13:38-13:57 UTC.