All things NASA & SpaceX. Past, Present & Future.

[kalvasflam]

Well, I place my faith in industry, not any of our political leadership, haven't had faith in those for almost two decades as far as space is concerned.  All they are is about talking, and they don't do anything more than that... one is about going to Mars, another about the moon, neither had done anything.  At least the current one has had the good grace to not say anything yet....   keeping my fingers crossed.  Although I do have to hand it to NASA to have been brave enough, or I suppose desperate enough to try to pull in the private sector in the early 2000s, and then succeeding with SpaceX.  Hopefully Blue Origin will kick in something as well, Bezos seem to be very quiet, not like Musk, hope his efforts produce something spectacular like he has done with Amazon.

[JB0]

Actually, sitting president has made such declarations. As opposed to the last president, who did his best to gut NASA completely.

[kalvasflam]

22 minutes ago, JB0 said:

Actually, sitting president has made such declarations. As opposed to the last president, who did his best to gut NASA completely.

Oops, didn't realize, the only thing I ever heard him say is about Space Force.  oh well, here is to hoping NASA makes it back to the moon by 2030.  We can all hope, right?

[JB0]

The bigger problem is getting Congress to fund NASA on anything more than a shoestring budget, honestly.  The volatile and unpredictable nature of their top-level planning with 4-8-year swaps is a secondary issue.

[505thAirborne]

 

[Gerli]

All ready for the Eclipse

 

Edited July 2, 2019 by Gerli

[505thAirborne]

11 hours ago, Gerli said:

All ready for the Eclipse

 

When, where and I did I miss it already?

[JB0]

6 minutes ago, 505thAirborne said:

When, where and I did I miss it already?

It was in Chile a few hours ago, looks like.

[505thAirborne]

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

It was in Chile a few hours ago, looks like.

I see, well to @Gerli and everyone in Chile, hope you all had a great time and got to see it! 

[Gerli]

Chile and Argentina, it was Cloudy in Buenos Aires so we only watch as everything go dark and because it was just at dusk time, everything was red, then black then red again... amazing.

 

[M'Kyuun]

I was watching the NASA channel tonight, and they had a promotional show about the proposed lunar mission set for 2024, narrated by William Shatner no less. What struck me was the over-enthusiastic "we're going!" message throughout, while mentioning Orion, the SLS, Gateway (lunar orbital station), and other peripheral stuff in preparation. They mentioned there being water frozen on the moon; however they made no mention where that water is (best estimates place it at the poles and possibly deep within the crust), how they intend to extract it, transport it, or process it for both fuel and human utility. The other thing they didn't mention was shielding, although I'm guessing they would be exposed to similar doses of radiation as the ISS- I don't know TBH. They intend for at least Gateway to be a permanent station, although it sounds like they intend to put people on the surface permanently as well. They made little mention of how they intend to actually do that, as they had no practical surface modules or structures to demonstrate. 2024 isn't that far off, especially if new technologies need to be developed to ensure long-term sustained life support and fuel processing. It seems like technologies could be developed much more quickly and efficiently back in the 60's compared to today. Anyway, despite my cynicism ( I'm not a fan of artificial enthusiasm, and there was lots of it in the military, so I may be a bit jaded), I truly want to see this endeavor come to a very successful and sustainable fruition, especially when the planned follow-on is a manned Mars mission. To see this level of space exploration within my lifetime is extraordinary and exciting; I wish I had the wherewithal to be a participant, but alas, I lack the necessary STEM skills, and so I'm content to experience it vicariously and support them with positivity.  That said, I'm pragmatic, and can't help but notice some of the omissions, which makes me wonder what's in development to solve some of these essential issues.

As much as I'd love to see NASA or one of the private companies roll out a new shuttle design, it seems to me that all future space lift and transport will be conducted with rockets and small powered capsules. While efficient, they just don't possess the romance of a space plane. I miss the shuttle.

[Convectuoso]

On 7/3/2019 at 1:18 AM, 505thAirborne said:

I see, well to @Gerli and everyone in Chile, hope you all had a great time and got to see it! 

Thanks. It had a visibility of 95% in Santiago, so we were all looking at it from the office. 

[505thAirborne]

Live feed from NASA & SpaceX. 

 

[M'Kyuun]

I hope this is an unbridled success from start to finish; it's great to see an American spacecraft finally taking astronauts to space rather than relying on the Russians, but to have it go off flawlessly will be a nice point of pride, and hopefully a boost of confidence for the other American space programs. It's well past time that we retook the lead in space.

Godspeed, Doug and Bob!

[renegadeleader1]

6 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I hope this is an unbridled success from start to finish; it's great to see an American spacecraft finally taking astronauts to space rather than relying on the Russians, but to have it go off flawlessly will be a nice point of pride, and hopefully a boost of confidence for the other American space programs. It's well past time that we retook the lead in space.

Godspeed, Doug and Bob!

I hope so too. I don't really want to talk about the last time I watched a live launch. 

 

Good luck guys!

[505thAirborne]

17 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I hope this is an unbridled success from start to finish; it's great to see an American spacecraft finally taking astronauts to space rather than relying on the Russians, but to have it go off flawlessly will be a nice point of pride, and hopefully a boost of confidence for the other American space programs. It's well past time that we retook the lead in space.

Godspeed, Doug and Bob!

^^^ All of the above!! 

Though that weather looks a bit unfriendly, play it safe and if they need to wait a few days I say do it. No sense rushing it at this point. 

[505thAirborne]

And now it's raining outside right over the Spacecraft. 

[renegadeleader1]

Just under an hour to go. I think they're gonna try and make the launch regardless of weather.

[Darth Mingus]

2 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Godspeed, Doug and Bob!

As a Canadian, this is what pops to mind:

[505thAirborne]

Launch has been Scrubbed for now. 

[renegadeleader1]

Launch scrubbed. Looks like the next window is saturday.

[kajnrig]

Dang. That's a shame, but no rush.

[TangledThorns]

When I was a kid I wanted to a astronaut, Jumping out of planes in the US Army made he hate flying so no space for me. Ugh.

[David Hingtgen]

Well yeah---jumping out of a plane has you going DOWN, launching in a shuttle has you going UP.   

[kalvasflam]

It will be good to have an American made manned space craft again.   Whether you like him or not, Musk has revolutionized the launch business.  Without him, we’d still be stuck with the Russians or praying that a miracle happens and ULA comes through.

[AN/ALQ128]

[sh9000]

[M'Kyuun]

There's something to be said about the modern, sci-fi inspired look of both the Dragon capsule and the new spacesuits. SpaceX aren't just rehashing old designs and ideas, they're pushing the technology and giving the look and feel to space travel what we've been seeing in movies for the last 30 years. I was pretty impressed by the clean, spacious, spartan look of the Dragon's interior. The only negative thought in my mind was, with all the vibration during launch, it'd be difficult to accurately touch the right thing on those flat screens. Having read a few books by 60's astronauts, the vibration made it difficult to see the instruments clearly. But, this is a new rocket, and perhaps, with new technologies applied, it's a much more stable ride. I guess we'll see on Saturday. I hope they show interior footage during the ascent, just to see how smooth it looks from inside Dragon.

I hope the weather proves more forgiving on Saturday, and Doug and Bob make it to the ISS without a hitch. We're nine years overdue having an American vehicle to get people and resources into space. And while I wish we had another spaceplane to replace the old orbiters, what SpaceX have accomplished with their rockets is nothing short of amazing. I remember watching their boosters land themselves vertically- just a sci-fi turned reality moment. Regardless of what you think of Elon Musk, you can't argue with the results of his company's work; they're outpacing all competitors, and doing it with style.

[Jaustin89]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

There's something to be said about the modern, sci-fi inspired look of both the Dragon capsule and the new spacesuits. SpaceX aren't just rehashing old designs and ideas, they're pushing the technology and giving the look and feel to space travel what we've been seeing in movies for the last 30 years. I was pretty impressed by the clean, spacious, spartan look of the Dragon's interior. The only negative thought in my mind was, with all the vibration during launch, it'd be difficult to accurately touch the right thing on those flat screens. Having read a few books by 60's astronauts, the vibration made it difficult to see the instruments clearly. But, this is a new rocket, and perhaps, with new technologies applied, it's a much more stable ride. I guess we'll see on Saturday. I hope they show interior footage during the ascent, just to see how smooth it looks from inside Dragon.

I hope the weather proves more forgiving on Saturday, and Doug and Bob make it to the ISS without a hitch. We're nine years overdue having an American vehicle to get people and resources into space. And while I wish we had another spaceplane to replace the old orbiters, what SpaceX have accomplished with their rockets is nothing short of amazing. I remember watching their boosters land themselves vertically- just a sci-fi turned reality moment. Regardless of what you think of Elon Musk, you can't argue with the results of his company's work; they're outpacing all competitors, and doing it with style.

There's physical buttons beneath the screens for critical operations; that said launches are largely automated and the crew shouldn't need to do anything outside of an emergency.

[JB0]

The touchscreen is still kind of a bad idea. It makes doing a lot of things harder than they need to be, and demands that extra bit of attention at all times. The primary design goal for controls is supposed to be ease of use, not looking like Star Trek: Next Generation.

[David Hingtgen]

I hate touchscreens during winter---I want to keep my gloves on.  (most "touchscreen-compatible" gloves, aren't) .  Give me a button, not a spot to touch.  Or even better---knobs.  Knobs are the best.   Simple comparison:

My old car, had knobs. Current one has buttons.  A/C and radio, have the same issue.  Want to make a large increase in volume or temp?  Twist knob to right, almost instantaneous. But with buttons? Press, press, press, press, press, press, press, press, press.....   Takes a long time to go from Vol 10 to Vol 30, or change the vents to blowing out very hot or cold if you're trying to keep a meal hot or cold in the seat...     If you want anything other than "off" or "mute"----it'll take a lot of button presses to get there. 

I recall reading about a Russian pilot, who said that many people were designing color-coded screens and instruments for modern fighter jets---but he pointed out that when pulling high-G's, you experience greying out LONG before blacking out, and that color-coding instruments is pointless, or even harmful if it RELIES on the color-difference----it needs to be clear in black-and-white in a dogfight.  

[Dynaman]

Touchscreens have gotten a LOT better the last few years.  The main problem with them in a car is you HAVE to take your eyes off the road to use the damn things - and that is not a good idea.  Our SUV's display then occasionally has to gall to put up a warning when you start driving to keep your eyes on the road - to get rid of it and start the radio requires pressing a touchscreen button.  What genius thought that up?

 

The old physical knobs and push buttons you could use without taking your eyes off the road.

[Dynaman]

Forgot to mention - I went to a presentation on the Apollo computer about a decade ago.  Fascinating stuff.  A lot of modern computing came out of that program.  multi-tasking being one of them.  The other I remember is that all the input devices were designed around the gloves the crew had to wear.

[M'Kyuun]

From my reading, I know the Apollo guys had a hard time with dexterity and tactile sense in their gloves, especially when the suits were pressurized. They experienced a lot of cramping in their hands trying to muscle past the stiffness of the gloves to hold onto tools, or just curl their fingers. I was looking at the SpaceX gloves while Doug and Bob were making their inputs, and they look to be noticeably improved over those old gloves. The thinness of the suit itself, and the fact that the gloves can just roll up into the sleeves, are really impressive advancements over the old suits. I like the new helmet design, as well. With the visor rotated up, they reminded me of Macross helmets, especially Isamu's. 

Concerning old school knobs over flat screen, absolutely yes. Flip switches, too, I think are preferable in a situation where there's likely to be a lot of vibration. There's also the possibility of a system failure throwing the capsule into a spin where a tactile feel of a switch or knob is far easier to discern, especially in high G situations. I think of Armstrong's Gemini 8 predicament. The flat screen is pretty, it offers a lot of info at a touch, but again the practicalities of an incident tending towards instability, high G forces, and extreme vibration make them, IMHO, not the optimal choice. I guess time and experience will tell.

[AN/ALQ128]