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Are you sure there isn't more to show?

Are you sure there isn't more to show?

Are you sure there isn't more to show?

Are you sure there isn't more to show?

Are you sure there isn't more to show?

Are you sure there isn't more to show?

Are you sure there isn't more to show?

Some Links to DC-X:

• NASA's DC-X history page
• Video of DC-X flights
• The DC-X fuselage builder's page on DC-X

The really sad thing is, we'd likely almost be at the operational SSTO stage now, if we hadn't killed DC-X. . ..

Some Links to DC-X:

• NASA's DC-X history page
• Video of DC-X flights
• The DC-X fuselage builder's page on DC-X

The really sad thing is, we'd likely almost be at the operational SSTO stage now, if we hadn't killed DC-X. . ..

How many people here would jump at the chance to work for NASA for free if it meant the possibility that they may, themselves, go into space?

It's worth a shot!:
http://education.msfc.nasa.gov/docs/034.htm

Because typical distances between objects in the universe (such as superclusters) are a lot Lot LOT bigger than the measly 2,300,000 light years between Milky Way and Andromeda.

The expansion of the universe means things which are already very far apart will get farther apart -- "the rich get richer...". It has miniscule effect at the level of individual galaxies, where gravity is firmly in charge.

You should now feel a whole lot smaller than you did a few minutes ago. On the bright side, you're still way bigger than quarks. :-)

A few years ago, astronomers announced that a dwarf galaxy in the direction of Saggitarius was colliding with the Milky Way. I'm not sure it's exactly within our galaxy's borders [I'd thought it was, but the only reference I could find after a minute of googling said otherwise], but it's orbiting (every billion years or so), and the galaxies have had an effect on each other. Check out this FAQ about the dwarf and the referred page. Key quote: "It [SagDEG] is apparently in process of being disrupted by tidal gravitational forces of its big massive neighbor in this encounter. "

Galactic collisions are actually relatively common in Nature; typical galactic separations are of order hundreds to thousands of kiloparsecs (kpc), whereas a typical galaxy is of order a few kpc in radius. Moreover, galaxies form along a highly filamentary spiderwork of structure in the early universe, and tend to flow inwards to more massive galaxies.

This situation is to be contrasted with the fate of stars during a galactic collision. Stellar radii are about 10^8 times smaller than the typical interstellar separation, so the vast majority of stars will simply fly right by another. A few stars will probably encounter a direct encounter (particularly if the initial pass is close enough to raise subtantial tides on the stars, which would act to drain energy and angular momentum from the system), but the vast majority fly by unscathed.

It is true, however, that gaseous clouds in the interstellar medium are much more extended that stars, and collision between clouds (particularly giant molecular clouds) will be quite spectacular. It is hypothesized that cloud collisions as well as gaseous flows (bringing tremendous influxes of mass to the galactic nuclar region) resulting from galactic collisions can account for the tremendous bursts of star formation seen in "starburst" galaxies such as NGC 1808.

In any case, the future collision of the Milky Way with Andromeda will be quite fascinating for far future Milky Way astronomers (if any are still around). Or perhaps for astronomers in other galaxies, far, far away...

Bob

It is somewhat of a deal actualy. While the stars themselves don't actualy collide, the dust and gas contained within the galaxies do.

This causes large numbers of new stars to be formed. New stars emit large amounts of hard radiation. Furthermore, many of the new stars are quite massive and soon explode into supernova, providing large, powerful radiation blasts.

How would this affect us? Any sufficiently close supernova would most likley be powerful enough to ionize the entire earth's atmosphere, wiping out all life here.

here's a picture of a starburst galaxy

One of the advantage of being the richest nation on the planet is that we have this tendancy to clean up our own messes. Global warming, along with the Kyoto Protocol, has been used as a political scare tactic in this country to try to place blame squarely on the American people. Based on questionable science, it survives primarily due to human nature to believe impending doom anytime it's mentioned. Think of the idiots and the Y2K scare. BTW, I have read many of the reports that the environmental groups use. Most of the use the phrase "may be occuring" quite a bit. Add to this, humans are NOWHERE NEAR the biggest contributor to CO2 emmissions to begin with on this planet. If you want to see where C02 emmissions occured over the past year, take a look at this page: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/viewrecord?80 86. Also, just a note the dates and then think about when all of those wildfires in the US and elsewhere around the world occured.

As for the environement. It's all just a bunch of scare tactics, right? Well, if you listen to ultra right-wing groups such as capitalismmagaize.com and aynrand.org, perhaps, since it's in their own best interest to promote their ideology which says you shouldn't inconvenience yourself for the benefit of anyone else. Similarly, a story about the severity of global warming from a group like Earth First! wouldn't carry much weight, either, even though they can quote plenty of studies themselves.

So is it just a bunch of scare tactics? We have hard data showing that people definitely have a significant impact on the local climate -- think urban heat islands. Is it possible that in doing so, the local climate can have such a huge effect without impacting the larger world? Not really. There aren't ecosystems that large that exist in complete isolation.

Many people have claimed that carbon sinks, largely in the form of forests, would be more than enough to counter the effect of increase carbon dioxide emissions. The Kyoto Protocol placed significant emphasis on forests for that purpose. Unfortunately for that view, researchers at Duke released the results of a study showing that while the growth rate of plants showed significant initial increases, it slowed dramatically within a couple years (see the last couple paragraphs). What's the implication? That we'd need to constantly be planting forests. And of course since they'd absorbed the carbon we couldn't cut them down since that'd end up releasing the carbon back to the atmosphere. Actually, it isn't known how much of the carbon the trees actuall keep as opposed to storing in short-lived organs like leaves which fall off, decay, and release the carbon back into the environment (see the infor about this ongoing Harvard study). And if you want to know more about the group that did the research for Duke and is conducting related studies, their homepage is here.

Finally, as for the idea that "our president has stood up for his belief that environmentalism, when carried to the extreme, is very unhealthy for everybody"... Well, if you cut through the political commentary in this column you find out that Bush's own ranch has gone to great lengths to be environmentally sensitive. So much for his politics reflecting his actual beliefs.

This is one reason why George W. Bush refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty, a treaty that no other nation has ratified mind you (except Kosovo, I think). Of course, the world assigns the blame to the United States because of its expanded infrastructure and energy needs.

Furthermore, NASA satellite images of carbon monoxide emissions the world over prove that the United States is *not* to blame. The image shows that northern South America and western Africa have the highest carbon monoxide emissions in the world.

So, stuff that in your craw.

This is one reason why George W. Bush refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty, a treaty that no other nation has ratified mind you (except Kosovo, I think). Of course, the world assigns the blame to the United States because of its expanded infrastructure and energy needs.

Furthermore, NASA satellite images of carbon monoxide emissions the world over prove that the United States is *not* to blame. The image shows that northern South America and western Africa have the highest carbon monoxide emissions in the world.

So, stuff that in your craw.

I find it hard to beleve that any 1/2 sentient Slashdot poster would say we don't get anything out of NASA. Just take a look at that thing you are typing on! If it wasn't for NASA it would still take up a 20x20 room and use TUBES instead of microchips. For those of you who doubt how much we get from NASA Please read the damn FAQ.

If I could be sure that all the money would go to NASA I would give my tax break back, plus the "refund" I'm getting in the fall. That should pay for quite a few of the "I don't want you spending my money" folks around here.

But I want one concession- I need a list of all the folks I'm paying for. This way I can make sure that they are not on the recieving end of the payoff at the end. You all die when the comet hits SUCKER!!!!

You forgot three who died on the pad with Apollo 7. The loss of Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee hit hard. That's the American side.

On the Soviet side, you missed no fewer than 170 deaths:
Komarov: 1967
Testers of Baikonur (you've probably seen the film of the explosion)
Gagarin and test-pilot Seryogin, lost in air flight in 1968)
Georgi Dobrovolksy, Vladislav Volkov, Viktor Patsayev, Soyuz 11, June 6, 1971 (died during re-entry)

Science is expensive, and pure research even more so. "Pure research" is the attempt to find out something without any other goal than the knowledge itself. That means there's no expected profits. Universities used to be the primary resource for this, but the way things have been the past couple decades, most research is done on behalf of a corporate sponsor, which means that 1) if you can't show a profitable motive for the intended result, you ain't doing it; and 2) If what you find upsets the sponsor, the plug is pulled quickly.

NASA has been incredibly successful, despite having both arms tied behind its back, one leg hobbled, the other knee immobilised, and forced to wear an eye patch AND headphones blaring N-SYNC and Shitney Spears 24/7.

The people who have died through their direct involvement in space programs all knew there were risks involved and were willing to take those risks. We can split hairs and say that no one told Krista McAuliffe that the Challenger was really a 1.5 million pound bomb, or that Apollo 7 wouldn't have burned if NASA read the label and followed the manufacturer's instructions, but they were still better informed than their Soviet counterparts.

Science ain't cheap, but when's the last time you thought about the price of ignorance?

woof.

"Eppur si muove" ("Nevertheless, it moves") -- supposedly said by Galileo after his recanting of his book.

According to the links, the star is in an highly excentric elliptical orbit. A pretty good image can also be seen on the space.com link you give. This means, the orbit should be similar to long-period comets. Some graphs showing the orbit of the Hale-Bopp comet can be seen here.

There are also some scientist who think the claimed 30 million year periodicity is not real, but a result of impact crater data rounded to nearest round millions of years. You can get the artcile by entering the number 9701104 in the field here. The paper has been published in an international refereed astronomical journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics

My personal opinion is that Nemesis is propably not lurking out there, but I think it would be worthwhile to check it.

Divine retribution seems to be a million years away

I think that in one million year, out tech can stop the comets that this star might drop from the Oort cloud. Even with present tech, we get a good early warning. A 'killer comet' would probably be detected at least half a year before the possible impact. I'd be much more worried about the Near-Earth Asteroids - they may remain undetected until a few weeks before D-day.

What NASA says about Nemesis.

An excellent overview from IndiaWorld.

Why Nemesis isn't a wacked out theory, and might even be expected.

A fairly detailed account at space.com

We can see our clock ticking. Divine retribution seems to be a million years away But the animal smaller than dogs can take solace, as IIRC this might be Nemesis' last fly by, so they will inherit the earth for an indeterminate period of time.

I think compressed air powered water was in used long before Lonnie Johnson "invented" it - just maybe not in water guns. I was a kid during the age of the pathetic pump squirt gun, but you could get water rocket launchers.

There's also a nearby NASA base with a water powered sled used to test tires and stuff - a 2Mb movie of that in action is here.

According to this link, Pluto and Charon are (were?) considered to be the largest of the objects in the Kuiper Belt. There's actually many objects in this belt and more information can be found here and here. And, IMO, the best site for information about this, and the most complete is this site at NASA.

This suggests that Pluto and Charon are simply bodies within another asteriod belt and shouldn't have been classified as planets. And thus we shouldn't make the mistake of classifying this, too, as a planet, even though it is larger.

I've worked in two environments where code reviews took place.

When I worked at TIS on the Trusted Mach project, code had to be reviewed by the "trust engineers" for compliance with the security model. Problem was that some of these folks, while very knowledgable about the theory of building a trusted operating system, were not all that knowledgable about C++, and a lot of their problems - in some cases, the vast majority - were cleared by developers explaining basic programming issues.

A few years later I worked at TRW on EDOS. Code reviews were a mandatory part of the process. Unfortunately, in my experience they ended up more focused on ensuring that the code met the style standards (indentation, brace placement, format of function headers, and the like) than on the proper functioning of the code. (Of course, that may be because my code was just so good that no one had any suggestions, questions, or issues other than where I put the curly braces. B-) )

Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/

In a somewhat related story, NASA's HESSI (High Energy Solar SpectroScopic Imager) spacecraft has had its launch delayed again. It was supposed to launch July 4th 2000 but had to have many of its insturments recailbarated at GSFC when JPL shattered the mounting brackets by mistake in a vibration test. After that, a problem in the Pegasus launch vehicle was discovered and had to be fixed, delaying launch until 3 weeks after the X43 failure. KSC and Orbital Sciences (makers of the Pegasus) cleared HESSI for launch. NASA decided to wait until the X43 investigation was over. This caused HESSI's launch to be delayed indeffinatly while at leist 6 spacecraft launch this summer (NASA refuses to work them back in). This is a problem. HESSI is designed to study the solar maximum, which has practically been missed, and it will fail its mission parameters if not launched by September 2001. This is NASA's fault, not the HESSI team. The HESSI team has done everything possible to get this bird in space, it just hasn't happened. Pull and hope that this bird flies (After the JPL accident, I worked on calibrating the Roll Angle Sensor (RAS) for the star-tracker navigation telescope on board).

In a somewhat related story, NASA's HESSI (High Energy Solar SpectroScopic Imager) spacecraft has had its launch delayed again. It was supposed to launch July 4th 2000 but had to have many of its insturments recailbarated at GSFC when JPL shattered the mounting brackets by mistake in a vibration test. After that, a problem in the Pegasus launch vehicle was discovered and had to be fixed, delaying launch until 3 weeks after the X43 failure. KSC and Orbital Sciences (makers of the Pegasus) cleared HESSI for launch. NASA decided to wait until the X43 investigation was over. This caused HESSI's launch to be delayed indeffinatly while at leist 6 spacecraft launch this summer (NASA refuses to work them back in). This is a problem. HESSI is designed to study the solar maximum, which has practically been missed, and it will fail its mission parameters if not launched by September 2001. This is NASA's fault, not the HESSI team. The HESSI team has done everything possible to get this bird in space, it just hasn't happened. Pull and hope that this bird flies (After the JPL accident, I worked on calibrating the Roll Angle Sensor (RAS) for the star-tracker navigation telescope on board).

In a somewhat related story, NASA's HESSI (High Energy Solar SpectroScopic Imager) spacecraft has had its launch delayed again. It was supposed to launch July 4th 2000 but had to have many of its insturments recailbarated at GSFC when JPL shattered the mounting brackets by mistake in a vibration test. After that, a problem in the Pegasus launch vehicle was discovered and had to be fixed, delaying launch until 3 weeks after the X43 failure. KSC and Orbital Sciences (makers of the Pegasus) cleared HESSI for launch. NASA decided to wait until the X43 investigation was over. This caused HESSI's launch to be delayed indeffinatly while at leist 6 spacecraft launch this summer (NASA refuses to work them back in). This is a problem. HESSI is designed to study the solar maximum, which has practically been missed, and it will fail its mission parameters if not launched by September 2001. This is NASA's fault, not the HESSI team. The HESSI team has done everything possible to get this bird in space, it just hasn't happened. Pull and hope that this bird flies (After the JPL accident, I worked on calibrating the Roll Angle Sensor (RAS) for the star-tracker navigation telescope on board).

In a somewhat related story, NASA's HESSI (High Energy Solar SpectroScopic Imager) spacecraft has had its launch delayed again. It was supposed to launch July 4th 2000 but had to have many of its insturments recailbarated at GSFC when JPL shattered the mounting brackets by mistake in a vibration test. After that, a problem in the Pegasus launch vehicle was discovered and had to be fixed, delaying launch until 3 weeks after the X43 failure. KSC and Orbital Sciences (makers of the Pegasus) cleared HESSI for launch. NASA decided to wait until the X43 investigation was over. This caused HESSI's launch to be delayed indeffinatly while at leist 6 spacecraft launch this summer (NASA refuses to work them back in). This is a problem. HESSI is designed to study the solar maximum, which has practically been missed, and it will fail its mission parameters if not launched by September 2001. This is NASA's fault, not the HESSI team. The HESSI team has done everything possible to get this bird in space, it just hasn't happened. Pull and hope that this bird flies (After the JPL accident, I worked on calibrating the Roll Angle Sensor (RAS) for the star-tracker navigation telescope on board).

In a somewhat related story, NASA's HESSI (High Energy Solar SpectroScopic Imager) spacecraft has had its launch delayed again. It was supposed to launch July 4th 2000 but had to have many of its insturments recailbarated at GSFC when JPL shattered the mounting brackets by mistake in a vibration test. After that, a problem in the Pegasus launch vehicle was discovered and had to be fixed, delaying launch until 3 weeks after the X43 failure. KSC and Orbital Sciences (makers of the Pegasus) cleared HESSI for launch. NASA decided to wait until the X43 investigation was over. This caused HESSI's launch to be delayed indeffinatly while at leist 6 spacecraft launch this summer (NASA refuses to work them back in). This is a problem. HESSI is designed to study the solar maximum, which has practically been missed, and it will fail its mission parameters if not launched by September 2001. This is NASA's fault, not the HESSI team. The HESSI team has done everything possible to get this bird in space, it just hasn't happened. Pull and hope that this bird flies (After the JPL accident, I worked on calibrating the Roll Angle Sensor (RAS) for the star-tracker navigation telescope on board).

In a somewhat related story, NASA's HESSI (High Energy Solar SpectroScopic Imager) spacecraft has had its launch delayed again. It was supposed to launch July 4th 2000 but had to have many of its insturments recailbarated at GSFC when JPL shattered the mounting brackets by mistake in a vibration test. After that, a problem in the Pegasus launch vehicle was discovered and had to be fixed, delaying launch until 3 weeks after the X43 failure. KSC and Orbital Sciences (makers of the Pegasus) cleared HESSI for launch. NASA decided to wait until the X43 investigation was over. This caused HESSI's launch to be delayed indeffinatly while at leist 6 spacecraft launch this summer (NASA refuses to work them back in). This is a problem. HESSI is designed to study the solar maximum, which has practically been missed, and it will fail its mission parameters if not launched by September 2001. This is NASA's fault, not the HESSI team. The HESSI team has done everything possible to get this bird in space, it just hasn't happened. Pull and hope that this bird flies (After the JPL accident, I worked on calibrating the Roll Angle Sensor (RAS) for the star-tracker navigation telescope on board).

Are any of the networks or CNN planning on covering the launch? Yes, I realize that there will be a live video feed at http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/elv/, but for us poor souls stuck with dialup, that is not an option!

If managed properly, this launching facility should be quite safe to the Christmas Island eco-system. Kennedy Space Center is an incredible example of how, when done right, high technology and the environment can thrive. KSC has all sorts of endangered species that live in and around the spaceport. That's not to say that APSC won't completely screw up the island, but if they do, it'll be a complete shame because there's absolutely no excuse.

Particularly because the amount of water vapor has increased.

And if there isn't any life on Jupiter's moons, we can go out and start a party of our own... Recently, bacterial ecosystems have been discovered in Earth's clouds. This opens the possibility of using balloons on Venus to inject heat and acid loving bacteria into Venus' cloud droplets at 40-50 Km. Let's start colonizing space today!

All your moonbase are belong to US!

OK, unavoidable stupidity out of the way. Here's why we won't be using these as stopovers for a while yet - the radiation problem. See, the core of Jupiter is fluid metallic hydrogen, and it's spinning - this is responsible for Jupiter's enormous magnetic field strength - go here for numbers.

All of the moons listed are inner moons, so their surfaces are constanly under bombardment from energetic particles trapped by Jupiter's magnetic field. An astronaut on the surface of any one of them would recieve a lethal dose in no time flat.

Now, once we have adequate shielding (saw an interesting scheme to use material from one othe outer moons for this), we could land on or orbit a manned probe and send rovers out on the surface, and subs on Europa.
---------------

The discovery of life on Europa would more or less confirm the ubiquity of life. If microbes were found on Mars, they could have originated on Earth and moved to Mars (or vice versa), but the chances are low indeed (although admittedly not zero) of Earth and Europan life having a common origin.

Having said that...

The Vostok life forms show only that life can exist in such environments; it says nothing about life forming there. It may well be possible for existing life to adapt to a shitty environment (from our POV), but it would, to my untrained eye, be far more difficult for life to start there.

See here. Appearently Nigeria is not in the total zone.

New Agey? Did you bother to pay attention to the topic? It's an eclipse, stupid! Something every solar scientist creams his jeans to experience (since about 70% of eclipses can only be seen from the ocean, making it rather difficult to set up a stationary observatory). If you're just a beginner, check http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/soho/index2.html. If you know what I'm talking about, you already know where to look.

The fact that it's solstice time also means something scientific: a more direct picture. We'uns about as close as we gonna gets, and what better time to study the corona (or start working on your skin cancer)?

The solstice is also about the only time of year Finns ever talk to each other. W-A-Y up north in Finland, there's a party goin' on (has been for a couple weeks) and will keep going on because at 2a.m., it's still light out. And at 4a.m. And 5a.m. Big fun for another few weeks. It's weird.

I'll respond (read: feed the trolls), but your post ain't worth wasting mod points on.

woof.

Flaming Taco around here is getting to be like flaming Micro$oft: Almost everyone's doing it, those who don't are chastised, and no one pays attention to the point of the matter!

Who got certificate No. 31337 ??

http://spacekids.hq.nasa.gov/2003/getcert3.cfm?uid =31337

Lucky bastard

Appearently the CD is on Mars nevertheless:

Mission controllers for NASA's Mars Polar Lander mission are awaiting the next opportunity to communicate with the spacecraft, whose transmissions have not yet been received since it landed on Mars shortly after noon Pacific time today. (see here)

It may even have been spotted again:

The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) has been quietly scanning Mars pictures, looking for the Mars Polar Lander since early December 1999. According to a source close to the NIMA effort, photographic specialists at NIMA think they ve spotted something. But NASA officials say it stoo early to tell. (see here

So at least this CD reached its mission goal and is by now assimilated by the Marsians :-).

Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.

Cert #1769911 - Fritz Post.

Perhaps I'll stick to my day job.

Sure, that's the line that everyone uses. Challenger, Ford Explorers, anything goes wrong, they blame the weather. I don't believe it. It's a conspiracy involving the manufacturers, the RIAA, the MPAA, and Big Oil.

... NASA finally has the balls for space exploration. Har har

sure, the nasa budget's been cut back and all, but, if they can construct a 6.5 meter robotic inflatable sphere to invade.. er.. explore mars, don't you think they could do a little better than spraypainting a soccer ball black and photoshopping it into a martian landscape with a shuttle astronaut in front?

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/adv_tech/rovers/Rovr_art/t mbl_fot.jpg

yeesh..

Recently, bacterial ecosystems have been discovered in Earth's clouds. This opens the possibility of using balloons on Venus to inject heat and acid loving bacteria into Venus' cloud droplets at 40-50 Km. Let's start colonizing space today!

http://science.nasa.gov/ssl/pad/solar/suess/Inters tellar_Probe/ISP-Intro.html

Check it out!
--
"I'm not downloaded, I'm just loaded and down"

There are a lot of explanations going around this thread about how core collapse supernovae occur. Some good, some terrible, none quite right. Rather than correct what's been said, I'll instead point y'all to a few of the sources of real info out there.

A good place to start is the NASA Observatorium page on Stellar Evolution and Death

A friend in the business maintains a page full of links to SN pages. Many of these are links to research groups, but there are also links to general education and image catalogs.

BTW, in case you don't believe that I know of what I speak, follow this link

A working solar sail design would be vastly useful in the development of space resources... after we make access to LEO cheap enough to make the technology relevant .