Tag: Space Exploration

Random Space News

It is a Sunday and I try to bring a few things to my readers that they may if either missed or maybe just do not care….but anyway a bit of FYI….

It has been awhile since I posted on the doings in outer space….I hope to correct my oversight…..

First there have been a couple reports that would give ammo to those idiots that believe the Ancient Alien BS….

Some ‘experts’ believe that there are signals conning from the center of the Milky Way…..

Could intelligent aliens be lurking at the heart of the Milky Way? 

A new search for extraterrestrial life aims to find out by listening for radio pulses from the center of our galaxy. Narrow-frequency pulses are naturally emitted by stars called pulsars, but they’re also used deliberately by humans in technology such as radar. Because these pulses stand out against the background radio noise of space, they’re an effective way of communicating across long distances — and an appealing target to listen for when searching for alien civilizations. 

Scientists described the alien-hunting strategy in a new study, published May 30 in The Astronomical Journal. Researchers led by Cornell University graduate student Akshay Suresh developed software to detect these repetitive frequency patterns and tested it on known pulsars to be sure it could pick up the narrow frequencies. These frequency ranges are very small, at about a tenth of the width of frequencies used by a typical FM radio station. The researchers then searched data from the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia using the method. 

https://www.livescience.com/space/extraterrestrial-life/repeated-signals-from-the-center-of-the-milky-way-could-be-aliens-saying-hello-new-study-claims

And the Pentagon is adding fire to this spurious saga….

Sightings of UFOs are nothing new.

But now the United States government is being more open about the fact that the sightings often cannot be explained

In one of the latest revelations, a Pentagon chief confirmed that unidentified metallic orb UFOs have been seen “all over the world.”

Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist and director of the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), said Wednesday: “We see these [‘metallic orbs’] all over the world, and we see these making very interesting apparent maneuvers.”

Kirkpatrick made the comments during AARO’s presentation to NASA.

Kirkpatrick and Co. also made recommendations to the agency, such as erasing the stigma around UFO research and hunting for alien “artifacts” found int he solar system.

NASA Confession: Pentagon Chief Finally Admits ‘Metallic Orbs’ Have Been Seen ‘All Over the World’

All this talk about man moving and living on Mars….but it will take some sort of terraforming to make it so more and more can move for a better future…..

If humanity is going to colonize other planets, we probably have to start with Mars. But the North Pole is balmy by comparison with the Red Planet, and the surface of Mars makes Earth’s radioactive Lake Karachay look like a country spa. The solution, some futurologists and scientists believe, is to terraform Mars — transform the planet until it is more capable of supporting human life.

It’s a mammoth task. Mars is lethal in multiple ways. If you were to be teleported this moment to Mars, in the clothes you’re wearing now, the gas in your bloodstream would turn into bubbles. Like a shaken can of Coke, you would fizz to death. If somehow you avoided that, you would soon die of oxygen deprivation, cold exposure, or radiation poisoning.

Ultimately, a terraformed Mars would need a strengthened magnetosphere – the protective magnetic layer that shields Earth from the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation – and a thicker atmosphere. That atmosphere is currently almost entirely composed of carbon dioxide, with negligible amounts of oxygen. The planet would also need to be much warmer; its surface temperature is, on average, -81 degrees Fahrenheit.

If we managed to warm the planet up, we’d release frozen CO2 reserves at the planet’s polar caps and elsewhere. That would help thicken the atmosphere, making it possible for water, rather than ice, to exist on the surface – conditions that would make it easier to introduce plants, which produce oxygen. But how would we even start that warming process?

https://www.freethink.com/space/how-to-terraform-mars

Then there is the imperialistic rhetoric coming from NASA…..over the water ion the Moon….

NASA chief Bill Nelson has Moon water on the mind. Specifically, he’s worried that China might get to that precious American — er, excuse us, internationally unclaimed — Moon water first.

“I think the United States will get [to the Moon] first,” Nelson told the Spanish newspaper El País when pressed about the burgeoning US-China race to Earth’s natural satellite. “What worries me more is that both they and we are going to land at the South Pole, where we think there is water.”

“Water is important because it is composed of oxygen and hydrogen, and that’s oxygen to breathe and hydrogen for rocket fuel,” he added. “We want to preserve those potential reserves for the international community, and prevent China from coming in and saying that the water is theirs, as they have done with the Spratly Islands.”

There’s so very much to unpack here, not the least being that the US has historically also claimed various island nations as its own. But Moon water is kind of a different thing, no? Feels a bit more finders-keepers, especially considering that if the US gets its hands on that water first, it presumably won’t be sharing with China, either.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-head-china-moon-water

“Our God Given water”?

When did the Moon become a colony of the US?

Apparently NO one remembers the Outer Space Treaty we signed in 1967…..but then the US has never been one to honor its treaties….just ask the Native Americans.

Enjoy your Sunday.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

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Who Owns The Moon?

The US has walked on the Moon and all the predictions are that we shall return to doing so in the very near future…..

But apparently word has been issued by China that the US would not be allowed to walk on the Moon….yes you read that right….”not allowed”….

There is a new space race happening more than five decades after the United States beat Russia to become the first nation to ever put on a human on the moon. This time, the contenders are the U.S. and China. And if China wins, it could cause serious trouble for the rest of the world, according to NASA chief Bill Nelon.

During an interview with Politico, Nelson and several other experts expressed concern over China’s attempt to land on the moon before NASA’s expected 2025 touchdown. They believe that the country could stake a claim on areas that are rich in minerals and other resources and block other countries from making a lunar journey.

“There is potentially mischief China can do on the moon,” warned Terry Virts, the former commander of the International Space Station. “If they set up infrastructure there they could potentially deny communications, for example. Having them there doesn’t make things easier. There is real concern about Chinese meddling.”

The chief and the others from NASA worry that China is attempting to reach the moon “under the guise of scientific research.” But nations should worry that their work is actually a power tactic.

https://outsider.com/news/nasa-chief-issues-warning-about-china-banning-us-astronauts-from-landing-moon/

My question is when did China take ownership of the Moon?

But is China that advanced that they now control the Moon?

“It is a fact: We’re in a space race,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told Politico in a recent interview. And it’s not just about politics and bragging rights—there are both national security and practical implications, according to many US officials. “We better watch out that [the Chinese] don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research,” Nelson added. “It is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.'” Meanwhile, America’s space agency got almost all the money it wanted from Congress, including full funding for key components of the Artemis program, which seeks to put a permanent human presence on the moon by 2025. Much depends on whether SpaceX delivers on its promises.

Artemis may be ambitious, but it’s the Chinese program that has developed in “stunningly fast” fashion and with “enormous success and advances,” particularly in the past decade. As Fortunereported last month, construction of the Tiangong (“heavenly palace”) space station is complete, and the first three-person team of “taikonauts” are in orbit conducting science experiments. Unlike the collaborative International Space Station, Tiangong is entirely managed by one nation, highlighting China’s “self-reliance” as it works toward its “larger space ambitions.” As for moon exploration, China has already expressed its “pioneering ability” by collecting samples and establishing communications from the far side of the moon, per Politico.

American scientists and military officials have expressed a fair amount of concern about Chinese ambitions, based in part on how China has asserted itself in the Pacific around the disputed Spratly Islands. China vehemently rejects suggestions that it intends to lay claim to any celestial real estate, and some experts say existing treaties—together with more friendly, collaborative engagement—should be sufficient to keep the peace. Still, there are practical matters at stake, including competition for a limited number of good moon-landing sites with access to water and other resources.

This Moon thing will be interesting to watch…..But first I guess we have to get beyond the South China Sea thing…..

Watch and Learn!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Space Colonization

I am one of the few bloggers that has an interest in the developments centered around space and its exploration.

I have made my thoughts known on the push for corporate dominance of space…..for one it violates the 1967 Outer Space Treaty that most of the UN members signed including the US.

But if the treaty escapes you then I can help bring in the light.

Old Prof’s Look At Space Law (Again)

I also enjoy visiting the debate sites on the web…..sites like ….

https://www.debate.org/

https://www.procon.org/

On the later site there was a debate on space colonization…..

https://www.procon.org/headlines/space-colonization-top-3-pros-and-cons/

Most of the pros and cons were about this planet and the need to find alternate living space….I both agree and disagree with that premise.

Yes since we are apparently incapable to fixing our climate and planetary problems we will need to look elsewhere for a place to live so we can do it all again…..most likely making all the same mistakes.

My first objection is the term ‘colonization’ …..it has a sinister implications….

Colonization, or colonisation refers to large-scale population movements where the migrants maintain strong links with their – or their ancestors’ – former country, gaining significant privileges over other inhabitants of the territory by such links. When colonization takes place under the protection of colonial structures, it may be termed settler colonialism. This often involves the settlers dispossessing indigenous inhabitants, or instituting legal and other structures which systematically disadvantage them.

In its basic sense, colonization can be defined as the process of establishing foreign control over target territories or people for the purpose of cultivation, often through establishing colonies and possibly by settling them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization

The term has imperialistic overtones for me.  The treaty of 1967 made it clear that there should be NO military hardware in space and all innovations were for the benefit of all humanity…..instead the whole deal is to claim and exploit the resources found in space

Now the treaty means nothing like most treaties that keep greed from ruling.

From Bush to Obama to Trump to Biden….all have extended the reach of corporations into space and beyond (not sure what beyond actually means).

I think ‘colonization’ will create more problems than it will solve.

Like nukes in space…while most of the rhetoric is about nukes for rocket power….but like anything nuke there could be another under the table plan for nukes.

The Push for Nukes in Space

Not only will there be a threat of nukes from countries that have a stockpile but also from space….a scenario that should be unacceptable for humanity.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is ‘Star Wars’ Real?

I am one of the few bloggers that keeps warning the readers about the new arms race…into space….China has launched their own space station in competition with the other station out there, the ISS….the race is on!

We all know about the saga of the Skywalker family and the galaxy far far away…..but with our newest military branch, the Space Force, could the idea of a galactic war be in the making?

Russia and China have a joint plan to build a Lunar research station, a base that they intend to have ready for crewed visits by 2036. This would be the the only manned presence on the Moon, at least as is currently planned.

The Pentagon has other ideas, however, envisioning the US Space Force needing to treat the Moon as a “militarized front,” and that they need to prepare to fight an entire war on the Moon. They don’t single out the Russo-China base, but nothing else is on the Moon to fight right now.

The US proposal is plainly self-serving, coming from the Space Vehicles Directorate, and boiling down to needing space vehicles, since the US has yet to actually manufacture any costly space vehicles for warfare.

These sort of initiatives are a big part of what is likely to result of the Space Force, a continued litany of excuses to spend vast sums of money gearing up for nonsensical sci-fi wars across the solar system.

Terrestrial weapons projects often reach into the many billions of dollars, and investing in speculative technology to fight on other celestial bodies seem bound to quickly find themselves over-budget, with the only reassurance being that these wars are so unlikely.

(antiwar.com)

I have covered many times my thoughts on this whole damn idea of a space force…..https://lobotero.com/2020/12/20/old-profs-look-at-space-law-again/

There is a treaty that all this space jockeying violates a treaty signed back in the 1960s….

All this back and forth is getting closer and closer to an armed spacial conflict…..

Star Wars Lives!

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–26May21

We are bombarded with the problems we are having with China….in economics, protests, the South China Sea and Taiwan…..it is so pervasive that we let the Pentagon spend money like a drunken sailor to prevent China ascension.

And now we have space and China that we will throw money at in the near future….

Say what?

You may not know it but China has decided to launch their own version of the space station….it is called the Tiangong Space Station…..

There has been a development that the US fines disturbing…..the station has a large robotic arm….

China’s deployment of a powerful robotic arm attached to the core module of its has sparked concerns in the United States over its possible military applications.
Chinese scientists say the 10-metre-long device, which is capable of lifting objects weighing up to 20 tonnes and can move around on the outside of the station, will be used to grab incoming spacecraft as they approach and help them to dock.
While the concept is not new – China has launched several scavenger satellites fitted with robotic arms to gather and steer space debris so it burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere – not everyone in the US is convinced its purpose is wholly benign.
 
Now we have yet another worry with China.
 
Will they deploy this ‘arm’ to destroy American and international satellites?
 
We will need more money to meet this challenge no doubt….so the price tag rises yet again….more taxpayer money wasted on a ‘maybe’…….
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Anyone Out There?

Since the 1960s we have been searching for life ‘out there’…..we have sent probes telling about the earth and its people and its location…..we have sent radio messages into the dark unknown hoping for an answer……

MY thought is ‘has any of these guys ever seen the movie “Independence Day”?

It is a cautionary tale of can happen with all this rush to find who is out there.

Physicist Michio Kaku has a thought on our search……

Once we find signs of alien life (well, if) we will have to grapple with a new question, presuming that they haven’t made the first move: should we make contact?

Renowned physicist Michio Kaku has made himself clear on the topic over the years, stating that he believes we will find alien life, and if we do we should be wary of making contact. In a new interview with The Guardian, he has gone further, calling it a “terrible idea”.

“Soon we’ll have the Webb telescope up in orbit and we’ll have thousands of planets to look at, and that’s why I think the chances are quite high that we may make contact with an alien civilisation,” he told the publication.

“There are some colleagues of mine that believe we should reach out to them. I think that’s a terrible idea. We all know what happened to Montezuma when he met Cortés in Mexico so many hundreds of years ago.”

For those that don’t know, the Spanish forces – led by Cortés – slaughtered the unarmed Aztecs until “the blood of the warriors flowed like water”, which doesn’t sound like an ideal outcome of the first contact with alien life. Kaku has expanded on the idea in the past, explaining that though he believes that alien life will mostly be peaceful – given that the signatures we are likely to find will be of civilizations thousands or perhaps millions of years in advance of us – that doesn’t mean that we should risk announcing ourselves to the universe.

“We cannot take the chance,” he said in 2018. “We should not try to advertise our existence to alien life in outer space because of the fact that we don’t know their intentions.”

The danger, he believes, is not that aliens will be “evil” per se, but more that they might not care about us at all. He compared our position in the universe to that of a deer in the forest. While hunters in the forest pose a threat to deer, the real danger comes from developers who might pave over the forest and destroy their environment.

“In fact, if you read the novel War of the Worlds the Martians in HG Wells seminal novel were not evil in the sense they wanted to torture us and they wanted to do all sorts of barbaric things to humanity,” he added. “No, we were just in the way.”

(IFLScience)

Be careful what you ask for….you just may well regret the answer.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Sunday Space News

It is that time again…..I report on all the news about space…..news that no one can use……

The world’s largest telescope is underwater…..

Russian scientists on Saturday launched one of the world’s biggest underwater space telescopes to peer deep into the Universe from the pristine waters of Lake Baikal.

The deep underwater telescope, which has been under construction since 2015, is designed to observe neutrinos, the smallest particles currently known.

Dubbed Baikal-GVD, the telescope was submerged to a depth of 750-1,300 meters (2,500-4,300 feet), around four kilometers from the lake’s shore.

Neutrinos are very hard to detect and water is an effective medium for doing so.

The floating observatory consists of strings with spherical glass and stainless steel modules attached to them.

https://www.sciencealert.com/russian-scientists-deploy-a-floating-observatory-in-lake-baikal

“Take us to warp 4″….a captain aboard the Enterprise….that might sound like a line from a movie but it may not be so far fetched…..

The speed of light is a big constraint when it comes to space exploration. It’s the rate at which light travels in a vacuum, precisely 186,282 miles per second (29,9792,458 metres, or 300,000 kilometers, per second). It’s unchangeable, and as far as we currently know, nothing can exceed that speed. That may seem pretty fast, but compared to the sheer size of space, it’s like trudging through molasses. 

For scale, the moon is approximately 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth; It takes about 2.51 seconds for light to make a round trip from the Earth and back. Mars is 3 minutes and 2 seconds for a one-way trip, or six minutes and four seconds both ways. It would take 4.6 hours for light to reach Pluto, and another 4.6 hours to bounce back. Finally, it would take us 4.24 years traveling at the speed of light to reach Alpha Centauri Bb—the closest exoplanet from Earth. That’s traveling at top speed.

https://interestingengineering.com/direct-fusion-drives-flying-across-space-blink-of-an-eye

 

Weekend Space News

It has been awhile since I wrote about the news from space….news that few care about…..

The big news is the views sent back from Percy on the surface of Mars…..

A big Red Planet first from NASA: The agency has released the first-ever video of a Mars landing and the first audio sent back from the planet.

Our Space Force is planning massive space infrastructure program….

The U.S. military over decades has built extensive infrastructure to move troops and equipment around the world. It may now need to start thinking about investing in foundation technologies to support future activities in space, said Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command.

…

The space industry is developing servicing robots, maneuvering satellites, in-space transport vehicles and other technologies the military would be able to use. Shaw said U.S. Space Command will leverage commercial systems but “we will also have our own, and we will need the other combatant commands to support us.”

As a unified combatant command, U.S. Space Command can influence what the Pentagon buys through the so-called “requirements process.” For future operations, Shaw said, the military could “preposition logistics in space. to replenish space assets rapidly from the Earth’s surface or elsewhere in orbit

U.S. Space Command to recommend investments in space infrastructure

You might ask why is this a priority, right?

Now some are warning of a possible “Space Pearl Harbor”…..

Twenty years ago, a congressionally mandated commission warned of a “Space Pearl Harbor” if the United States did not act urgently to protect its assets orbiting above the Earth. Despite this warning, Washington failed to take sufficient steps. Too many Americans assumed the United States would enjoy unchallenged access to the ultimate high ground indefinitely.

Not surprisingly, America’s great power competitors are unwilling to accept American supremacy in space. Since the commission’s January 2001 report, Russia and China have worked overtime to develop the means to deprive the U.S. military of its comparative advantage in space, developing capabilities that could disable or destroy American satellites. Both governments understood that the U.S. military increasingly relies on space: Satellites provide navigation, communication, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities vital to a variety of missions including missile defense.

https://thedispatch.com/p/we-must-work-to-prevent-a-space-pearl

Really?

Should I remind all our so-called “experts” of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty that the US signed?

Apparently I do……

https://lobotero.com/2019/04/12/space-law/

https://lobotero.com/2019/07/16/space-law-part-2/

Maybe they, the “experts”, should spend more time in research and less time chasing dollars…..

We hear a lot these days about the push to colonize Mars…..but is that a good idea?

Some say it is a good idea and should be pursued….

Mars is a pretty inhospitable planet. It’s cold, it’s dry, and it gets lots of ultraviolet light on its surface. We don’t know if there’s life there – or if there was in the past. Two new independent studies show that we can’t discount the possibility, and that we need to pay attention to what we send to the Red Planet.

https://www.iflscience.com/space/earthly-life-could-survive-on-mars-new-studies-suggest/amp.html

Some others say no it is not…..

The touchdown on Mars of another NASA rover has generated lots of excitement about the red planet. But scientific exploration is one thing. Believing that humans might be able to live on the planet someday is another, writes Shannon Stirone at the Atlantic. She calls out those pushing the idea that Mars is a viable option for humans in the not-too-distant future, or ever, particularly Elon Musk. A video in circulation show Musk reading a passage from Carl Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot in which Sagan argues that humans better take care of Earth because no alternative exists. “False,” says Musk, laughing. “Mars.” Musk, of course, aims to get there via his SpaceX company, and he sounds gung-ho about the idea of Mars as a permanent home for relocated Earthlings. “He couldn’t be more wrong,” writes Stirone. “Mars? Mars is a hellhole.”

She runs through the reasons why—surface temperatures of 80 below zero, no breathable air, no protection from radiation from the sun, etc. Humans would have to live underground and survive by UV lights. The planet “is not in the realm of hospitable to humans,” she writes. “Mars will kill you.” Stirone draws a contrast between Sagan, who inspired readers with the awe he felt toward the cosmos, and Musk, who “has used the medium of dreaming and exploration to wrap up a package of entitlement, greed, and ego.” He could do so much here on Earth will all the money he will waste on Mars, she writes. “To laugh at Sagan’s words is to miss the point entirely: There really is only one true home for us—and we’re already here.” Read the full piece.

I agree with the article…..the whole idea of colonization is about chasing dollars more than anything.

Since the Earth is in space I guess this article fits into the theme of the day….

“Traditionally we’ve been taught the Earth has four main layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core,” explained Australian National University geophysicist Joanne Stephenson. 

Our knowledge of what lies beneath Earth’s crust has been inferred mostly from what volcanoes have divulged and seismic waves have whispered. From these indirect observations scientists have calculated that the scorchingly hot inner core, with temperatures surpassing 5,000 degrees Celsius (9,000 Fahrenheit), makes up only one percent of Earth’s total volume.

Now Stephenson and colleagues have found more evidence Earth’s inner core may have two distinct layers.

“It’s very exciting – and might mean we have to re-write the textbooks!” she added.

The team used a search algorithm to trawl through and match thousands of models of the inner core with observed data across many decades about how long seismic waves take to travel through Earth, gathered by the International Seismological Centre.

https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-s-hidden-innermost-core-hints-at-an-even-more-dramatic-planet-history

Finally for all you amateur astronomers….the meteor, 99942 Apophis….is heading to earth and you can see it…..

The most devastating event in Earth’s history, as far as life is concerned, was the mass extinction that followed the impact of a colossal asteroid. That event is the reason dinosaurs aren’t around today and, perhaps more importantly, why mammals had a chance to boom and why we’re all here today. But now that we’re here, it would be nice if we could avoid future asteroid calamities, and one of the more threatening space rocks in our neck of the stellar woods is known as 99942 Apophis.

Apophis is a large rocky body thought to be around 1,000 feet wide, and that’s big enough that it would cause catastrophic damage if it were to strike our planet. On Friday, March 5th, Apophis is scheduled to make a close approach of Earth, but the good news is that scientists have already determined that it won’t hit us

‘Doomsday asteroid’ is headed toward Earth – here’s when you can see it with your telescope

That is all I have to report…..enjoy your day….be well and be safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

If It’s Sunday, It Is Space News

I know it has been a helluva week….but since I am one of the few bloggers with an eye on space I need to report the stuff happening.

Was that a message?

On December 18, 2020, Ian Sample of the Guardian published a report about a tantalizing radio signal at 982.002MHz that was detected within the Breakthrough Listen project by the Parkes telescope in Australia from the nearest star to the sun, Proxima Centauri. This infrared star hosts an Earth-size planet, Proxima b, in its habitable zone, where liquid water could allow the chemistry of life on the planet’s surface. There was no scientific paper accompanying the report, and therefore it’s too early to draw any inferences.

Astronomers must verify that the signal cannot originate from radio interference on Earth or some natural emission mechanism. Terrestrial interference should be different for telescopes at different locations on Earth. If the radio source repeats and resides on Proxima b, then it should show an 11-day modulation associated with the planet’s orbital (and spin) period. As soon as I saw the news report, I wrote to the publisher of my forthcoming book Extraterrestrial on the search for intelligent life: “We might have friends out there. Better than a five-star review is getting reassurance for the book’s content from an actual star on the sky.”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-we-receive-a-message-from-a-planet-orbiting-the-nearest-star/

The question is asked….have we been contacted in the past?

Canadian astronomer named Robert Weryk was reviewing images captured by a telescope known as Pan-STARRS1 when he noticed something strange. The telescope is situated atop Haleakalā, a ten-thousand-foot volcanic peak on the island of Maui, and it scans the sky each night, recording the results with the world’s highest-definition camera. It’s designed to hunt for “near-Earth objects,” which are mostly asteroids whose paths bring them into our planet’s astronomical neighborhood and which travel at an average velocity of some forty thousand miles an hour. The dot of light that caught Weryk’s attention was moving more than four times that speed, at almost two hundred thousand miles per hour.

Weryk alerted colleagues, who began tracking the dot from other observatories. The more they looked, the more puzzling its behavior seemed. The object was small, with an area roughly that of a city block. As it tumbled through space, its brightness varied so much—by a factor of ten—that it had to have a very odd shape. Either it was long and skinny, like a cosmic cigar, or flat and round, like a celestial pizza. Instead of swinging around the sun on an elliptical path, it was zipping away more or less in a straight line. The bright dot, astronomers concluded, was something never before seen. It was an “interstellar object”—a visitor from far beyond the solar system that was just passing through. In the dry nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union, it became known as 1I/2017 U1. More evocatively, it was dubbed ‘Oumuamua (pronounced “oh-mooah-mooah”), from the Hawaiian, meaning, roughly, “scout.”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/25/have-we-already-been-visited-by-aliens

Is this guy one of those Ancient Alien conspiracists?

Trump admin has been ordered to explore the possibility for nukes in space….

the White House released an executive order Jan. 12 seeking to promote the development of small nuclear reactors for space and defense applications.

The executive order, “Promoting Small Modular Reactors for National Defense and Space Exploration,” includes separate directions for NASA and the Defense Department to pursue small nuclear reactors for their uses, while cooperating on common technologies for those systems.

For space exploration, the executive order directs the NASA administrator to prepare a report within 180 days defining “requirements for NASA utilization of nuclear energy systems for human and robotic exploration missions through 2040 and analyze the costs and benefits of such requirements.” Those requirements include details such as power levels, reactor size and mass, and specific issues associated with operating such reactors in the space environment

White House executive order promotes development of space and defense nuclear power systems

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More Space Stuff

Another weekend and yet more space stuff for your enjoyment and knowledge….

Back in the 50s the US was caught flat-footed by the Russians when they successfully put a object in space, the Sputnik.

Sputnik?

History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.

The Soviet Union inaugurates the “Space Age” with its launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. The spacecraft, named Sputnik after the Russian word for “satellite,” was launched at 10:29 p.m. on 04 October 1957.  Moscow time from the Tyuratam launch base in the Kazakh Republic. 

And ever since the US has tried to always tried to remain one step ahead of the Russia…..and today is NO different…..

Space has once again become a prominent national security issue 63 years after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first satellite.  Sputnik’s launch sent shockwaves throughout the U.S., thought to have been the world’s technological leader.  This historical event and the U.S. response provides us with valuable context for how the U.S. faces the current space challenge posed by today’s array of potential adversaries.

In meeting this challenge, the U.S. has established Space Force, a U.S. Air Force component.  The operational arm of Space Force will be U.S. Space Command (SPACECOM), a unified combatant command created in 1985 before being disbanded and subsumed by U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) in 2002.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/12/23/us_space_command__preventing_another_sputnik_654267.html

These days there is a whole industry built up around space…..with Musk and others trying to capitalize on the promise of unforeseen profits the race is on…..and with this type of stuff changes are inevitable….

The attention of the world has recently been captured by the return of Japan’s Hayabusa-2 asteroid mission, the activities of Elon Musk’s SpaceX venture, and China’s Chang’e 5 moon landing, yet a quiet revolution is taking place in the global space industry. This revolution started in the 2010s and its full impact on global space industry should be measured over the next decade.

In the next 10 years, the entry into service of constellations of small satellites should reshape the face of the global space industry. While the miniaturization of satellites is not a disruptive innovation in itself, it signals a paradigm shift. It will continue to significantly reduce the cost of access to space and pave the way for the mass production of satellites, which in turn will reduce the cost of the space infrastructure itself.

The space industry used to be organized in highly hierarchical industrial chains around prime contractors, most often under public leadership, NASA being a leading example. It now operates like industrial ecosystems budding upstream or downstream around private space infrastructure.

https://theconversation.com/major-changes-coming-over-the-horizon-for-the-global-space-industry-152289

It use to be about the scientific first….but today it is more about the promise of profit than the exploration for the sake of exploration.

I Read, I Write, YOu KNow

“lego ergo scribo”