Hello from lunar orbit! 🌔
April 16, 2023 1:33 PM Subscribe
An eclipse, the heart of a supernova, rockets up and down the gravity well, and more missions. Here's a snapshot of humanity's exploration of space in April 2023.
Sun
Sol fired a gout of energy at the Earth, knocking out some radio communications for an hour.
From Earth’s surface to orbit
Chinese company Space Pioneer successfully launched a liquid-fueled rocket into orbit, the Tianlong-2 (“Sky Dragon-2”). SpaceX launched 51 small satellites into orbit, then landed the rocket safely on Earth. The indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced the successful test of a human-rated rocket engine, the L110-G Vikas. South Korea allocated a record high amount of funding to its space program.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted SpaceX a permit to launch its large Starship rocket; SpaceX hopes to launch tomorrow. The new (and first woman) director of the Goddard Space Flight Center was sworn in on a copy of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot. (previously)
In Earth orbit
Two Chinese astronauts conducted a spacewalk from the Tiangong space station. Two cosmonauts and one astronaut flew a Soyuz around the International Space Station (ISS), clearing out a docking port for a ship to come. UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi is scheduled to take the first Arab spacewalk later this month. British company OneWeb announced it completed its global network of broadband satellites, after New Space India Limited (NSIL) launching their a final group of satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
Back down to Earth
A leaky Soyuz capsule successfully landed on Earth. CAS Space, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully landed a rocket - vertically - at sea. ISRO successfully landed an autonomous space orbiter prototype.
Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy in a United States court.
To, around, and on the Earth's Moon
Japan's Hakuto-R M1 entered lunar orbit with a touchtown attempt scheduled for April 25. A new study created a detailed water map of part of the moon. Lunar Flashlight is still on its way to the moon, but NASA has yet to reestablish control of it. NASA did announce the human crew of the Artemis-2 lunar orbit mission (previously).
Lockheed Martin spun off Crescent Space Services LLC, a new business to operated "Parsec, a network of satellites in lunar orbit to support other spacecraft around the moon or on the surface." A group of Carnegie Mellon University designed a lunar rover which launches in May, and might beat everyone else to the moon's surface.
In the Earth’s L2 point
The James Webb Space Telescope gazed deeply into supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.
To the asteroids
China is planning a 2025 mission to strike and observe a near Earth asteroid.
Mars
Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL)'s Ingenuity helicopter completed its 50th flight on Mars. The Perseverance lander imaged the moon Phobos crossing in front of the sun.
Jupiter
The European Space Agency (ESA)’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, a/k/a Juice, successfully launched from French Guiana, sending back selfies.
Uranus
Webb also imaged the seventh planet, its rings, and moons in new detail.
Beyond the solar system
James Webb also determined that TRAPPIST-1b has no atmosphere. Hubble may have spotted a massive black hole carving a swath through a belt of stars. A series of NASA satellites detected what seems to be the brightest ever gamma ray burst on record. Astronomers tracked down a planet 12 light years away which might have its own magnetic field.
Sun
Sol fired a gout of energy at the Earth, knocking out some radio communications for an hour.
From Earth’s surface to orbit
Chinese company Space Pioneer successfully launched a liquid-fueled rocket into orbit, the Tianlong-2 (“Sky Dragon-2”). SpaceX launched 51 small satellites into orbit, then landed the rocket safely on Earth. The indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced the successful test of a human-rated rocket engine, the L110-G Vikas. South Korea allocated a record high amount of funding to its space program.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted SpaceX a permit to launch its large Starship rocket; SpaceX hopes to launch tomorrow. The new (and first woman) director of the Goddard Space Flight Center was sworn in on a copy of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot. (previously)
In Earth orbit
Two Chinese astronauts conducted a spacewalk from the Tiangong space station. Two cosmonauts and one astronaut flew a Soyuz around the International Space Station (ISS), clearing out a docking port for a ship to come. UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi is scheduled to take the first Arab spacewalk later this month. British company OneWeb announced it completed its global network of broadband satellites, after New Space India Limited (NSIL) launching their a final group of satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
Back down to Earth
A leaky Soyuz capsule successfully landed on Earth. CAS Space, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully landed a rocket - vertically - at sea. ISRO successfully landed an autonomous space orbiter prototype.
Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy in a United States court.
To, around, and on the Earth's Moon
Japan's Hakuto-R M1 entered lunar orbit with a touchtown attempt scheduled for April 25. A new study created a detailed water map of part of the moon. Lunar Flashlight is still on its way to the moon, but NASA has yet to reestablish control of it. NASA did announce the human crew of the Artemis-2 lunar orbit mission (previously).
Lockheed Martin spun off Crescent Space Services LLC, a new business to operated "Parsec, a network of satellites in lunar orbit to support other spacecraft around the moon or on the surface." A group of Carnegie Mellon University designed a lunar rover which launches in May, and might beat everyone else to the moon's surface.
In the Earth’s L2 point
The James Webb Space Telescope gazed deeply into supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.
To the asteroids
China is planning a 2025 mission to strike and observe a near Earth asteroid.
Mars
Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL)'s Ingenuity helicopter completed its 50th flight on Mars. The Perseverance lander imaged the moon Phobos crossing in front of the sun.
Jupiter
The European Space Agency (ESA)’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, a/k/a Juice, successfully launched from French Guiana, sending back selfies.
Uranus
Webb also imaged the seventh planet, its rings, and moons in new detail.
Beyond the solar system
James Webb also determined that TRAPPIST-1b has no atmosphere. Hubble may have spotted a massive black hole carving a swath through a belt of stars. A series of NASA satellites detected what seems to be the brightest ever gamma ray burst on record. Astronomers tracked down a planet 12 light years away which might have its own magnetic field.
In other supernova news, the HST and JWST also just recently found a supernova simultaneously caught in three stages of explosion (via the lensing of a foreground galaxy cluster). (previously, and previouslier)
Thanks for the post!
posted by pjenks at 2:34 PM on April 16, 2023 [4 favorites]
Thanks for the post!
posted by pjenks at 2:34 PM on April 16, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm stunned that Ingenuity is still chugging. I love how it went from "here's a crazy thing that might work" to "hey, maybe we'll get a few flights out of it before we abandon it" to "this is an operational part of the mission". Sending a helicopter to Mars was just such a gonzo idea and it's amazing it worked.
posted by phooky at 2:44 PM on April 16, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by phooky at 2:44 PM on April 16, 2023 [10 favorites]
Juice!! Hope he took some lunchables with him!
posted by yasaman at 3:19 PM on April 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by yasaman at 3:19 PM on April 16, 2023 [3 favorites]
Enjoyed the sloth on the JUICE stream. Dr Tanya Harrison has the adorable merch.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 3:37 PM on April 16, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 3:37 PM on April 16, 2023 [4 favorites]
Hubble may have spotted a massive black hole carving a swath through a belt of stars.
How do black holes move — and at such incredible speeds? I realize this is a lack of my own knowledge / imagination, but I’d always assumed their gravitational density kind of made them fixed points, or at the very least, incapable of movement beyond the general expansion of their local section of the galaxy. Now that I’m wrestling with this, I think I’ve created an analogy in my head of them being a puncture in spacetime, similar to a hole in a membrane.
posted by Silvery Fish at 4:36 PM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
How do black holes move — and at such incredible speeds? I realize this is a lack of my own knowledge / imagination, but I’d always assumed their gravitational density kind of made them fixed points, or at the very least, incapable of movement beyond the general expansion of their local section of the galaxy. Now that I’m wrestling with this, I think I’ve created an analogy in my head of them being a puncture in spacetime, similar to a hole in a membrane.
posted by Silvery Fish at 4:36 PM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
Enjoyed this update very much, thanks.
posted by Well I never at 4:41 PM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Well I never at 4:41 PM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
I am, and will always remain (despite my best efforts, which is I guess a way of saying my best efforts are not particularly well-executed), very significantly pissed off that I cannot ever go see these things up close myself, Cosmos-style.
posted by aramaic at 4:56 PM on April 16, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by aramaic at 4:56 PM on April 16, 2023 [6 favorites]
With you on that aramaic.
only 50years too early. Sigh
posted by Windopaene at 4:57 PM on April 16, 2023
only 50years too early. Sigh
posted by Windopaene at 4:57 PM on April 16, 2023
How do black holes move — and at such incredible speeds?
Unless you're very nearby it, there's not much difference to the rest of the universe between a massive object before it collapses and after it collapses. The simplest option is that the star it used to be was moving, like they do, and the black hole just kept on moving the same way after it collapsed.
I'll leave it to physics people to talk about how likely it might be for interactions with other objects to markedly accelerate a black hole, or whether jets from the accretion disc can accelerate it.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:39 PM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
Unless you're very nearby it, there's not much difference to the rest of the universe between a massive object before it collapses and after it collapses. The simplest option is that the star it used to be was moving, like they do, and the black hole just kept on moving the same way after it collapsed.
I'll leave it to physics people to talk about how likely it might be for interactions with other objects to markedly accelerate a black hole, or whether jets from the accretion disc can accelerate it.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:39 PM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
The sat cube lunar mission is interesting.
How do black holes move
I didn't really know if they could but my first thought was a binary star system. Black hole is moving at about 110,000 mph. Voyager 1 is traveling at about 35,000 mph.
Hulu-hoops in space.
posted by clavdivs at 5:43 PM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
How do black holes move
I didn't really know if they could but my first thought was a binary star system. Black hole is moving at about 110,000 mph. Voyager 1 is traveling at about 35,000 mph.
Hulu-hoops in space.
posted by clavdivs at 5:43 PM on April 16, 2023 [2 favorites]
Gravity is a hell of a thing...
Which we only sort of understand.
posted by Windopaene at 7:13 PM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
Which we only sort of understand.
posted by Windopaene at 7:13 PM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
James Webb Telescope Just Debunked ALL Modern Theories Of The Universe Apparently the JWST images don't line up with the basic assumptions of the big bang theory.
posted by Brian B. at 9:02 PM on April 16, 2023
posted by Brian B. at 9:02 PM on April 16, 2023
Here are some more sober articles about the JWST’s early galaxy observations:
- Newly revealed ancient galaxies generate excitement (Eleni Petrakou, Physics Today)
- James Webb Space Telescope images challenge theories of how universe evolved (Marc Airhart, Phys.org)
Starship launch scrubbed for today. Pressurization issue. Try again tomorrow.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:13 AM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 6:13 AM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
And that Solar Flare (or another one) destroyed the newly launched Starlink Satellites.
(snip)
On Feb. 4, 2022, SpaceX launched 49 satellites as part of Elon Musk's Starlink internet project, most of which burned up in the atmosphere days later. The cause of this more than $50 million failure was a geomagnetic storm caused by the sun.
posted by aleph at 7:56 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
(snip)
On Feb. 4, 2022, SpaceX launched 49 satellites as part of Elon Musk's Starlink internet project, most of which burned up in the atmosphere days later. The cause of this more than $50 million failure was a geomagnetic storm caused by the sun.
posted by aleph at 7:56 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
The interesting thing about the first Starship launch is that nothing will be recovered and it won't do a single orbit. The first stage will attempt "land" in the ocean, but it won't be on any sort of platform, it'll just sink.
Meanwhile, Starship itself will only do about 2/3 of a single orbit and will come down somewhere around Hawaii. So still at lot of testing going on, for obviously good reasons.
Though I look at the stacked Starship and think there's no way that's gonna fly right? If Kerbal Space Program has taught me anything is that getting a good angle of attack on a tall vehicle is tough. You wind up wasting a lot of fuel just keeping the ship flying more or less straight up until it clears much of the atmosphere.
Granted, I'm not an engineer and have only a rudimentary understanding of how to launch an actual rocket, but that fact isn't going to stop me from having opinions!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:17 AM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Meanwhile, Starship itself will only do about 2/3 of a single orbit and will come down somewhere around Hawaii. So still at lot of testing going on, for obviously good reasons.
Though I look at the stacked Starship and think there's no way that's gonna fly right? If Kerbal Space Program has taught me anything is that getting a good angle of attack on a tall vehicle is tough. You wind up wasting a lot of fuel just keeping the ship flying more or less straight up until it clears much of the atmosphere.
Granted, I'm not an engineer and have only a rudimentary understanding of how to launch an actual rocket, but that fact isn't going to stop me from having opinions!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:17 AM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
The height to diameter (fineness) ratio of the Starship full stack is much lower than Falcon 9's (13 vs 19), so it should be less of a problem. Always got to keep an eye on those upper level winds though!
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 8:46 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 8:46 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
In the livestream from SpaceX they said it'd be at least 48 hours until the next attempt. The snarky wags on the internet chatrooms suggest it'll be thursday due to the date and the owner whose name we don't speak predilection to druggie references.
posted by sammyo at 8:57 AM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 8:57 AM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Granted, I'm not an engineer and have only a rudimentary understanding of how to launch an actual rocket, but that fact isn't going to stop me from having opinions!
Hey, just like Elon !
posted by Pendragon at 9:19 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Hey, just like Elon !
posted by Pendragon at 9:19 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
If Kerbal Space Program has taught me anything is that getting a good angle of attack on a tall vehicle is tough. You wind up wasting a lot of fuel just keeping the ship flying more or less straight up until it clears much of the atmosphere.
This is why we should build launch complexes on high equatorial mountains like Chimborazo or Kilimanjaro. With big-chungus coilguns to get things movin'. Blackjack and sex workers optional.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:06 AM on April 17, 2023
This is why we should build launch complexes on high equatorial mountains like Chimborazo or Kilimanjaro. With big-chungus coilguns to get things movin'. Blackjack and sex workers optional.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:06 AM on April 17, 2023
Sol fired a gout of energy at the Earth, knocking out some radio communications for an hour.
Mr. Burns was right!
posted by kirkaracha at 12:04 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Mr. Burns was right!
posted by kirkaracha at 12:04 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
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