25.

Smath I hope all that occurs as planned that is for sure!

[Edited on November 12, 2014 at 9:42 PM. Reason : .]

11/12/2014 9:41:51 PM

Even though Pluto has gotten demoted, it's kind of cool we're going to be observing something rather large (compared to comets anyway) in our solar system when this is our most detailed image of it:



[Edited on November 12, 2014 at 11:09 PM. Reason : /]

11/12/2014 11:08:51 PM

manned flight seems like a huge waste until we can establish a permanent base. Robots can do literally everything up until its time for humans to move in.

11/14/2014 4:55:03 PM

That's like saying there was no point of manned space flight until we could have a permanent station in orbit.

11/14/2014 5:42:14 PM

http://www.iflscience.com/space/watch-expedition-4243-crew-launch-live

1 minute to launch

11/23/2014 4:00:57 PM

^^^No, they can't. Beyond a certain distance, control lag becomes too much of an issue for people on Earth to guide robots and AI isn't nearly advanced enough to do everything itself.

11/24/2014 12:50:25 AM

crew safely made it to the ISS.

and i saw this on Reddit... new camera footage from the Antares launch mishap a few weeks ago.
http://youtu.be/n9ythm-Rjy4

11/24/2014 7:21:46 AM

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/2014/1120-a-mission-to-europa-just-got-got-more-likely.html

11/24/2014 7:22:41 AM

I really hope for a Europa mission as that is where we are most likely to find complex life within the solar system. I am not sure what technology they would use that could scan a liquid ocean beneath thick ice but we shall see.

11/24/2014 11:41:27 AM

Hubble data recently indicated there might be occasional geysers that erupt from within Europa... This would allow a spacecraft to fly through the water and take certain readings.

11/24/2014 12:55:14 PM

That is an excellent point Smath74.

11/24/2014 12:59:52 PM

can someone with HTML post this at a reasonable size?

http://i.imgur.com/ecVoaWm.jpg

11/24/2014 9:14:15 PM

^^^NASA is actually sponsoring a bunch of student design team projects for that actually. Its still in very primitive phases but I helped review a few concept designs that included sending a mass spectrometer through a Europan geyser eruption.

11/25/2014 12:09:19 AM

11/25/2014 9:38:46 AM

11/25/2014 6:44:28 PM

Will Orion only fly on the SLS?

12/1/2014 1:40:53 PM

as planned yes. (except for the test flight on a Delta IV Heavy this Thursday!!)

12/1/2014 2:01:12 PM

So Orion will never have any LEO missions?

12/1/2014 2:15:42 PM

it's not designed to. if it were ever needed as a backup (of the backup) to the ISS, it would still launch on SLS. (of course by the time Orion is ready for manned flight, there will only be a few years left of the ISS (if it hasn't been deorbited before then)

12/1/2014 2:18:50 PM

Crew capsules like that aren't designed to remain in orbit around the Earth.

12/2/2014 10:14:27 PM

As I said in chit chat I am happy to see the big push to deep space exploration. I hope I am still around to see the Mars mission when it occurs.

12/3/2014 10:47:01 AM

^A realistic timeline (barring no politicians messing things up) should put a manned Mars mission at around the late 2030s, so definitely within our timeline.

12/3/2014 10:55:32 AM

Yeah I also have high hopes that I am around to see a manned mission to Mars. Ill be in my 50s come the 2030's so it gives me hope, but at the same time I can see it being pushed back or finding a way to die early haha

12/3/2014 11:27:15 AM

I just looked up where that "Attempt No Landing There" quote comes from... How have I missed whatever movie that was? I only saw the last three mins from the YouTube clip, but what the what??? That was so bizarre.

12/4/2014 7:26:50 AM

2010: The year we make contact.

[Edited on December 4, 2014 at 7:35 AM. Reason : Arthur C. Clarke book title is 2010: Odyssey Two]

12/4/2014 7:30:39 AM

Although Stanley Kubrick's rendition of 2001: A Space Odyssey was a fairly good recreation of the book, the movie 2010 was pretty bad. It left out a lot of stuff.

12/4/2014 8:55:31 AM

The screenplay was made first and the movie and book were made at the same time.

12/4/2014 8:56:20 AM

yeah it was a collaboration between ACC and SK.

originally they wanted to credit the movie to "Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke" and credit the book to "Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick"

12/4/2014 9:40:12 AM

I'm actually reading those books now for the first time. There are four of them. 2061: Odyssey Three and 3001: The Final Odyssey are the others. While the books are definitely sequels to each other, he changed backstory in each one based on real events in space exploration and science.

The original book actually has a lot of interesting differences from the movie even though they were done simultaneously in collaboration. One is that the mission in the book is to Saturn, but Kubrick decided that they couldn't pull off a convincing Saturn using existing effects technology.

The books are also much more explicit and detailed about the extraterrestrials, what happens to Dave Bowman, and what happens to HAL.

12/4/2014 8:58:52 PM

I've read 2001 and part of 3001. I'd like to read them all.

speaking of reading, I just finished "The Martian" by Andy Weir.
It was really good and spaceflight fans would enjoy it.
Apparently Ridley Scott is directing a movie version to be released next year starring Matt Damon.
Do yourself a favor and read this book.

[Edited on December 4, 2014 at 9:30 PM. Reason : ]

12/4/2014 9:08:42 PM

I remember what happened now. I saw 2001 when I was 19 and thought the ending was weird, but very well done. Then Gamecat and I watched the sequel, and it was pretty much the worst movie I ever saw and promptly scrubbed it from my memory.

12/5/2014 8:05:43 AM

there were some decent parts to the movie. it was good to see HAL again.

12/5/2014 8:22:35 AM

http://www.space.com/27955-spacex-rocket-ocean-landing-platform.html

Space X is going to attempt to re-light the first stage and soft-land it on a floating platform in the ocean next week. They have had a couple of tests already resulting in "soft spashdowns" of their falcon 9 first stage.

This is a test of what hopefully will become a way to cheaply re-use first stage launch hardware and therefore cut launch costs significantly. Eventually they want the first stage to fly back to the launch pad area and land on land. (not the same pad they took off from, but one close by.)

12/9/2014 2:13:27 PM

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/12/new-horizons-spacecraft-comes-out-of-hibernation-for-pluto-flyby/

12/9/2014 3:17:44 PM

The next half year is going to be exciting. First up close views of Ceres (which was originally classified as a planet when it was discovered), and the first up close views of Pluto (which too was classified as a planet as we all know!)

12/9/2014 4:01:04 PM

http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/12/7381083/nasa-to-see-budget-increase-under-federal-spending-bill

Europa is getting 100 million dollars worth of love in the budget bill the House passed.

12/12/2014 9:51:26 AM

^ Nice!

12/14/2014 6:46:19 PM

Just got some of these nifty EFT-1 lapel pins at work!



[Edited on December 15, 2014 at 11:12 AM. Reason : image was too big]

12/15/2014 11:11:47 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/science/space/next-frontier-for-spacex-and-elon-musk-landing-a-rocket-on-earth.html?_r=0

Mmk space nerds, big day for SpaceX tomorrow. Chances this thing actually lands on the barge? Is Musk being optimistic?

1/5/2015 2:15:27 PM

i think musk is predicting somewhere around 50/50

1/5/2015 2:17:15 PM

SpaceX scrubbed due to an unspecified issue with the second stage.

1/6/2015 8:15:12 AM

ugh i was excited when it got to under 3 minutes too. (which is about the time i got out of the shower and ran downstairs to watch)

next attempt on Friday at some ungodly hour even earlier.

1/6/2015 11:13:56 AM

Thought about getting up early to watch the launch tomorrow.

Saw 4:47AM EST launch time.

Now plan on sleeping in.

1/9/2015 12:09:59 PM

I'll set my alarm but more than likely I'm going to turn it off, roll over, and go back to sleep.

1/9/2015 12:44:52 PM

Great article about life on the ISS: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/12/5200-days-in-space/383510/

[Edited on January 14, 2015 at 6:20 PM. Reason : .]

1/14/2015 6:20:10 PM

good read thanks for posting!

1/15/2015 8:35:27 AM

https://vine.co/v/OjqeYWWpVWK

video of attempted SpaceX barge landing

1/16/2015 9:20:45 PM

why is hydraulic fluid being spent? or are they adding 50% more fluid just to slow the potential hemorrhaging?

1/20/2015 7:25:48 PM

it's not a closed loop hydraulic system... it's an open system - when fluid is used it is not recycled. a weight saving/simplification choice from my understanding.

1/20/2015 9:28:23 PM

pretty bad ass video of the reusable Falcon Heavy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ca6x4QbpoM

1/28/2015 10:07:11 AM