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Post by jandl100 on Jun 9, 2021 14:15:05 GMT
"A Mission To Alpha Centauri Within A Human Lifetime Has Just Become More Realistic" A smallish probe with a light sail pushed by an Earthborn laser system could reach Alpha Centauri with a travel time of 22 years. One of the main issues to resolve is keeping the laser beam focused on the light sail during the brief push phase. This may be sortable with adaptive optics. Other issues remain, like making sure the space probe isn't melted by the laser! www.iflscience.com/space/a-mission-to-alpha-centauri-within-a-human-lifetime-has-just-become-more-realistic/ |
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Post by Slinger on Jun 9, 2021 14:23:15 GMT
What an interesting concept. Although it's only at the "I bet this would work if..." stage, I'd be interested to know what sort of payload they envisage something like that carrying, bearing in mind how critical the weight would be.
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 9, 2021 15:03:44 GMT
There are people with seriously deep pockets who are behind this kind of a mission.
I'd imagine they'll be very keen to be able to actually know the results - mission time 26 years, as it will take over 4 years for the info sent back by the probes to reach us.
I'd not be amazed if the first mission set off in the 2030s.
I think it would be a quick look see as the probes whizz through the Alpha Centauri system at 20% the speed of light. A mission to slow down into orbit would be way more ambitious and take longer.
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Post by MartinT on Jun 9, 2021 18:20:53 GMT
I don't suppose they could use planetary slow-down until they know a lot more about its planets.
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 9, 2021 18:50:41 GMT
I don't suppose they could use planetary slow-down until they know a lot more about its planets. I suspect they'd need more than that to slow down from such a high velocity in anything like a plausible timescale. But they have a triple star to play with, very much higher gravitational potentials and they know the orbits very accurately. I suspect something handy could be done with that. |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 9, 2021 21:01:08 GMT
Yes, the g-forces on it would be tremendous, to say the least.
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Post by user211 on Jun 11, 2021 7:11:33 GMT
I've been there already.
So's Donovan.
It's problematical.
More fun version. Sounds dreadful on my phone but hey.
My vinyl version is almost unplayable it's so f£&ked. Shame. Good song;)
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 12, 2021 12:54:46 GMT
Interesting. Not a topic found under the broad heading of Astronomy, but it could become strangely relevant. Intelligent slime mold. This single cell stuff responds in an 'intelligent' manner to its environment and can solve some surprisingly complex problems. For example, it redesigned the Tokyo subway to make it more effective and robust to damage. I kid you not. It challenges our assumptions about intelligent behaviour, and the complexity needed for that. Which makes me wonder about the implications for Exobiology - intelligent alien life need not necessarily be little green men, or interstellar octopuses. But it could be something quite beyond and different to our own cognitive and physical existence. www.sciencealert.com/this-creeping-slime-is-changing-how-we-think-about-intelligence |
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 15, 2021 10:33:32 GMT
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 20, 2021 11:09:24 GMT
Oh no! Could this be the end of the Hubble Space Telescope? A critical onboard computer crashed a week ago (June 13) and attempts to restore it have so far failed. The HST is currently in safe mode, with all science capabilities shut down. scitechdaily.com/nasa-struggles-to-fix-failure-of-hubble-space-telescopes-1980s-computer/amp/"The computer halted on Sunday, June 13. An attempt to restart the computer failed on Monday, June 14. Initial indications pointed to a degrading computer memory module as the source of the computer halt. When the operations team attempted to switch to a back-up memory module, however, the command to initiate the backup module failed to complete. Another attempt was conducted on both modules Thursday evening to obtain more diagnostic information while again trying to bring those memory modules online. However, those attempts were not successful. |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 20, 2021 11:52:42 GMT
Damn - most likely cosmic radiation got to it, which requires huge shielding and even then is not 100% effective.
I wonder why they haven't switched to the backup computer?
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 28, 2021 8:35:21 GMT
Hubble Space Telescope - still out of action due to computer problems. "... Additional tests performed on June 23 and 24 included turning on the backup computer for the first time in space. The tests showed that numerous combinations of these hardware pieces from both the primary and backup payload computer all experienced the same error—commands to write into or read from memory were not successful. Since it is highly unlikely that all individual hardware elements have a problem, the team is now looking at other hardware as the possible culprit, including the Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF), another module on the SI C&DH. The CU formats and sends commands and data to specific destinations, including the science instruments" phys.org/news/2021-06-nasa-additional-problem-hubble-space.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 28, 2021 13:22:19 GMT
Hope it's not a single point of failure.
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 29, 2021 3:42:55 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Jun 29, 2021 5:28:38 GMT
That's a big one. Shame it won't get closer for better analysis.
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Post by jandl100 on Jun 30, 2021 9:55:05 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Jun 30, 2021 10:36:03 GMT
Nice. The Soul Nebula is just fantastic.
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Post by jandl100 on Jul 1, 2021 20:13:19 GMT
The Hubble Space Telescope's problems continue. www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/nasa-preps-more-complex-and-riskier-hubble-space-telescope-fix/"As the investigation continues, NASA is preparing to turn on backup hardware that's part of the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling unit where the payload computer lives. The team is eyeing a power regulator component as well as hardware that sends and formats commands and data. "If one of these systems is determined to be the likely cause, the team must complete a more complicated operations procedure to switch to the backup units," NASA said in an update. "This procedure would be more complex and riskier than those the team executed last week, which involved switching to the backup payload computer hardware and memory modules." This next step is set to occur over at least the next week and will involve executing the procedure in a simulation before it's attempted with the real telescope. |
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Post by jandl100 on Jul 7, 2021 16:56:15 GMT
Methane Detected on Saturn's moon Enceladus Could Actually Be a Sign of Life, Study Shows "The work was painstaking, taking into account the temperature of the seafloor and hydrothermal vents, and the effect a population of these microbes would have on their environment. In the end, the team found that the observed abundance of methane was too high to be the result of known geochemical processes. That means there could be microbes down there, in the dark depths of Enceladus' ocean. Of course, that's not the only explanation. There could also be geochemical processes on Enceladus that don't occur here on Earth producing the compound. www.sciencealert.com/methane-in-the-salty-plumes-of-enceladus-could-be-a-sign-of-life |
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Post by jandl100 on Jul 12, 2021 6:36:59 GMT
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