Space stuff thread

[Anak]

Some Sad News......

Stephen Hawking Dead: Famed Scientist Dies At 76 Scientist, Physicist (1942–2018)
​

“We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe,” Hawking once remarked, “and for that, I am extremely grateful.”
Stephen Hawking died Wednesday after complications due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative disease. He was 76.

The world-renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist was best known for his work on black holes. Hawking theorized that, contrary to the prevailing scientific belief that black holes were inescapable for all forms of matter and energy, they actually emitted a form of radiation ― now known as Hawking radiation. He also played a key role in the mathematical effort to unify Einstein’s general theory of relativity with the emergent field of quantum physics.

 

[A Guy]

Great mind lived in the wrong time perhaps. They could have repaired his body, or made him a replacement in the future. Any wonder he didn't believe in God. A Guy

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yes a sad but inevitable loss and especially as you think he was only given so long to live after the diagnoses.

A sad loss for science just as there have been many more before him and in reality he is in good company perhaps not in life or any other carnation but in just the memories and readings he left behind.

But isn't that the way it goes it is now up to the new generation and in all honesty just how long is a piece of string?? and his quote I think reflects what he thought of the "new breed" of scholars perhaps we should hope that they are just as grateful for the opportunity that plebs like myself will never have the ability to use.

“There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either,” Hawking said. “We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful.”

 

[Barman58]

R.I.P Stephen Hawking

We will not see his like again, Yes he stood on the shoulders of others, (Giants if you like), but he overcame a truly horrid illness to stand up for what he knew was right. The world is a less intelligent place with his passing, and we wait for whoever comes along to stand on his shoulders to take us all to further knowledge.

 

[Anak]

Life is full of coincidences...

Stephen was born on January 8, 1942, on the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death.

He died on the same day Albert Einstein was born March 14, 1879

And today is pi day (3/14).

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Interesting stats Steve and Nigel I guess like every time knowledge loses one great mind there will come another that is one thing that history has taught us all.

I suppose perhaps not in quite the same league but another brilliant mind is Prof. Brian Cox who I do admire and watch everything he puts out as it is always in some form that one can understand.

Unfortunately I am not blessed with knowing a tiny amount of what Stephen Hawking worked on and some things that I have to say are not entirely settled in my tiny mind mainly as I do not understand any of the maths that is entailed.

My own personal choice of brilliant minds is Alan Turing who without his at times brilliant intuition we might be years behind where we are now with our computers.

 

[Anak]

Tiangong-1 Reentry

Unconfirmed report:

https://twitter.com/MusafirNamah/sta...04609117982721

 

[Golden]

Unconfirmed report:

https://twitter.com/MusafirNamah/sta...04609117982721

1 April.....

Check this out, its more reliable:
Live Ground Track of Tiangong-1

 

[Anak]

Yea, that's about the only site that isn't being overwhelmed, been using it for years, when I saw Tiangong-1 still up I wondered about that pic that's why I said unconfirmed.

I just saw this, their reliable see underlined:

Tiangong-1 Reentry

Tiangong-1

The world watched and waited as the Chinese space station Tiangong-1 hurtled towards a fiery reentry. Please visit our media kit page for background information.
Reentry Information

Tiangong-1 was predicted to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere on April 2nd, 2018 00:30 UTC ± 1.7 hours. The reentry has been confirmed as 2018/04/02 00:16 UTC. Reentry occurred in the Pacific Ocean.

This prediction was performed by The Aerospace Corporation on 2018 April 1.


http://www.aerospace.org/cords/reentry-predictions/tiangong-1-reentry/

 

[Golden]

 

[chefduane]

Went to a talk today given by a guy named Phil Pollacia. He is an old time IBM'er that that worked on all the flight command code for the Gemini up through the SpaceLab programs. He headed up the team that did all the vector calculations for the translunar injection, lunar orbital insertion, trans earth injection, and then re-entry insertion and splashdown. He sat in the control room for Gemini, Apollo, and SpaceLab. Fascinating guy. Turns out he lives in my hometown! He had numerous pictures of him with Chris Craft and a number of the astronauts. Gave about a 2 hour talk and then Q&A for about an hour. Most people asked about Apollo 13 and the movie, etc. But one story he mentioned was that Apollo 8 had some VERY serious nav issues when Lovell mistakenly entered a command that reconfigured the spacecraft orientation and they developed a bad serious wobble that took some celestial dead reckoning to get the spacecraft reoriented properly. The spacecraft and crew would have been lost had it not been for the flight skills of Lovell and Borman. Much more serious than the public ever knew. Very close to losing it he said. Apollo 8 was also the mission in which the famous Earth rise photograph was taken during the Genesis reading. That particular photo completely changed our view of Earth and our place in the Universe. It was also 1968 and the US was in the midst of much social upheaval and that photo made everyone stop and think.

As an ex-Hughes Aircraft guy who worked on satellite systems (being a Chef is a second career) I was really interested in his insights. All in all a fascinating talk from an interesting guy. Hope to see him around town.

 

[Anak]

Wonderful story CD; I'll go to presentations like that and our historical society, and always come away inspired.

Unplanned manual re-alignment

Later, Lovell used some otherwise idle time to do some navigational sightings, maneuvering the module to view various stars by using the computer keyboard. However, he accidentally erased some of the computer's memory, which caused the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to think the module was in the same relative position it had been in before lift-off and fire the thrusters to "correct" the module's attitude.[18]

Once the crew realized why the computer had changed the module's attitude, they realized they would have to re-enter data that would tell the computer its real position. It took Lovell ten minutes to figure out the right numbers, using the thrusters to get the stars Rigel and Sirius aligned, and another 15 minutes to enter the corrected data into the computer.[36]

Sixteen months later, Lovell would once again have to perform a similar manual re-alignment, under more critical conditions, during the Apollo 13 mission, after that module's IMU had to be turned off to conserve energy. In his 1994 book, Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, Lovell wrote, "My training [on Apollo 8] came in handy!" In that book he dismissed the incident as a "planned experiment", requested by the ground crew.[36] In subsequent interviews Lovell has acknowledged that the incident was an accident, caused by his mistake.[18][19]

4.6 Unplanned manual re-alignment | wikipedia

 

[chefduane]

Yes, and there were only 20 people or so there and most of them were seasoned citizens. Too bad that more people aren't interested in things like this (although I understand its not interesting for everybody) and that young folks aren't interested. Pollacia had a significant impact on the success of the space program and much of the technologies that kids today base their lives around came out of the work of guys like him and the technologies of the US space program.

 

[Anak]

I could not agree more.

 

[Anak]

NASA Finds Ancient Organic Material...

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests the planet could have supported ancient life, as well as new evidence in the Martian atmosphere that relates to the search for current life on the Red Planet. While not necessarily evidence of life itself, these findings are a good sign for future missions exploring the planet’s surface and subsurface.

NASA Finds Ancient Organic Material, Mysterious Methane on Mars

 

[Brink]

Underground Lake Found on Mars? Get the Facts.

 

[Brink]

Watch SpaceX launch of Crew Dragon to ISS on May 27 - Windows 10 Forums

 

[TechnoMage2016]

That Home Brew rocket actually worked! Our guys are now safe on the Space Station. Voila!

 

[chefduane]

I'm beginning to think that SpaceX might be the only way we're ever going to reach Mars. Seems like they've made incredible strides in a few short years. Being able to land vertically on a ocean going platform still blows my mind.