December 31, 2014 at 15:15Cosmonautics 2014 at Geektimes
What was 2014 like for astronautics? There were ups and downs, discoveries, drama. In this post - the most striking events that you read about and which were followed on Geektimes.
One of the most intense dramas this year was the Rosetta Mission and Philae landing on the comet Gerasimov-Churyumenko . Landing took place on November 12, and immediately failed to sit down - I had to jump. The sound of a touchdown was recorded. After that, the probe began to search for organic matter (and successfully ) and perform other tasks, made 80-90 percent of this list and “fell asleep” due to lack of energy - after all, solar panels were in the shade. We are waiting fornext March the probe will come to life. Perhaps with a different power source the probe would not have to hibernate.
Not without other excesses: feminists persecuted and were able to bring one of the leaders of the Rosetta mission to tears. For his shirt. After he landed the probe on a comet. And this, by the way, was the first contact with a comet in history .
And the interplanetary station New Horizons has already been awakened to begin rapprochement with Pluto and its satellite Charon. The device was launched into space in 2006, project costs have already exceeded $ 600 million. Starting in May, we will be waiting for photos of Pluto with a resolution higher than the Hubble telescope can do.
Hubble, in turn, continues to delight us with beautiful photographs. This year, Jupiter has turned into a giant cyclops .
What if you need a wrench? And if you are in space at this moment? Of course, wait for NASA to send you a model for printing on a 3D printer ! Usually, months pass from a request to the Earth about the necessary tools, but this time the time was reduced to several tens of minutes. This is the practical benefit of a 3D printer on the International Space Station.
To launch space launch vehicles with satellites and spacecraft, you need powerful and reliable rocket engines. Have you ever wondered where the best rocket engines in the world are made?At NPO Energomash. It is here that the Russian, Ukrainian, South Korean and, in part, even American space programs are pulled. It is no coincidence that the American company Orbital Sciences plans to buy 60 rocket engines from NPO Energomash for $ 1 billion. Read about how these engines are manufactured .
Opportunity will soon celebrate the 12th year of continuous operation on Mars. In the meantime, he is experiencing problems with flash memory. It's okay, a patch for the rover is already being prepared on Earth . Once he was lucky - dust blew off his solar panels in April , which practically gave him a second life.
And Curiosity feels great and conquers Mount Sharpe,it detects methane , traces of lakes on Mars and takes a “live” panorama for us .
Space timelapse : 12 thousand photos of astronaut Alexander Gerst in one video. Here we can see the cosmos, but you can hear it on a special NASA channel on SoundCloud . And do not forget that many interesting things about space can be found on space twitter .
Another timelapse video is NASA's largest sunspot video .
Did you know why the ISS interior is teeming with laptops in coasters? NASA engineer Robert Frost answered this question . And the only certified laptop to use on the ISS is the Lenovo ThinkPad. At the same time, ThinkPad laptops have been used on the ISS since 1998, and since 1995, they flew into space on shuttles more than 50 times.
How does a person feel in space? Long-term flights leave biological and psychological effects , not always temporary. Cosmos sets an ultimatum to man: either the astronaut can exist according to the laws of airless space, or die. There is even a psychological transformation that only astronauts are subject to.
This year Russia excelledhaving made 38 space launches from the country's cosmodromes and sent a total of 80 spacecraft (not only from Russia). Russian experts tested the launch vehicles of the Angara 1.2 light class and the new beautiful heavy Angara-A5 . And in August , all the docking stations were busy on the ISS . Another positive news is that GLONASS accuracy will reach 60 cm thanks to new generation satellites.
In the meantime, NASA offers to master the atmosphere of Venus before the surface of Mars, Roscosmos plans to build a lunar base, establish industry and mining .
We owe our entire missile movement to the 1903 Tsiolkovsky formula .
In this photo we see the launch of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle .
.
In November, the successful return of the returning Chinese lunar apparatus, Chang'e 5-T1 (Chang'e 5-T1), took place. In the photo - the moment the capsule enters the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 40 thousand kilometers per hour.
This year India did not stand aside and tested the new GSLV Mk.III missile and the descent vehicle of the future manned ship.
Take-off is followed by landing. But in front of her is the entrance to the atmosphere . Watch the NASA video on how it looks. The reusable Orion spaceship, from which we see the process of entering the atmosphere in this video, was successfully splashedin the pacific ocean. And the company Ilona Mask continues to work on the creation of missiles using the Grasshopper technology - reusable missiles with a vertical landing.
In addition, Elon Musk plans to launch 700 communication satellites into orbit. These will be small satellites weighing 113 kg, while conventional communications satellites weigh several tons. All in order for everyone and everyone to have the Internet.
There were falls this year, there was a whole black week of “private space” , two accidents happened: Antares rockets and the SpaceShipTwo suborbital ship. The accident SpaceShipTwo claimed the life of one of the two crew members, the second managed to eject and was seriously injured and was taken to hospital. Richard Branson said that the accident will not affect the implementation of plans, and that he will become the first space tourist on his own ship .
Kepler Space Telescopeeven with two out of four gyroscopes not working, he will continue to help scientists discover exoplanets. He had already worked more than the prescribed time and due to a breakdown for some time he was unable to maintain the direction of "vision". But an original solution was found: now two gyroscopes and a “solar wind” are used for positioning as an additional reference point.
Are we alone in the universe? It is important to study the stars , because they are a source of knowledge about other galaxies and a possible peddler of life .
What conquest of space might look like - see in the film “Wanderers” .
Christopher Nolan's film Interstellar raised a lot of noise in the scientific community . And at Geektimes it was discussed more than once with spoilers . This film was taken seriously, scientists took part in writing the script and filming to create the most accurate visualization in terms of black hole physics in the history of cinema.
And we discussed whether astronauts can survive traveling through a space-time tunnel.
Science fiction describes interstellar travel technology . Read an overview of the ways to deliver your shaved human bodies from one star system to another.
Do not forget about New Year's space gifts. Stay healthy and stay with us! Happy New Year!
One of the most intense dramas this year was the Rosetta Mission and Philae landing on the comet Gerasimov-Churyumenko . Landing took place on November 12, and immediately failed to sit down - I had to jump. The sound of a touchdown was recorded. After that, the probe began to search for organic matter (and successfully ) and perform other tasks, made 80-90 percent of this list and “fell asleep” due to lack of energy - after all, solar panels were in the shade. We are waiting fornext March the probe will come to life. Perhaps with a different power source the probe would not have to hibernate.
Not without other excesses: feminists persecuted and were able to bring one of the leaders of the Rosetta mission to tears. For his shirt. After he landed the probe on a comet. And this, by the way, was the first contact with a comet in history .
And the interplanetary station New Horizons has already been awakened to begin rapprochement with Pluto and its satellite Charon. The device was launched into space in 2006, project costs have already exceeded $ 600 million. Starting in May, we will be waiting for photos of Pluto with a resolution higher than the Hubble telescope can do.
Hubble, in turn, continues to delight us with beautiful photographs. This year, Jupiter has turned into a giant cyclops .
What if you need a wrench? And if you are in space at this moment? Of course, wait for NASA to send you a model for printing on a 3D printer ! Usually, months pass from a request to the Earth about the necessary tools, but this time the time was reduced to several tens of minutes. This is the practical benefit of a 3D printer on the International Space Station.
To launch space launch vehicles with satellites and spacecraft, you need powerful and reliable rocket engines. Have you ever wondered where the best rocket engines in the world are made?At NPO Energomash. It is here that the Russian, Ukrainian, South Korean and, in part, even American space programs are pulled. It is no coincidence that the American company Orbital Sciences plans to buy 60 rocket engines from NPO Energomash for $ 1 billion. Read about how these engines are manufactured .
Opportunity will soon celebrate the 12th year of continuous operation on Mars. In the meantime, he is experiencing problems with flash memory. It's okay, a patch for the rover is already being prepared on Earth . Once he was lucky - dust blew off his solar panels in April , which practically gave him a second life.
And Curiosity feels great and conquers Mount Sharpe,it detects methane , traces of lakes on Mars and takes a “live” panorama for us .
Space timelapse : 12 thousand photos of astronaut Alexander Gerst in one video. Here we can see the cosmos, but you can hear it on a special NASA channel on SoundCloud . And do not forget that many interesting things about space can be found on space twitter .
Another timelapse video is NASA's largest sunspot video .
Did you know why the ISS interior is teeming with laptops in coasters? NASA engineer Robert Frost answered this question . And the only certified laptop to use on the ISS is the Lenovo ThinkPad. At the same time, ThinkPad laptops have been used on the ISS since 1998, and since 1995, they flew into space on shuttles more than 50 times.
How does a person feel in space? Long-term flights leave biological and psychological effects , not always temporary. Cosmos sets an ultimatum to man: either the astronaut can exist according to the laws of airless space, or die. There is even a psychological transformation that only astronauts are subject to.
This year Russia excelledhaving made 38 space launches from the country's cosmodromes and sent a total of 80 spacecraft (not only from Russia). Russian experts tested the launch vehicles of the Angara 1.2 light class and the new beautiful heavy Angara-A5 . And in August , all the docking stations were busy on the ISS . Another positive news is that GLONASS accuracy will reach 60 cm thanks to new generation satellites.
In the meantime, NASA offers to master the atmosphere of Venus before the surface of Mars, Roscosmos plans to build a lunar base, establish industry and mining .
We owe our entire missile movement to the 1903 Tsiolkovsky formula .
In this photo we see the launch of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle .
. In November, the successful return of the returning Chinese lunar apparatus, Chang'e 5-T1 (Chang'e 5-T1), took place. In the photo - the moment the capsule enters the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 40 thousand kilometers per hour.
This year India did not stand aside and tested the new GSLV Mk.III missile and the descent vehicle of the future manned ship.
Take-off is followed by landing. But in front of her is the entrance to the atmosphere . Watch the NASA video on how it looks. The reusable Orion spaceship, from which we see the process of entering the atmosphere in this video, was successfully splashedin the pacific ocean. And the company Ilona Mask continues to work on the creation of missiles using the Grasshopper technology - reusable missiles with a vertical landing.
In addition, Elon Musk plans to launch 700 communication satellites into orbit. These will be small satellites weighing 113 kg, while conventional communications satellites weigh several tons. All in order for everyone and everyone to have the Internet.
There were falls this year, there was a whole black week of “private space” , two accidents happened: Antares rockets and the SpaceShipTwo suborbital ship. The accident SpaceShipTwo claimed the life of one of the two crew members, the second managed to eject and was seriously injured and was taken to hospital. Richard Branson said that the accident will not affect the implementation of plans, and that he will become the first space tourist on his own ship .
Kepler Space Telescopeeven with two out of four gyroscopes not working, he will continue to help scientists discover exoplanets. He had already worked more than the prescribed time and due to a breakdown for some time he was unable to maintain the direction of "vision". But an original solution was found: now two gyroscopes and a “solar wind” are used for positioning as an additional reference point.
Are we alone in the universe? It is important to study the stars , because they are a source of knowledge about other galaxies and a possible peddler of life .
What conquest of space might look like - see in the film “Wanderers” .
Christopher Nolan's film Interstellar raised a lot of noise in the scientific community . And at Geektimes it was discussed more than once with spoilers . This film was taken seriously, scientists took part in writing the script and filming to create the most accurate visualization in terms of black hole physics in the history of cinema.
And we discussed whether astronauts can survive traveling through a space-time tunnel.
Science fiction describes interstellar travel technology . Read an overview of the ways to deliver your shaved human bodies from one star system to another.
Do not forget about New Year's space gifts. Stay healthy and stay with us! Happy New Year!