Re: Space Space Baby
 

Well, SpaceX finally got Intelsat 35e up this morning, on the third attempt. That makes three launches in under 2 weeks. They now take about a month off, during which time it's thought that pad work will go on, then another 3 in about 2 weeks; probably. Currently there are planned for another 15 launches this year, with 10 already done. That would make 25, or more than two a month.

Re: Space Space Baby
 

Don't think I'll ever tire of watching this company send spaceships up. Or better still, landing them. Amazing achievements.

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Looking forward to Falcon Heavy going up later this year. Not sure if they will attempt to land all three boosters on the first demo attempt, but I wouldn't be at all surprised. Three boosters returning to launch site to attempt to land - that'll be something.


They are even talking about attempting to land the second stage as well with that flight. Oh, and they are still working on fairing recovery using guided parachutes. Put all that together and basically nothing is one shot.

After than ITS is currently scheduled for 2024, and it's huge

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JGm95QC6H...40/QI9W5xl.png

Imagine seeing a Saturn 5, but landing back on the pad.

Re: Space Space Baby
 

Oh, and in tenuously connected news, South Australia have just signed up Tesla to deliver the 100MW battery the promised was "100 days, or it's free".

South Australia to announce Tesla as backer of world's largest battery

Re: Space Space Baby
 

And SpaceX will probably make the three boosters do a little dance, some sign writing and flash their arse on the way down too.

Re: Space Space Baby
 

Well, at least two of those boosters will detach at the same time, and will land in roughly the same place, therefore they will do something of a sychronised dance as they head back for the final suicide burn.

Re: Space Space Baby
 

Images from Juno's low pass over the GRS have begun to come in.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/960a7...sm=12&fit=max&https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/m...jpg?1499884821

Hopefully might provide more information on just what's going on, and why the GRS has decreased in size by a third over recent decades.

http://wwwcdn.skyandtelescope.com/wp..._size_plot.jpg

Re: Space Space Baby
 

[Right click] [save as wallpaper]

Or something like that anyway.

Wow.

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Nobody said landing vertically was easy


And tomorrow, in about 1 day from now, Cassini ends its mission at Saturn by flying into Saturn's atmosphere.

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/...sion-timeline/

At about 9:54pm tomorrow evening AEST the last of the data stream will be received and signal lost.

Re: Space Space Baby
 

GarryP - you might enjoy this: https://www.coursera.org/learn/solar-system

Free course. I completed it recently - very challenging (for me anyway - keen interest but no science education). Excellent professor, extremely interesting. 10 weeks of spacetastic geekiness.

Re: Space Space Baby
 

Hmm, looks like it's a paid course, and my previous physics units on cosmology and astrophysics probably went further.

Re: Space Space Baby
 

Ooo. I might have a go at this then.

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Definitely free. You only have to pay if you want a certificate at the end. Take a look at the syllabus, I'd be interested to see what you think. If you have any tips of any other online courses that might follow on/compliment what I've just done that'd be great.

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DO. Nothing to lose. There are quizzes & tests at the end of each week to test your knowledge. You don't have to do them, you can just watch the lectures. The prof who does it is superb, communicates all the info really clearly. You only need to do the quizzes & final test if you want a crack at getting the certificate at the end.

Re: Space Space Baby
 

It's not bad, covers quite a lot, including newer stuff. Misses out on diamond rain though it looks (people tend to get interested in that).

I've always thought that if you are do solar system, one of the ways of making it practical is to get used to processing real probe data, finding the answers in the same way it's really done, learning the techniques. There's so much data that you can potential find new stuff even. I remember processing Europa data, etc.