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Physics and astronomy thread (1 Viewer)

proninja said:
I don't know if you're joking or not, but it's going to happen soon, if not already.  Graphene is being woven in with high end carbon frames. It's been the rumored next big material for a couple years. 
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Sweet!  And I wasn't joking.  Now I need to find a way to convince my wife that I need a new 29'er full suspension with graphene to go with my 29'er carbon full suspension. 

 
anniversary of the first moon landing today...

some click bait:

Here are 11 interesting facts about the Apollo 11 moon landing:

1. There were three crew members.

The Apollo 11 crew included Neil Armstrong as commander, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. (or Buzz Aldrin) as Lunar Module pilot and Michael Collins, Command Module pilot.

2. The astronauts almost didn’t stick the moon landing.

The astronauts actually missed the initial landing site and were headed toward a crater. With less than one minute of descent fuel left, Armstrong piloted the Lunar Module four miles from the original landing site, according to National Geographic.

3. What were the first words spoken on the moon?

It’s debatable. If you count the moment The Eagle touched down onto the moon’s surface, Aldrin’s first words were “contact light.”

But, according to NASA chief historian Bill Barry, if you’re talking about the first words spoken the moment humans stepped onto the surface, the first words would be Armstrong’s famous statement, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

4. The famous “one step for man, one giant leap for mankind” phrase isn’t exactly what Armstrong said he said (or intended to say).

According to CNET, Armstrong may have messed up his famous phrase, which was supposed to be “one step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” (with the inclusion of an “a” before “man.”

In his 2006 biography, Armstrong said he did actually say the “a” and people just didn’t hear it.

“I think that reasonable people will realise that I didn't intentionally make an inane statement and that certainly the 'a' was intended, because that's the only way the statement makes any sense,” he wrote.

5. And that “one small step” wasn’t actually so small.

Armstrong actually had to hop about 3.5 feet from the Lunar Module‘s ladder to reach the surface. 

6. The flag placed on the moon was made by Sears (and was knocked down as soon as they launched back into orbit).

In a July 3, 1969 NASA press release, NASA said the flags bought for the mission were purchased by different manufacturers in the Houston, Texas, area, but eventually, it was discovered they were all bought at Sears.

NASA didn’t want to confirm the manufacturer because they didn’t “want another Tang” (or inclusion in any advertising campaign).

The flag  placed on the surface of the moon was knocked over when Aldrin and Armstrong launched the Lunar Module back into lunar orbit to join Collins in the Command Module.

7. A felt-tipped pen played a critical role in the historic moon landing.

When Aldrin and Armstrong landed, they accidentally broke off the switch to the circuit breaker, which was needed to activate the engine that would lift them off the moon.

In his 2009 memoir, Aldrin wrote: 

“Since it was electrical, I decided not to put my finger in, or use anything that had metal on the end. I had a felt-tipped pen in the shoulder pocket of my suit that might do the job. After moving the countdown procedure up by a couple of hours in case it didn't work, I inserted the pen into the small opening where the circuit breaker switch should have been, and pushed it in; sure enough, the circuit breaker held. We were going to get off the moon, after all.”

All three astronauts carried the pen. According to EETimes, Collins donated his to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, which he helped found.

But Aldrin held on to his pen, keeping it with the broken breaker switch.

8. Here’s what they left behind 

In addition leaving the American flag on the moon, Armstrong and Aldrin left their backpacks, a gold olive-branch-shaped pin symbolizing peace, messages from 73 world leaders and a patch from the Apollo 1 mission that never launched and killed three U.S. astronauts in a 1967 training exercise.

They also left behind medallions honoring Russian cosmonauts, including Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin, both of whom died in flight in 1967 and 1968, respectively.

According to NPR, the tragic story goes that Komarov knew he was probably going to die on the 1967 mission to put a man into orbit, but because Gagarin was his back-up and he didn’t want him to die, Komarov didn’t back out of the mission. 

9. The computers that were processing Apollo 11 had less power than a cellphone.

The command module computer (or the so-called Apollo Guidance Computer) made it possible for astronauts to enter noun/verb commands to control the spacecraft and navigation.

But, according to Computer Weekly, the “ingenious computer systems” were more basic than what we find in toasters today.

And today’s USBs are more powerful than the computers used to land the first man on the moon, too.

10. In case the worst happened, all three astronauts had a plan to support their families financially. 

Without expensive astronaut life insurance, the astronauts got creative about how they were going to support their families if the worst did happen.

The answer: autographs.

According to NPR, during quarantine (about a month before Apollo 11 launched), the famous astronauts signed hundreds of envelopes and gave them to a friend to save.

On big dates, such as the day of the moon landing or the day Apollo 11 launched, their friend would get the autographed envelopes postmarked at the post office and give them to the astronauts’ families.

Luckily, those “life insurance autographs” were not needed.

However, according to space historian Robert Pearlman, those autographs were worth as much as $30,000 in the 1990s.

11. They had to fill out customs and declaration forms when they returned to the U.S.

Buzz Aldrin ✔@TheRealBuzz

Yes the #Apollo11 crew also signed customs forms. We brought back moon rocks & moon dust samples. Moon disease TBD.

1:37 PM - 2 Aug 2015

Just because you make it to the moon and back doesn’t mean you get a pass on the dreaded customs forms.

The astronauts comically noted “Apollo 11” as the flight on their customs form with a departure from “Moon” to Honolulu, Hawaii.

And under “Any other condition on board which may lead to the spread of disease,” the response was: “To be determined.”
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not that interesting, but kinda interesting. and goes to show that even science museum directors can be turds.

tidy little profit there for the lucky investor.

The savvy owner of Neil Armstrong's moon dust bag has made a profit of $1.8 million on the canvas pouch.

The bag, which was used by Armstrong to collect samples during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, sold for just over $1.8 million at an auction in New York on Thursday.

That was less than the $2 million to $4 million auctioneer Sotheby's thought it would fetch, but still 1,821 times the price ($995) collector Nancy Carlson paid for it just two years ago.

The original purpose of the bag was only discovered when Carlson bought it in an online auction of assets seized by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Carlson then sent it to NASA, which identified the bag as the one used by Armstrong. It also confirmed that the bag still contained lunar dust.

The bag still contains some of the moon dust brought back by Armstrong.

A legal battle then followed. According to the U.S. District Court in Kansas, NASA wanted to keep hold of the bag, arguing that the artifact was unique and should never have been sold to a private collector.

The bag ended up in the hands of the U.S. Marshals Service as part of property seized from a space museum president, who was convicted of fraud and stealing from the museum.

It was found in his garage but misidentified. According to the Kansas court documents, the U.S. government said that "no one, including the United States, realized that this bag was used on Apollo 11 and was an historically important item."

The court ruled that Carlson bought the bag lawfully, and ordered NASA to return it to her.

Armstrong collected roughly 500 grams of dust and 12 rock fragments as he walked through an area of the moon known as The Sea of Tranquility.
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El Floppo said:
not that interesting, but kinda interesting. and goes to show that even science museum directors can be turds.

tidy little profit there for the lucky investor.
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Kinda like catching a super valuable HR ball.  How can you pass up life changing money?  If NASA wanted it they could have paid for it.

 
Sand said:
Kinda like catching a super valuable HR ball.  How can you pass up life changing money?  If NASA wanted it they could have paid for it.
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didn't sound like she knew exactly what she had... almost a grand isn't chump change for something that could've been just about any piece of trivial nothing. but wow. 

 
El Floppo said:
didn't sound like she knew exactly what she had... almost a grand isn't chump change for something that could've been just about any piece of trivial nothing. but wow. 
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I work with NASA folks all the time and holding on to this would have made things quite awkward.  But 1.8M?  Yeah, I'm not just giving it back. 

Pretty cool item.

 
Sand said:
I work with NASA folks all the time and holding on to this would have made things quite awkward.  But 1.8M?  Yeah, I'm not just giving it back. 

Pretty cool item.
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totally. 

I wonder if when she bought it she had the idea of just donating it to the museum... but 1.8 would change my mind PDQ

 
anybody else getting a little preemptively sad for Cassini's planned demise next week (Sep 15)?

WaPo published this today (shot in 2013)- one of the all time great shots from space... through the rings, backlit by the sun, earth is the pale blue dot middle right of the shot.

I know they're going to be processing data for years to come from cassini, but RIP in advance. 

 
El Floppo said:
anybody else getting a little preemptively sad for Cassini's planned demise next week (Sep 15)?

WaPo published this today (shot in 2013)- one of the all time great shots from space... through the rings, backlit by the sun, earth is the pale blue dot middle right of the shot.

I know they're going to be processing data for years to come from cassini, but RIP in advance. 
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awesome..  we look so insignificant :kicksrock:

 
jamny said:
:thumbup:

I was going to bump this thread. I saw on Science Channel that they'll be showing it at 7:45am (est) although that's not what it says on the schedule. Doesn't say anything on the NASA channel either.
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NOVA will probably have something on it soon. They had a show from when it went through the rings

 
The Man With No Name said:
NOVA will probably have something on it soon. They had a show from when it went through the rings
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It was on last night: "Death Dive to Saturn" Haven't watched yet.

Also, on The Planets, tomorrow night on Science Channel is "Saturn: The Cassini Secrets" and next week on Space's Deepest Secrets, is "Cassini's Grand Finale"

 
jamny said:
It was on last night: "Death Dive to Saturn" Haven't watched yet.

Also, on The Planets, tomorrow night on Science Channel is "Saturn: The Cassini Secrets" and next week on Space's Deepest Secrets, is "Cassini's Grand Finale"
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Watched the NOVA last night.   :thumbup: Pretty good overview of everything that we learned from Cassini.

 
from the ig nobel awards... :lol:

“Can a cat be both a solid and a liquid?”

Marc-Antoine Fardin from the University of Lyon won the Ig Nobel prize for “using fluid dynamics to probe the question ‘Can a Cat Be Both a Solid and a Liquid?” His paper, published in the journal Rheology, uses cats to explain one of the central tenets of the study rheology, the field of physics concerned with how things flow; its motto is “everything flows.”

The paper is, of course, hilarious. It concludes that “much more work remains ahead, but cats are proving to be a rich model system for rheological research, both in the linear and nonlinear regimes.” But on the way, it makes the reader think about the equations of this field and how they might apply in this unorthodox scenario.
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El Floppo said:
from the ig nobel awards... :lol:

“Can a cat be both a solid and a liquid?”

Marc-Antoine Fardin from the University of Lyon won the Ig Nobel prize for “using fluid dynamics to probe the question ‘Can a Cat Be Both a Solid and a Liquid?” His paper, published in the journal Rheology, uses cats to explain one of the central tenets of the study rheology, the field of physics concerned with how things flow; its motto is “everything flows.”

The paper is, of course, hilarious. It concludes that “much more work remains ahead, but cats are proving to be a rich model system for rheological research, both in the linear and nonlinear regimes.” But on the way, it makes the reader think about the equations of this field and how they might apply in this unorthodox scenario.
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I loved this, thank you for posting it.   :thumbup:

 
El Floppo said:
Iirc, they'll be analyzing data for a while yet, correct? Or has everything already come in and been looked at?
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plenty more to analyze for a long time to come.  Cassini sent back over 400,000 photos during it's time in Saturn's neighborhood, not to mention other sensor data.

 
El Floppo said:
Iirc, they'll be analyzing data for a while yet, correct? Or has everything already come in and been looked at?
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There was a documentary on the Science channel tonight covering the entire Cassini mission.  Towards the end of the show, they made the comment that Cassini has relayed enough data for scientists to be sorting through for the next hundred years.  It was originally scheduled to explore the Saturn system for 4 years...we got 20 out of it!   :thumbup:

 
NASA and Ruskies going to partner up on deep space manned missions- moon, etc. 

NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have announced a new partnership for human exploration of the moon and deep space. Both agencies signed a joint statement on cooperation today (Sept. 27) at the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia. 

The decision to partner with Russia on human missions to the moon and beyond came about as NASA continues to flesh out ideas for its "deep-space gateway" concept, a mission architecture designed to send astronauts into cislunar space — or lunar orbit — by the 2020s. Traveling to and from cislunar space will help NASA and its partners gain the knowledge and experience necessary to venture beyond the moon and into deep space. 

A crewed mission to the moon and ultimately deep space would likely involve NASA's gigantic new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion space capsule. "This plan challenges our current capabilities in human spaceflight and will benefit from engagement by multiple countries and U.S. industry," NASA officials said in a statement. [Photos: NASA's Space Launch System for Deep Space Flights]

Roscosmos and NASA already work together with other space agencies around the world to run research projects aboard the International Space Station. Now the international partners will work together to build a miniature space station in lunar orbit – a type of infrastructure that could serve as a steppingstone for future crewed missions to Mars, NASA officials said.

In a separate statement, Roscosmos officials said the new partnership would "develop international technical standards … for the establishment of the station in the near-moon orbit." According the Roscosmos, the partners also discussed the possibility of using a Russian superheavy rocket to complete construction of the orbital moon station.

"At the first stage, [the deep-space gateway] is supposed to use the American superheavy SLS in parallel with the domestic heavy rockets Proton-M and Angara-A5M," Roscosmos officials said. "After the creation of the Russian superheavy rocket, it will also be used [for] the lunar orbital station."

However, those plans are not concrete at this point, and NASA will continue to work with Roscosmos to research the best ways to transport astronauts to and from cislunar space.

"While the deep space gateway is still in concept formulation, NASA is pleased to see growing international interest in moving into cislunar space as the next step for advancing human space exploration," Robert Lightfoot, NASA's acting administrator, said in a statement. 

"Statements such as this one signed with Roscosmos show the gateway concept as an enabler to the kind of exploration architecture that is affordable and sustainable," Lightfoot added.

Meanwhile, NASA is also asking the private space industry to contribute to the deep-space gateway. The agency has already awarded contracts for deep-space habitat designs to Bigelow Airspace, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and others. 
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wow... one last image from Rosetta! 1m sq from an altitude of ~20m... just prior to "landing". yeah... just rocks and stuff... but on a comet!

I'm still astonished that this 12 year mission worked- even partially- landing a small spaceship on a comet. freaking nuts. amazing they're still pulling data from this. similarly looking forward to seeing the rest of the Cassini info come out over the next years.

 
El Floppo said:
wow... one last image from Rosetta! 1m sq from an altitude of ~20m... just prior to "landing". yeah... just rocks and stuff... but on a comet!

I'm still astonished that this 12 year mission worked- even partially- landing a small spaceship on a comet. freaking nuts. amazing they're still pulling data from this. similarly looking forward to seeing the rest of the Cassini info come out over the next years.
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It's crazy to me that loose rocks stay on something moving that fast. I guess it's the lack of wind resistance. 

 
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