John F Kross

Yes, CDR Wingstrong piloting LM Bumblebee in search of a safe landing zone.

As the astronauts looked for a safe place to land, the lunar lander’s plume blew regolith and sandblasted hardware at the nearby outpost. HT @PerryWadeSam

The NFL just condemned this speech by Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker. They 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 don't want people to hear it. It would be a shame if you make it viral.

SPACE AUTHOR & HISTORIAN ROD PYLE TO RECEIVE NSS' SPACE PIONEER AWARD AT ISDC-2024! Pyle is being awarded NSS' prestigious Space Pioneer Award for Body of Work in Media, incl 20 Books, NASA Publications, Recording Space History & Excellence in Journalism. t.ly/cMQ9J

@DrPhiltill Better odds than some combat missions and the Apollo astronauts virtually all came from a military background (fighter jocks).

Yesterday talking with Jim Head, planetary geologist at Brown University: he talked about his experience training the Apollo astronauts. They told him they wouldn’t have agreed to go unless they had an 80% chance of coming back alive. That’s still pretty low!

How was NASA's Voyager 1 rescued from a close brush with oblivion, and what is its future? Join @tariqjmalik and me as we talk to Voyager Project Scientist Dr. Linda Spilker! @TWiT @pascalleetweets @nss twit.tv/shows/this-wee…

@RealAceFox1 @TheRealBuzz Exactly. Midway probably would have turned out very differently.

@TheRealBuzz So much hinged on the outcome of that battle. If Yorktown had been sunk instead of damaged then only the Hornet and Enterprise are at Midway. If not for Coral Sea then Japan would have had the carriers Shokoku and Zuikaku at Midway. 6 carriers vs 2. youtu.be/U0K0Sqsg4cU?si…

This week in May of 1942 saw the Battle of the Coral Sea – one of the pivotal battles of WWII. Important for a few reasons, Coral Sea was the first major engagement in the Pacific, and demonstrated what modern, air-sea combat would look like the remainder of the war and beyond. America lost the carrier USS Lexington on May 8th – but the Yorktown, wounded in the fight, would be quickly repaired for Midway, demonstrating the industrial might of America. Lots of lessons we can learn from today.

@DrPhiltill How are these equations different from a truncated Drake equation?

Interesting!

@SciGuySpace @lrocket Can't imagine SpaceX going public, which would constrain Musk's Mars plans.

@lrocket Also interesting that he said the cost is $20 million per launch, which feels about right to me.

At about 10:20 Ron says about his SpaceX investment: "I think we are going to make a double in 2027 when they go public...". He has invested a billion $ in SpaceX, he may know something we don't

@SciGuySpace Now, boosting HST to a higher orbit would have pushed the boundaries.

Polaris Dawn seeks to push us out of our comfort zone. arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/…

@SciGuySpace And the outcome is less predictable than the first space race round. China, with their LM-scale lander, will surely land on the moon by 2030 and probably before (2029 is 80th anniversary of the PRC). Not at all sure Artemis will beat that date.

Watching the Artemis vs China lunar competition over the next decade is going to be fascinating. arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/…

@BellikOzan Yea, that's true, but also the boilerplate Orion on EFT reentered at 14k mph, if I'm not mistaken, not 25k mph with exponentially less heating (and shear too, I assume). Just a bad decision. Apollo deliberately burned SPS's engjne to test the heat shield at lunar return velocity.

@johnfkross2 It wasn't so much that they didn't simulate close enough with EFT (although it was a somewhat different trajectory), but that they radically changed the heat shield design afterward. x.com/BellikOzan/sta…

Oh that's bad

@BellikOzan Have to wonder why EFT did not simulate a lunar return and whether heat shield problems could have been uncovered at that time instead of months ahead of a crewed mission.

Link to the IG report: oig.nasa.gov/wp-content/upl… Serious TPS issues, along with pad damage detailed.

@robert_zubrin @anders_aslund Make it make sense. I sometimes wonder if it is deliberate sabotage or ideological blindness or incompetence. And then I realize they are not mutually exclusive.

@anders_aslund Of course the people in the Biden White House are thinking. They think that Russian oil is carbon free. So by replacing dirty American oil with clean carbon free Russian oil they are saving the world from the existential threat of climate change.

This is just bizarre. Rather than supporting US oil production, the administration supports Russian oil exports, which means that it helps Russia finance its war against Ukraine. Isn't anybody thinking in the White House?!

@spacekoala Agreed. Also, a large jovian-type planet to shepherd asteroids away from the inner system. IMO, stable Earth-like planets are extremely rare, and intelligence takes eons to emerge (at least a sizeable fraction of the age of the universe if Earth is any guide).

Deep down I wonder if one of the biggest answers to the Fermi paradox is just how rare the Earth-moon system type arrangement is in the solar system, especially since it does so much for life on this planet.

@flyrogo @spacesudoer Yup. A Mercury 7 astro or Conrad Bertie.

@spacesudoer Mercury.

SpaceX or Boeing, which space suit do you like?

@GregWAutry What makes the SoCal to LV train different from Newsom's folly? Serious question.

New SoCal to Vegas train will be built much faster and far cheaper than Newsom’s “high speed” folly, which will die rusting in the Central Valley after burning billions. abc7.la/4b5DvBO

In 2023, 97% of launched spacecraft were smallsats, showcasing substantial industry expansion. Learn more in the latest Smallsats by the Numbers report: bit.ly/2WeKYe9 #Smallsats #BryceTech

@MrHrmpf @SPACEdotcom Communist China's 60 million dead and 10 million slaves might disagree.

@SPACEdotcom Americans on the moon would be worst case. This culture only brings violence, racism and hatred. It's enough how much they harmed 1 planet already.

Are we prepared for Chinese preeminence on the moon and Mars? (op-ed) trib.al/XAdH4PL

@Mr_K4ne_ @SPACEdotcom I think you meant Beijing Joe Biden.

@SPACEdotcom If Republicans have any say, China will easily beat us