Since so many of us really love space exploration and science fiction, I figured we should have a thread to post stuff as it happens. Duce follows SpaceX closely, so he'll probably post stuff like that.

I really enjoy Fraser Cain of Universe Today. He posted a video about the Cassini Space Probe's Saturn missions now that it will be coming to an end. We've learned an incredible amount of Saturn and its moons. Lot of cool stuff here, but NASA doesn't want to contaminate any of Saturn's moons with potential Earth microorganisms and wants to send the probe to its death while they still have control over it. So, they're going to have it crash into Saturn itself so we can study the atmosphere up close in its final moments.

Look at what has been hiding for all this time around Saturn...a mini Saturn!

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/ ... s-moon-pan

The Martian may have been right about potatoes on Mars all along.

From Gizmodo: "In February 2016, the International Potato Center (CIP)—which is a real place—began its second phase of a project to grow potatoes using the driest soils from the Peruvian desert. The team surmised that if the project was successful, the findings could help astronauts master the art of growing potatoes on Mars. After all, the soil used was imported back to the CIP’s lab in Lima, Peru precisely for its Mars-like aridity and high salt content. The project was aptly named “Potatoes on Mars.”

Now, the CIP has released video footage showing that the team has indeed grown potatoes using this Mars-like soil. By planting a tuber in a CubeSat designed by engineers from University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) in Lima, the team was able to create a hermetically sealed environment for the potatoes to grow in—and they did.


“Growing crops under Mars-like conditions is an important phase of this experiment,” Julio Valdivia-Silva, a research associate with the SETI Institute involved with the project, said in a statement. “If the crops can tolerate the extreme conditions that we are exposing them to in our CubeSat, they have a good chance to grow on Mars. We will do several rounds of experiments to find out which potato varieties do best.”



It’s important to note that the experiment spiked the dry desert soil with fertilized soil, similar to how Matt Damon used his own shit to add nutrients to his Martian soil. The experiment claims to have emulated Mars’s atmosphere, by creating a low pressure environment with high CO2 levels within the CubeSat. That said, the actual air pressure on Mars is roughly 0.6% that found at mean sea level on Earth, and it’s hard to imagine plants evolved to our atmospheric pressure growing under such conditions. Obviously, the experiment did not try to simulate Mars’ surface temperatures. Gizmodo has reached out to the International Potato Center for more information on growing conditions inside the simulated Mars environment, and we will update this post if and when we hear back.

Whether or not the experiment was truly able to replicate farming conditions on Mars, these results are certainly exciting. Potatoes have been a staple of the human diet for thousands of years, and with all this talk of a human colony on Mars, they might be more critical than ever. The question now is, is Elon Musk prepared to become a potato farmer?

He (and you) can check out the potato growing live stream here."

SpaceX launching again tonight. There's no planned landing tonight as the payload is too heavy and there will not be enough fuel remaining. SpaceX has stated that future launches of this type will be on the Falcon Heavy to allow for recovery.

"SpaceX has a 2.5-hour launch window tonight, so the Falcon 9 can take off any time between 1:34AM ET and 4:04AM ET. However, weather isn’t looking that great. There’s only a 40 percent chance that conditions will be favorable, due to thick clouds expected in the area, according to Patrick Air Force Base. If EchoStar XXIII doesn’t go up tonight, SpaceX has another chance to launch on Thursday at 1:35AM ET."

Do we know what the payload is this time?

Nevermind. Googled. It's a communications satellite.

As expected, last night's launch was scrubbed until Thursday, same time. So Wednesday night for anyone wanting to stay up late.

Is it from Cape Canaveral or Wallops Island ?

Some cool history about the 14 missions the Soviets sent to Venus trying to study the surface.

Merlin wrote:

Is it from Cape Canaveral or Wallops Island ?

It's from the Cape. Pad 39A, the Apollo and Space Shuttle pad.

il Duce wrote:

Merlin wrote:

Is it from Cape Canaveral or Wallops Island ?

It's from the Cape. Pad 39A, the Apollo and Space Shuttle pad.

I knew they used 39a. I just didn't know if SpaceX used Wallops as well. Do you happen to know If they do? I should probably look into that. I like to go there and watch. My grandfather worked on the dishes out there for the NASA facility. And that's where my parents met when they were 13 on summer vacation. So it's kind of like a nostalgia trip every time I go. Lol

So every few months or so I re-read this article. It's about the Fermi Paradox, addressing the high probability of extra terrestrial life with the lack of evidence. As with most space exploration topics the time frames of this are on a scale that really can't be fathomed by our mind. Nevertheless I still find it fascinating and can't help but wonder where we are within the Great Filter theory. I really like how this article addresses and breaks down all the ideas within the paradox and the graphs are easy to follow. Being a visual person, I really appreciate someone putting in time and effort into making a graph that illustrates a complex idea.

http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

Duce, DuckE, and I are fans of WaitButWhy around here. The series on Elon Musk was cool. I felt inspired by the focused nature of Musk's ambition to save humanity.

Launch last night was successful.

SpaceX will be attempting their first relaunch of a used booster today, and they will attempt to land it again. Launch is scheduled for 6PM EST with a 2.5 hour launch window. Payload is a series of comsats for SES. They've launched with SpaceX before and are basically replacing their entire array over South America, so they're extremely interested in the cost savings this will provide. If all goes well this could be a transformative moment in space travel.

Update on the launch window.