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

Scarecrow said:
Me and a friend at work are starting a near space weather balloon build like the one shown hear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtXquYhY7wo. I will keep you posted on how its going. Does anyone else want to try this as its quite cheap to do and would be good to share some info as it progresses?.
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I'd be interested in seeing how it progresses, i have looked into it but never had the money to actually go through with it :)

 
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Ariane 5 blasting off last night with the Arabsat-5C and SES-2 satellites aboard:

ariane5sep11.jpg
 
Just finishing up a great book that I found in a second hand bookshop, does anyone remember the TV series that BBC did called Space Race? Its been quite interesting and given me some new info that i hadnt heard before, mainly about Von Braun's early years.

Well worth a read anyway, its by Deborah Cadbury. Its really nice to be surprised by a book, im sure guys like SM and PB probably feel they re-read the same stories over and over again with very few differences!
 
How come the space station doesnt melt in the sun light?

Sounds stupid, but if its not in the ozone layer and gets a direct hit.. surely the heat is more than we can simulate on Earth?
 
China is getting ready to launch Tiangong 1 later this week from the Gobi desert. This will be a “docking demo”. Tiangong 1 is aboard a Long March 2F rocket. Later this year a Shenzhou 8 craft will launched for an automated rendezvous and docking with Tiangong 1. The demo is a proving run as part of China’s plan to design/build a space station by 2020.

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China will launch an unmanned module next week, paving the way for a planned space station, a spokesman for the space program said on Tuesday.

Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace 1", will blast off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province between Sept 27 and 30, the spokesman said.

The 8.5-ton module, and the Long March II-F rocket that will carry it skyward, were positioned onto the launch pad on Tuesday, signaling that the project has entered the final preparation stage.

Information provided by cctv.com Thank you http://www.cctv.com
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An Orbital Minotaur IV+ rocket was launched from Kodiak Island, Alaska earlier today carrying an experimental TacSat-4 communications satellite for the United States Navy and Operationally Responsive Space Office.

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The Minotaur's first stage is a decommissioned SR118 Peacekeeper missile motor.
 
OK, strange question but, if a Astronaut is out of his space ship/station and is looking away from the sun and into space itself:

1 - How far can he see?
2 - Can he see other planets?
3 - Can he see moving objects ie Meteors?
4 - Are the colours different to how we see them?
5 - If he looked at the sun (not sure if he can) but if that was possible, would he see it like in those clips where by the sun is flaring out and bubbling etc?
 
Scubascorpion said:
Please tell me I beat Simulatorman to it this time with this one..... :D

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You did, but i wanted to too :p

You get it from SaveJWST on Facebook? :D

mehuk said:
OK, strange question but, if a Astronaut is out of his space ship/station and is looking away from the sun and into space itself:

1 - How far can he see?
2 - Can he see other planets?
3 - Can he see moving objects ie Meteors?
4 - Are the colours different to how we see them?
5 - If he looked at the sun (not sure if he can) but if that was possible, would he see it like in those clips where by the sun is flaring out and bubbling etc?
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1) They can see pretty much for ever. Or at least as far as it is physically possible for light to have travelled from there to here in the time that the universe has existed :p

2) Assuming LEO - yes. Primarily the Earth. But they can see other planets in the solar system too, although much like we see them with our naked eye on Earth - as bright points of light. They would probably be brighter points of light though...

3) Depends how close they would be, but it is possible. Ron Garan posted a few pictures of this to Twitter during the Perseids i think.

4) Interesting question, i would say perhaps, due to the fact that billions of years of Evolution under a blue atmosphere must have had some effect on our ability to perceive colour. But i doubt it would be drastic, and your eyes would probably adjust to the difference before too long.

5) Not with the naked eye, they would see it in much the same way as we do on Earth. But i wouldn't recommend it, if it's very harmful on the ground just imagine what it could do without an atmosphere to protect you.
 
mehuk said:
OK, strange question but, if a Astronaut is out of his space ship/station and is looking away from the sun and into space itself:

1 - How far can he see?
2 - Can he see other planets?
3 - Can he see moving objects ie Meteors?
4 - Are the colours different to how we see them?
5 - If he looked at the sun (not sure if he can) but if that was possible, would he see it like in those clips where by the sun is flaring out and bubbling etc?
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You do realise they arent that far from the earth when in space right? :p
 
Skillmister said:
You do realise they arent that far from the earth when in space right? :p
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Thanks perma-banned for the answers :)

As for this, I dont actually know how far away from Earth they are? Id assume its in the millions of miles? idk, how far is it from Earth until we get into Space?

Also forgot to add, in the Space Station are they always opposite to the moon ie other side of the Earth, or can they actually see the Moon and how close are they? Couldnt they launch a mini ship to visit the moon from there?
 
mehuk said:
Thanks perma-banned for the answers :)

As for this, I dont actually know how far away from Earth they are? Id assume its in the millions of miles? idk, how far is it from Earth until we get into Space?

Also forgot to add, in the Space Station are they always opposite to the moon ie other side of the Earth, or can they actually see the Moon and how close are they? Couldnt they launch a mini ship to visit the moon from there?
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Space is just an hours drive away ;)

The 'official' boundary is something like 100km up, the ISS can be anywhere between 200 and 350km usually. The moon is 380,000km away.

There were plans to launch a vehicle capable of getting to the moon on the Shuttle, but they never came to fruition. Besides, an Apollo CSM would only just have fit, and the weight would be close to the rated max. And that didn't even get to the moon under it's own power - it was the third stage of the Saturn V that actually got it from LEO to a Translunar Trajectory.
 
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