Space - Spacex, NASA, Rocket Lab
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@kiwiwomble said in SpaceX:
did i read the Rocketlap were going to start working on manned rockets? thats will be interesting to watch too
Yes. First step is the Neutron, a new rocket in development
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really interesting video, apparently rocketlab are sending a satellite to a Luna orbit to assist NASA return to the moon, thats cool
not this launch but later in the year
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@kiwiwomble said in Rocket Lab:
really interesting video, apparently rocketlab are sending a satellite to a Luna orbit to assist NASA return to the moon, thats cool
not this launch but later in the year
Bought a few shares. Hopefully they take them to the moon as well
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@mariner4life said in NASA:
@kirwan i think i have watched that video 3 times today
It's pretty amazing all right. Nice to a "first" after decades of what feels like nothing. The fact we could see humans on the moon in the next five years is fantastic.
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whats the atmosphere on Mars like? i wonder how different the chopper had to be to fly, or is more similar in density than i think? just the breakability that's an issue?
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@kiwiwomble said in NASA:
whats the atmosphere on Mars like? i wonder how different the chopper had to be to fly, or is more similar in density than i think? just the breakability that's an issue?
just waiting for us to melt a big hunk of ice. all good
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@kiwiwomble gravity about 40 percent of earth, atmosphere about 1% of sea level. Remarkable
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@kiwiwomble gravity about 40 percent of earth, atmosphere about 1% of sea level. Remarkable
oh yea, John Carter showed that
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@mariner4life said in NASA:
@kiwiwomble gravity about 40 percent of earth, atmosphere about 1% of sea level. Remarkable
oh yea, John Carter showed that
Great documentary
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@kiwiwomble said in NASA:
whats the atmosphere on Mars like? i wonder how different the chopper had to be to fly, or is more similar in density than i think? just the breakability that's an issue?
Thin. I'm staggered that they can do that.
The highest atmospheric density on Mars is equal to the density found 35 km above the Earth's surface.
A Lama helicopter made it to about 41,000ft, 12, 500m (and that was quite an exceptional achievement) so using the earth's atmosphere as a comparison this wee beast probably won't get too high. Olympus Mons is the highest peak on Mars - it's 72,000 feet (21KM) high. Hillary would have fun with that one, Everest is under 9km. I would guess basically zero atmosphere up there, and effectively in space.
Still, wizzing around the surface is still very cool.
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I have now wondered, how do they measure altitude on Mars? No mean sea level, so this is the answer:
"Martian elevation values were obtained by subtracting the radius of the Mars areoid from the radius of Mars at each observation point. The resulting elevations were used to produce the topographic map."
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If anybody didn't understand "areoid", and I didn't, this is it:
Noun
areoid (plural areoids)
(astronomy, geology, planetology) The analogue of the geoid for the planet Mars; the Martian geoid. The gravitational and rotational equipotential surface for Mars. The surface that provides the datum line (the equivalent for sea level) for Mars.I am delighted that should I ever get to fly on Mars I will at least understand the altitude that I won't run into Olympus Mons.