Space Thread

[Neel Here]

a place to discuss about man's endeavour to conquer the last frontier. hope the moderators and members do not mind this imposition.

starting with a picture from NASA's this day in astronomy.
Discovery's Dawn
Image Credit & Copyright: Craig Crawford

Explanation: On April 5, visitors to Kennedy Space Center saw these colorful clouds, twisting and drifting through dawn skies. Of course, the clouds were rocket engine plumes from the predawn launch of the space shuttle Discovery on the STS-131 mission to the International Space Station. Their layered colors are created as they reflect the reddened light from the still rising Sun. Fittingly, denizens of the space center's rocket garden are lit in the foreground. At the far left is a 1960s vintage multistage Atlas-Agena rocket. Together on the right, are Mercury-Redstone and Mercury-Atlas rockets.

p.s. how do I resize the image ?

[magic boy]

Originally Posted by Neel Here

p.s. how do I resize the image ?

you have to do something after inserting the image link between tag

normally:

to resize it: [BIMG=www.**********.jpg]write preferable image size (like 400/500/550 etc)[/BIMG]

for example reply to my this post and get a view how I've resized the image of 1600x1200

[Neel Here]

thank you bhai, ATMR has already done it in the first image, so thanks to you both !
--------------------

Baby Stars !


(ESA) – Herschel’s latest image reveals the formation of previously unseen large stars, each one up to ten times the mass of our Sun. These are the stars that will influence where and how the next generation of stars are formed. The image is a new release of ‘OSHI’, ESA’s Online Showcase of Herschel Images.

The Rosette Nebula resides some 5,000 light years from Earth and is associated with a larger cloud that contains enough dust and gas to make the equivalent of 10,000 Sun-like stars.

[Neel Here]

Russia's cold-war era ICBM launches cryosat-2, ESA's (european space agency) satellite for studying ice.

[tonoy]

I recently watched the "Wonders of the solar system" produced by BBC with professor Brian Cox. The production is truly spectacular. I would encourage all the kids and grown ups to watch it(I will gladly provide the link to you in HD format if required; torrentless). I love watching space documentaries. Ask me about any space documentary and the chances are that I have already watched it more than once.

Couple of new expeditions that I am eagerly waiting for are the New Horizon and the Europa Jupiter System Mission(NASA/ESA). Last I remember New Horizon was supposed to make it to flyby Pluto by the year 2015, while the EJSM was supposed to launch by the year 2020. I am actually looking much forward to the Europa mission because of the possible liquid ocean underneath the ice sheet.

[tonoy]

Oops, almost forgot about the Dawn mission which is supposed to visit Vesta(2011) and Ceres(2015). We might as well make 2015 the year of the dwarf planets.

[Electrequiem]

Every Black Hole Contains Another Universe?

[tonoy]

^^^ Certainly doesn't sound like a new theory. If I remember correctly, I seem to have read up on this theory earlier on couple of books.

[Orpheus]

Tonoy, so this is what you do when your Taxi is broken. Listen you better fix that crap fast and start earning some money instead of reading and watching this crap. Your sister hasn't eaten roti for 7 days now. And still she gained two pounds since her last weight of 280 lbs.

Talak diteo pari na - I don't wanna lose that 300 dollars diamond ring from craigslist. That's one week worth of driving around skinny drunken college girls in a circle and cheepar goli.

[cluster11]

The Europa and Pluto missions are exciting. But they are so far out into the solar system I feel our luck of making substantial discoveries in outer Solar System is decades away. Mars is lot closer and more tangible. With all the evidence we keep getting of geyser and water very close to surface etc. I hope NASA, ESA and others will continue building bigger presence there. How Mars was thought of back in the early '90s and what we know of it today is very different. The big problem is manned mission - just too damn expensive.

[cluster11]

With all the news reports today about Obama administrations plans on space program - I feel sort of bad for NASA but there are glimmers of hope. I remember visiting KSC with my oldest son few years back (a wide-eyed 5-yr old that time). The Shuttle missions were on freeze after the Columbia disaster. Everybody there was eager to get moving and to get back in space again. But I could also feel how nervous they were and the pressure of expectation they have to live by. Well, now they don't have anymore launch vehicle with the Shuttle fleet retired. Probably for the first time in 45+ years we don't have an american spacecraft to carry humans into space! We have to pay the Russians double the usual fee to hitch a ride to ISS. I can see why Neil Armstrong feels so angry.

But in this economy the new plan should be better in the long run. Private companies getting the rights to launch vehicle and spacecraft are road maps to future things like space tourism and space hotels. And spending $100 million on a shuttle flight just simply couldn't be justified when the Russians do it for $20 million (that too paid by a tourist buying the extra seat). I think by the end of this decade China will have a space station and Japan and India will achieve their goal of landing spacecraft in moon. It may look painful today for USA but in space some competition is better than being all alone IMHO :-) .

[Neel Here]

China has already launched people into space and India plans to do so by 2017.

ESA might do that if it feels the need. the days of unilateral superiority for NASA are over.

[tonoy]

You guys must be kidding here right? I mean to say NASA is losing it's superiority over other because of few budget cuts is quite preposterous. Just because there are other space agencies that finally are able to send a man to space doesn't mean that they are at one with NASA. China plans to have a spacecraft in the moon by the year 2020. Well guess what, the US has done that 50 years ago. The sheer amount of research and exploration done by NASA will put it's closest rival to shame. Where was the rest of the world when NASA had it's Apollo, Voyager, Pioneer, viking, Pathfinder and Hubble program? Sure, it might not be the most efficient agency, but the sheer amount of achievements it has made over the past 5 decades are insurmountable by any present agency. You might as well compare a street beggar with Bill Gates...

[Neel Here]

tonoy, you misunderstand what I was saying. NASA's accomplishments over the last 50 years are for everyone to see, none can take that away. their current capabilities and budget too dwarfs other space programs.
that however does not mean that they enjoy the same level of superiority that they used to have (well they and the russians were the only ones, so it was no competition really. others were not even in the race)
in the future that superiority will further erode, NASA will have to cooperate with other space agencies if they want to maintain their edge, due to these agencies being more efficient economically and this will also invariably lead to niche areas where they will take over NASA in technology as well.

Sure, it might not be the most efficient agency, but the sheer amount of achievements it has made over the past 5 decades are insurmountable by any present agency.

but why would any agency want to repeat what NASA has already done ?
they would rather work on new areas ! in that, past history won't amount to much.

[Bancan]

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/201...rnational.html

some amazing pictures.

[Ashraf-FTP]

Originally Posted by tonoy
I recently watched the "Wonders of the solar system" produced by BBC with professor Brian Cox. The production is truly spectacular. I would encourage all the kids and grown ups to watch it(I will gladly provide the link to you in HD format if required; torrentless). I love watching space documentaries. Ask me about any space documentary and the chances are that I have already watched it more than once.

Couple of new expeditions that I am eagerly waiting for are the New Horizon and the Europa Jupiter System Mission(NASA/ESA). Last I remember New Horizon was supposed to make it to flyby Pluto by the year 2015, while the EJSM was supposed to launch by the year 2020. I am actually looking much forward to the Europa mission because of the possible liquid ocean underneath the ice sheet.

Did you watch "journey to the edge of the universe" ? Its quite cool.

They basically summarize the whole thing in a a 2 hour documentary. Talks about everything from black holes, to different stars to our solar system. It was made and shown on discovery.

And space always fascinates me Cause its the only thing humans have the least idea about. In space "the more we see, the less we know" cause most of the things we see are totally new, thats why space is soo cool

Great thread btw.

[Bancan]

The world will be a better place if everybody watched this video.
http://gizmodo.com/5513783/the-world...hed-this-video

[Neel Here]

India's GSLV rocket fails due to malfunction in cryogenic stage.



This rocket was to inject the GSAT-4 satellite into orbit. GSAT-4 carried multiple transponders and a GPS based navigation system for air-traffic in the sub-continent region called GAGAN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_Aid...ted_Navigation

This mission was to have hoisted a sophisticated communications satellite called G-Sat, an Indian-made experimental satellite that weighs 2200 kg and would improve the global positioning system. It was also to have tested a new electrical propulsion system to keep the satellite in its orbit. It was also carrying a set of Ka band transponders, which would have increased the quality of television coverage.

Launch of GSLV-D3 fails; ISRO to launch it again within a year

Apr 16
India's 330 crore rupees mission to flight test the first indigenous cryogenic engine failed after the rocket GSLV-D3 powered by it crashed into the sea five minutes after a perfect lift-off.

Addressing the media after the mission was declared unsuccessful, ISRO chairman Radhakrishnan said the tumbling of the vehicle indicated that the control was lost.

ISRO chairman assured that the next flight of the GSLV with indigenous cryogenic engine would take place within a year.

[Alien]

Originally Posted by Neel Here
tonoy, you misunderstand what I was saying. NASA's accomplishments over the last 50 years are for everyone to see, none can take that away. their current capabilities and budget too dwarfs other space programs.
that however does not mean that they enjoy the same level of superiority that they used to have (well they and the russians were the only ones, so it was no competition really. others were not even in the race)
in the future that superiority will further erode, NASA will have to cooperate with other space agencies if they want to maintain their edge, due to these agencies being more efficient economically and this will also invariably lead to niche areas where they will take over NASA in technology as well.
but why would any agency want to repeat what NASA has already done ?
they would rather work on new areas ! in that, past history won't amount to much.

When it comes to space, countries don't normally compete too much. Even during cold war era, while Americans and Russians had missiles pointed at each other, their astronaut would work and live together up there.

[Neel Here]

Originally Posted by Alien
When it comes to space, countries don't normally compete too much. Even during cold war era, while Americans and Russians had missiles pointed at each other, their astronaut would work and live together up there.

forgot all about the 'space race', 'missile gap' and the 'race to the moon' ?

what you say happened mostly after the break up of the soviet union. other than one docking exercise in 70's the two countries didn't cooperate much in space.

[Zeeshan]

NASA's New Asteroid Mission Could Save the Planet

President Barack Obama set a lofty next goal this week for Americans in space: Visiting an asteroid by 2025. But reaching a space rock in a mere 15 years is a daunting mission, and one that might also carry the ultimate safety of the planet on its shoulders...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/201004...dsavetheplanet

[Neel Here]

^^^ that would be a very interesting mission ! well worth the wait.

[Alien]

Originally Posted by Neel Here
forgot all about the 'space race', 'missile gap' and the 'race to the moon' ?

what you say happened mostly after the break up of the soviet union. other than one docking exercise in 70's the two countries didn't cooperate much in space.

Space race lasted till 75 after which they didnt compete much when it came to space. They had joint mission like Apollo-Soyuz project, and when Americans started using Mir space station.

Overall it was more cooperation than competition.

[Ajfar]

Burning Beauty: A New Look at the Sun

http://news.yahoo.com/video/environm...49659/19271005

[Hatebreed]

Originally Posted by Alien
Space race lasted till 75 after which they didnt compete much when it came to space. They had joint mission like Apollo-Soyuz project, and when Americans started using Mir space station.

Overall it was more cooperation than competition.

Cooperation is the way to go if mankind is to move forward in the final frontier.