US Space Program - a thread

[Hamartia Antidote]

http://www.space.com/34219-spacex-mars-spaceship-solar-system-exploration.html

SpaceX's Mars Spaceship Could Explore the Entire Solar System, Elon Musk Says

The spaceship that SpaceX is building to colonize Mars could also take people out to Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa and beyond, company founder and CEO Elon Musk said.

On Tuesday (Sept. 27), Musk unveiled SpaceX's planned Interplanetary Transport System (ITS), a rocket-spaceship combo that the billionaire entrepreneur hopes will allow humanity to establish a permanent, self-sustaining, million-person settlement on the Red Planet.

Mars is the first planned stop for ITS, but it may not be the last. [SpaceX's Massive New Spaceship Could Go Beyond Mars (Video)]

"This system really gives you freedom to go anywhere you want in the greater solar system," Musk said Tuesday at the International Astronautical Congress meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Artist's concept of SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport System spaceship on Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa.
Credit: SpaceX
With the aid of strategically placed refueling depots, "you could actually travel out to the Kuiper Belt [and] the Oort Cloud," Musk added. The Kuiper Belt is Pluto's neck of the woods, while the Oort Cloud, the realm of comets, is even more distant; it begins about 2,000 astronomical units (AU) from the sun. (One AU is the distance between Earth and the sun — about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers.)

The ITS booster will be the most powerful rocket ever built, capable of lofting 300 tons (270 metric tons) to low Earth orbit (LEO) in its reusable version and 550 tons (500 metric tons) in its expendable variant, Musk said. This rocket will blast the spaceship, which will carry at least 100 people, to LEO, where further launches will fuel the smaller vehicle.


When the time is right — Earth and Mars align favorably for interplanetary missions just once every 26 months — a fleet of these spaceships will depart from LEO, arriving at the Red Planet in as little as 80 days, Musk said.

The ITS — both the rocket and the spaceship — will be powered by SpaceX's Raptor engines, which run on a combination of methane and oxygen. Both of these ingredients can be manufactured on Mars and other places in the solar system, Musk said, meaning that the spaceship can and will be refueled far from Earth. (The vehicles will go back and forth between Earth and the Red Planet multiple times, for example.)

A SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System spaceship explores the rings of Saturn in this artist's concept of the vehicle's potential to send astronauts beyond Mars.
Credit: SpaceX
The ITS spaceship could, therefore, go very far afield, provided it could access refueling stations along the way.

"By establishing a propellant depot in the asteroid belt or one of the moons of Jupiter, you can make flights from Mars to Jupiter, no problem," Musk said.

"It'd be really great to do a mission to Europa, particularly," he added, referring to the ocean-harboring Jovian moon, which many astrobiologists regard as one of the solar system's best bets to host alien life.

SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport System could potentially carry astronauts to the surface of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, as seen in this artist's concept image.
Credit: SpaceX
Building additional depots farther from the sun — perhaps on Saturn's moon Titan, and Pluto, for example — could theoretically extend the ITS spaceship's reach all the way out to the Oort Cloud, Musk said.

"This basic system, provided we have filling stations along the way, means full access to the entire greater solar system," he said.

But ITS probably won't work for interstellar flight, which would require even greater velocities, Musk said. (He added that he views antimatter drives as the best way for humanity to travel among the stars.)

A SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System spaceship sails near Jupiter in this artist's concept of the deep-space crewed spacecraft.
Credit: SpaceX
There are some possible Earthly applications for the ITS as well, Musk said: The system could conceivably allow superfast cargo transport from point to point around the globe.

"You could go from New York to Tokyo in, I don't know, 25 minutes, cross the Atlantic in 10 minutes," he said. "There are some intriguing possibilities there, although we're not counting on that."

Successful Raptor Engine test

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Blue Origin Crew Capsule Escape Test Goes Flawlessly

 

[WAJsal]

Should this thread not be moved to 'American' section?
Thoughts @Hamartia Antidote ?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Should this thread not be moved to 'American' section?
Thoughts @Hamartia Antidote ?

It's not my thread...but I think there must be a good reason why it was intentionally made a sticky here (probably because the America's thread is just full of one troll thread after another and isn't worth browsing. Meanwhile if posts like that happened in the China forum threads would be deleted quickly)

 

[Fenrir]

(probably because the America's thread is just full of one troll thread after another and isn't worth browsing. Meanwhile if posts like that happened in the China forum threads would be deleted quickly)

Things will get on track soon enough. No longer will you need to suffer endless threads about Trump, or Ultron's random thoughts and wonk, or multiple threads on the same topic posted at least four times throughout the day.

Soon enough, just be patient.

...

In addition, I'll start contributing here again starting with what I do best - pictures.

A high fidelity test version of NASA’s Advanced Plant Habitat (APH), the largest plant chamber built for the agency, arrived at Kennedy Space Center the third week of November, 2016. The APH unit, containing small flowering plant seeds, will be delivered to the International Space Station in 2017.

U.S. Navy divers and other personnel in a rigid hull Zodiac boat have attached tether lines to a test version of the Orion crew module during Underway Recovery Test 5 in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. NASA and the U.S. Navy are conducting a series of tests to practice for recovery of Orion on its return from deep space missions.

Thanks to a bill passed by Texas legislators that put in place technical voting procedure for astronauts, they have the ability to vote from space through specially designed absentee ballots. To preserve the integrity of the secret vote, the ballot is encrypted and only accessible by the astronaut and the county clerk responsible for casting it.

A prototype of the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) robotic capture module system is tested with a mock asteroid boulder in its clutches at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The robotic portion of ARM is targeted for launch in 2021.

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins inspected the Bigelow Aerospace Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) attached to the International Space Station. Expandable habitats are designed to take up less room on a spacecraft while providing greater volume for living and working in space once expanded.

Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, used lasers inside the 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Tunnel to map how air flows over a Boeing Blended Wing Body (BWB) model – a greener, quieter airplane design under development.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and its GOES-R payload at the launch pad as preparations continue for launch at 5:42 p.m. EST, Saturday, Nov. 19, from Space Launch Complex 41.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Playing with the Microsoft Hololens on the International Space Station

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

http://www.thedrive.com/news/6339/take-a-virtual-tour-of-nasas-giant-boeing-747-observatory

Take a Virtual Tour of NASA’s Giant Boeing 747 Observatory

NASA

Over its five-decade lifespan, the Boeing 747 has served many roles: passenger jet, cargo carrier, presidential transport (doomsday and non-doomsday editions), aerial laser cannon, even big spoon to the space shuttle. But when it comes to weirdly awesome versions of the iconic jumbo jet, it’s hard to beat NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. Colloquially abbreviated to SOFIA, this 747 serves as the world’s largest flying observatory. And it’s about to head back to the skies to try and sort out some mysteries of the universe.

SOFIA is equipped with a reflecting telescope with an effective diameter of 100 inches—the same size as the Hooker Telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory that Edwin Hubble used to demonstrate that the universe is expanding. Situated behind a retractable awning at the back of the plane, the telescope is gyro-stabilized and pneumatically and hydraulically isolated from the rest of the plane, in order to keep it level in spite of the microturbulence of everyday flight. Flying at an altitude of 39,000 to 45,000 feet means the telescope is above 99 percent of the water in the atmosphere, giving it a far better view than similar ground-based observatories.

As the name suggests, this four-engined flying telescope spends its days peering into the infrared bands of the EM spectrum. For the 2017 observing campaign (yes, that’s what NASA calls it), which stretches from February 2017 to January 2018, SOFIA will train her eye on Jupiter's satellite Europa, in order to try and learn more about the massive water plumes spied on the Galilean moon by the Hubble Space Telescope. The plane will also stare at Neptune’s enormous moon Triton, a massive interstellar region around the center of the Milky Way, and a supermassive black hole located roughly 12 billion light years away, among many other research projects being conducted by the telescope’s joint American/German team.


While SOFIA first flew in her current form a mere six years ago, her airframe will turn 40 next year. Originally delivered to Pan Am in 1977, the 747 was purchased by United in 1986, then bought by NASA in 2007. Considering Boeing may not build the 747 for all that much longer, it’s reassuring to see that these birds can still live full, productive lives well into their forties.

 

[Zibago]

John Glenn, first American to orbit Earth, dies at 95
December 9, 2016 By: Samaa Web Desk Published in SCI-TECH Be the first to comment!

STS-95 crewmember, astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn poses for his official NASA photo taken April 14, 1998. Courtesy NASA/Handout via REUTERS

OHIO: John Glenn, who became one of the 20th century’s greatest explorers as the first American to orbit Earth and later as the world’s oldest astronaut, and also had a long career as a U.S. senator, died in Ohio on Thursday at age 95.

Glenn, the last surviving member of the original seven American “Right Stuff” Mercury astronauts, died at the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University in Columbus, said Hank Wilson, a spokesman at the university’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs, which Glenn helped found.

Glenn was credited with reviving U.S. pride after the Soviet Union’s early domination of manned space exploration. His three laps around the world in the Friendship 7 capsule on Feb. 20, 1962, forged a powerful link between the former fighter pilot and the Kennedy-era quest to explore outer space as a “New Frontier.”

President Barack Obama, who in 2012 awarded Glenn the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, said: “With John’s passing, our nation has lost an icon.”

“When John Glenn blasted off from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas rocket in 1962, he lifted the hopes of a nation,” Obama said in a statement. “And when his Friendship 7 spacecraft splashed down a few hours later, the first American to orbit the Earth reminded us that with courage and a spirit of discovery there’s no limit to the heights we can reach together.”



President-elect Donald Trump said on Twitter the United States had lost “a great pioneer of air and space in John Glenn. He was a hero and inspired generations of future explorers.”

As the third of seven astronauts in NASA’s solo-flight Mercury program to venture into space, Glenn became more of a media fixture than the others and was known for his composure and willingness to promote the program.

Glenn’s astronaut career, as well as his record as a fighter pilot in World War Two and the Korean War, helped propel him to the U.S. Senate in 1974, where he represented his home state of Ohio for 24 years as a moderate Democrat.

His star was dimmed somewhat by a Senate investigation of several senators on whether special favors were done for a major campaign contributor. He was cleared of wrongdoing.

Glenn’s entry into history came in early 1962 when fellow astronaut Scott Carpenter bade him “Godspeed, John Glenn” just before the Ohio native was rocketed into space for a record-breaking trip that would last just under five hours.



‘VIEW IS TREMENDOUS’

“Zero-G (gravity) and I feel fine,” was Glenn’s succinct assessment of weightlessness several minutes into his mission. “Oh, and that view is tremendous.”

After splashdown and recovery in the Atlantic, Glenn was treated as a hero, addressing a joint session of Congress and feted in a New York ticker-tape parade.

Glenn had been hospitalized since Nov. 25. He “died peacefully,” according to a statement from his family and Ohio State University. “He left this earth for the third time as a happy and fulfilled person,” the statement said.

“Glenn’s extraordinary courage, intellect, patriotism and humanity were the hallmarks of a life of greatness. His missions have helped make possible everything our space program has since achieved and the human missions to an asteroid and Mars that we are striving toward now,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.

Glenn’s experiences as a pioneer astronaut were chronicled in the book and movie “The Right Stuff,” along with the other Mercury pilots. The book’s author, Tom Wolfe, called Glenn “the last true national hero America has ever had.”

“I don’t think of myself that way,” Glenn told the New York Times in 2012 to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight. “I get up each day and have the same problem others have at my age. As far as trying to analyze all the attention I received, I will leave that to others.”

Glenn’s historic flight made him a favorite of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, who encouraged him to launch a political career that finally took off after a period as a businessman made him a millionaire.



HERO STATUS

Even before his Mercury flight, Glenn qualified for hero status, earning six Distinguished Flying Crosses and flying more than 150 missions in World War Two and the Korean War.

After Korea, Glenn became a test pilot, setting a transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to New York in 1957.

The determination and single-mindedness that marked Glenn’s military and space career did not save him from misjudgments and defeat in politics. He lost his first bid for the Senate from Ohio in 1970, after abandoning a race in 1964 because of a head injury suffered in a fall.

He was elected in 1974 and was briefly considered as a running mate for Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter in 1980. But a ponderous address at the Democratic National Convention – people walked out – caused Carter to remark that Glenn was “the most boring man I ever met.”

Glenn sought the Democratic presidential nomination himself in 1984 but was quickly eliminated by eventual nominee Walter Mondale, Carter’s vice president. His failure was all the more stinging because he had been touted as an early front-runner.

In the Senate, Glenn was respected as a thoughtful moderate with expertise in defense and foreign policy. His luster was dulled, however, by a Senate investigation of the “Keating Five” – five senators suspected of doing favors for campaign contributor Charles Keating Jr. The panel eventually found Glenn did nothing improper or illegal.



BACK TO SPACE

He took a leading role in seeking to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, especially to Pakistan. He was the author of a law that forced the United States to impose sanctions on India and Pakistan in 1998 after both countries conducted nuclear tests.

He also was a staunch advocate of a strong military and took a keen interest in strategic issues. He retired from the Senate in 1999.

Thirty-six years after his maiden space voyage, Glenn became America’s first geriatric astronaut on Oct. 29, 1998. He was 77 when he blasted off as a mission specialist aboard the shuttle Discovery. He saw it as a blow to the stereotyping of the elderly.

“Maybe prior to this flight, we were looked at as old geezers who ought to get out of the way,” Glenn said after his nine-day shuttle mission. “Just because you’re up in years some doesn’t mean you don’t have hopes and dreams and aspirations just as much as younger people do.”

John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio.

In his latter years, he was an adjunct professor at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.

He had a knee replacement operation in 2011 and heart surgery in 2014.

Glenn is survived by his wife of 73 years, his childhood sweetheart, Annie Castor. They had two children, David and Lyn. – Reuters
https://www.samaa.tv/technology/2016/12/john-glenn-first-american-to-orbit-earth-dies-at-95/

 

[LA se Karachi]

Great man. He had quite an illustrious political career as well.

 

[Bilal9]

John Glenn: The Last American Hero?
By DALE BUTLAND

DEC. 8, 2016

Columbus, Ohio — World War II and Korean War hero. First American to orbit the Earth. Kennedy family friend and confidant. The only four-term senator in Ohio history. An astronaut again at the age of 77.

Newspaper writers and evening news broadcasters will detail John Glenn’s one-of-a-kind biography — and most of them will surely observe that his passing on Thursday at the age of 95 marks “the end of an era.”

To me, John actually personified an era — one that, like him, has largely passed from the scene and may never again be recaptured. It was a period whose values were forged during the Great Depression, tested in the bloodiest war and expressed most clearly at the personal level by the interlocking virtues of modesty, courage and conviction.

Beginning in 1980 and continuing for nearly two decades, I was lucky enough to work for him, including as press secretary and director of his final re-election campaign in 1992. We were also friends, and I will cherish having been able to speak with him shortly before he died.

Despite his international celebrity, the ticker-tape parades and the schools and streets named in his honor, John never let any of it go to his head. He dined with kings, counseled presidents and signed autographs for athletes and movie stars. But he never pulled rank, rarely raised his voice and remained unfailingly polite and conscious of his responsibilities as a hero and a role model until the day he died.

The courage John displayed wasn’t merely physical, though he certainly had plenty of that. Anyone who flew 149 combat missions in two wars as a Marine fighter pilot — and then volunteered to become a Mercury 7 astronaut at a time when our rockets were just as likely to blow up on the launchpad as they were to return home safely — obviously had physical courage to spare.

But for me, even more impressive was John’s personal and political bravery, especially when it came to defending the values and friends he held dear.

Perhaps the best example of what I’m talking about occurred in an incident that, to the best of my knowledge, he never publicly disclosed.

Following his 1962 spaceflight, John and Robert F. Kennedy became such close friends that their families sometimes vacationed together.

By 1968, John had retired from the Marine Corps and taken a job as president of a major American corporation’s international division.

“We were living in New York, and they were paying me $100,000 a year, which at that time was real money,” he told me. “For the first time in our lives, Annie and I didn’t have to worry about putting our kids through college or helping our parents financially as they got older.”

That spring, Mr. Kennedy decided to run for president and John readily agreed to campaign for him.

John’s employer, however, wasn’t keen on having its highest profile executive publicly supporting Mr. Kennedy. So John was soon summoned to an “emergency meeting” of the corporate board where a resolution was to be passed barring any board member from “engaging in partisan politics in 1968.”

When the meeting was called to order, John rose from his seat to say that there was something his colleagues should know before taking a vote.

“Bob Kennedy asked me to campaign for him and I told him I would. And I will, because he is my friend. And if keeping my word means I can’t be associated with this company any longer, I can live with that.

“But if that’s what happens, we’re going to walk out of this room and you’re going to hold your press conference and I’m going to hold mine. And we’ll see who comes out better.”

No vote was called and the meeting was quickly adjourned.

John’s politics, of course, aren’t the point of this story. To me, it was his fierce determination to keep a promise to a friend, even at the expense of sacrificing the first real financial security he and his family had ever known. It’s the kind of courage we don’t see much anymore.

When John passed away, we lost a man who many say is the last genuine American hero. Not because others won’t do heroic things, but because national heroes aren’t easily crowned or even acknowledged in this more cynical age.

He belonged to an earlier and more innocent era — when we trusted our institutions, thought government could accomplish big and important things, still believed politics could be a noble profession, and didn’t think that ticker-tape parades were reserved for World Series or Super Bowl champions.

But the last “good” war ended almost 70 years ago. The Cold War is almost 30 years past. The space program has lost its luster. The clarity with which John saw honor and moral responsibility seems almost quaint today. And the time when we could all cheer for the same national hero may now be past.

Dale Butland is a Democratic political consultant who lives in Columbus, Ohio.

 

[Jugger]

RIP
You have done the thing i have always dreamed of. I want to desparetly go into space.
I want to visit the moon or mars in my life time.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

RIP
You have done the thing i have always dreamed of. I want to desparetly go into space.
I want to visit the moon or mars in my life time.

John Young might be up there on the list of Greats too. He is the only man to walk on the moon AND fly the Space Shuttle.

 

[F-22Raptor]

A true American hero. RIP among the stars Mr. Glenn.

 

[Desertfalcon]

Godspeed, John Glenn.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]