space General Space Discussion (Thread 1)

[DocM]

A new explanation for reaction wheel failures

 

 

[Emn1ty]

3 hours ago, DocM said:

A new explanation for reaction wheel failures

 

 

Scott Manley did a nice video on it.

 

 

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

Uh-Oh...two MMOD (micro-meteor & orbital debris) impact holes and a leak on Soyuz MS-09, which is currently attached ISS.

 

 

 

[Beittil]

If it is just the orbital module there should be no biggy here... patch the leak and when the astro's come home that whole thing will burn up anyway

[Unobscured Vision]

Yep, read about that earlier. Big brouhaha .. and bent egos on the NASA side. Watch and see if there isn't fallout over this.

[Beittil]

OMFG... can somebody say CHARLIE FOXTROT!!!!

 

 

[Unobscured Vision]

WHOA. So a defect in manufacturing which then failed ... and said defect should have never occurred in the first place. WHAT THE ****.

 

That kind of defect just doesn't happen. Not even in Russia. Nobody is that careless.

 

NASA is gonna pull our people for sure now. A defect like this can and will cause explosive decompression events if there are other engineering/design defects. Any Engineer worth their salt knows how to work down a fault tree.

[DocM]

HOLY FARK!!

 

Commercial Crew can't happen fast enough!! ??

[Unobscured Vision]

Any additional information, guesstimation, summation and other conjecture on my (or anyone else's) part is not allowed now. Draw the curtains again. /sigh

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

DARPA Blackjack: DoD pivot to LEO satellite constellations

 

Leveraging large LEO constellations and techs (SpaceX's StarLink, OneWeb) for DoD purposes

 

Given the USAF interest, and recent test programs, for using SpaceX's StarLink for military aircraft comms, this sounds way more serious than most DARPA projects. Pages 4 & 5 pf the presentation show a Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

 

Interview with Blackjack Program Manager  Paul "Rusty" Thomas, formerly of SpaceX (Senior Director, Dragon Production) 

 

https://www.c4isrnet.com/thought-leadership/2018/07/30/the-calculus-of-cheaper-military-comms-satellites/

 

Quote

Thomas: Blackjack is aimed at leveraging the new mesh networks being set up by these commercial companies. A user currently in the DoD might need to look up at two or three different options in space to actually talk and do communications in this space segment. Once we link up and do encryption, the user on the ground will look up and see hundreds or more potential network nodes overhead at any given point on the planet, North Pole to South Pole; it’s going to drastically change how the DoD does communication.

That is a bit independent of what Blackjack is going to do. If the commercial companies succeed and come out, that capability, call it raw gigabit-per-second class, not all of them it. But they all have many megabit data links from one point of the planet to another, at very low latency, 100-200 milliseconds, so you do really change the game for how any user, DoD included, does global communication.

 

PowerPoint...

 

PowerPoint as PDF...

Edited September 6, 2018 by DocM

[Draggendrop Veteran]

69th IAC from 1st to the 5th of October, 2018.

 

Quote

GLOBAL NETWORKING FORUM

Reusability: The Key to Reliability and Affordability

Wednesday 3 October 2018, 11:20 – 12:20

Location: Bremen Conference Center – DLR Hall

 

Quote

Hans Koenigsmann

Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability,

SpaceX,

http://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac-2018/global-networking-forum/wednesday-dlr-hall-1120-1220-reusability-the-key-to-reliability-and-affordability/

[Draggendrop Veteran]

India Unveils Its Own Spacesuit Design for 2022 Astronaut Flights

 

 

Quote

The Indian Space Research Organisation showed off the spacesuit it has designed in-house for its first human space missions at an event held on Sept. 6.

The display comes weeks after the country announced an ambitious timeline to launch its first crewed mission by 2022 in time to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the country's independence. The human-spaceflight program is called Gaganyaan and will build on the legacy of India's first astronaut, Rakesh Sharma, who flew in 1984. But this time, India is developing every aspect of the program, which means tackling problems like spacesuit design. 

https://www.space.com/41774-india-unveils-spacesuit-design-gagayaan-2022.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

[DocM]

Farewell, Delta II !!

What a workhorse, and still launched by an 'ugly bag of mostly water' pressing a console button.

There's one more in storage, currently spare parts for this mission but likely headed for a museum after the ICESat-2 launch.

 

NASA's ICESat-2; observations of ice-sheet elevation change, sea-ice freeboard, and vegetation canopy height.

 

Saturday Sept. 15

 

SLC-2W, Vandenberg Air Force Base

 

0546-0820 PDT; 0846-1120 EDT; 1246-1520 GMT

 

 

Edited September 12, 2018 by DocM

[Draggendrop Veteran]

We know SpaceX and Blue Origin are in full reusable mode. China is also slowly adapting to this.

 

Look familiar....

 

China's latest satellite launch used a parafoil to limit damage downrange

 

Quote

China tested the use of a parafoil on the payload fairing of its latest orbital launch last Friday, with the aim of improving accuracy of its return to Earth and potentially eventual reusability.

The launch of the Haiyang-1C marine observation satellite took place at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China, with a Long March 2C rocket successfully placing the satellite into a 770 x 786 km altitude orbit inclined by 98.6 degrees.

China's traditional satellite launch sites are situated deep inland, due in main to the security concerns raised by the ongoing Cold War and Sino-Soviet split. This means discarded stages, boosters and payload fairings often fall to ground - sometimes in inhabited areas - instead of the oceans, as with US and European launches.

Following and inspired by the successes of SpaceX and Blue Origin in launching and landing and, in this case, attempting to recover payloads, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main space programme contractor, is seeking to bring similar technology to bear on its own launch vehicles.

https://gbtimes.com/chinas-latest-satellite-launch-used-a-parafoil-to-limit-damage-downrange

 

[youtube]

 

 

?

[DocM]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

[+John. Subscriber¹]

"It'll never work!" 

starts working

 

"Copy it!"

[DocM]

Good luck copying Raptor, and its metallugy.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Quote

40 years ago today, September 17, 1978: Audiences are introduced to the Twelve Colonies of Mankind, which are about to have a very, very bad day.

https://twitter.com/daytonward/status/1041671442893615104

 

[DocM]

Michigan Low Earth Orbit Launch Facility

There's a 2-day workshp this weekend in Traverse City. State, local; Boeing Defense, Space & Security; United Launch Alliance, ATLAS Space Operations (moved here from California), etc.

Keynote Address: Lt Gen David A. Deptula, USAF (Ret.)

 

Wonder if they're going to re-open the Upper Peninsula's Keweenaw Rocket Range, which closed in 1971?

[Unobscured Vision]

Interesting!

[DocM]

20 hours ago, Unobscured Vision said:

Interesting!

 

 

[Unobscured Vision]

We'll have to keep an eye on how this develops. It being Michigan, though ... we never get nice things. 

[DocM]

Pat Host is a reporter for Jane's, so it's pretty certain he'll track it.