Recently in space
October 30, 2019 1:32 PM Subscribe
Robots, scary galaxies, new outfits, and a lack of spots. Asteroid 1998 HL1 flew pretty close by the Earth.
The sun is spotless, and has been so for a while. (Previously)
On the moon, China's Chang'e 4 probe found something odd.
On Earth, the US Air Force's X-37B autonomous spaceplane landed, after spending nearly 800 days in orbit. (Previously)
Virgin Galactic landed on Wall Street (SPCE) and successfully powered up SpaceShipTwo. Virgin astronauts can now wear this new outfit.
Meanwhile, from NASA:
The Insight Mars lander is having issues with its mole. (Previously)
NASA is sending a little, microphone-festooned robot (riding another robot) to suss out cracks in the ISS.
Curiosity took a new selfie and did some wet chemistry.
And NASA also released more exoplanet artwork, this time themed in glorious horror movie style, just in time for Halloween.
Also for Halloween, Hubble shared a new image of two galaxies glaring right at you.
On the moon, China's Chang'e 4 probe found something odd.
On Earth, the US Air Force's X-37B autonomous spaceplane landed, after spending nearly 800 days in orbit. (Previously)
Virgin Galactic landed on Wall Street (SPCE) and successfully powered up SpaceShipTwo. Virgin astronauts can now wear this new outfit.
Meanwhile, from NASA:
The Insight Mars lander is having issues with its mole. (Previously)
NASA is sending a little, microphone-festooned robot (riding another robot) to suss out cracks in the ISS.
Curiosity took a new selfie and did some wet chemistry.
And NASA also released more exoplanet artwork, this time themed in glorious horror movie style, just in time for Halloween.
Also for Halloween, Hubble shared a new image of two galaxies glaring right at you.
That Virgin Galactic outfit seems to hit the sweet spot between the Star Trek: Enterprise crew uniforms and some of the Captain America outfits, although I initially mistook Richard Branson for Malcolm McDowell with a goatee.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:35 PM on October 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:35 PM on October 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
The X-37B is interesting. So many news outlets basically put out their own versions of the same article: the plane just completed a record breaking 700+ day flight and we have no idea what it was doing. Do we at least have some reasonable speculation of what the plane's actual mission was?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:46 PM on October 30, 2019
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:46 PM on October 30, 2019
I worry that, like always needing to order more mens XL t-shirts for geeky conferences, Virgin Galactic aren't necessarily considering their target demographic and need to choose something that looks good on short dumpy guys like me
posted by mbo at 5:23 PM on October 30, 2019
posted by mbo at 5:23 PM on October 30, 2019
Do we at least have some reasonable speculation of what the plane's actual mission was?
Spying on China, I’d assume.
posted by pompomtom at 7:15 PM on October 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
Spying on China, I’d assume.
posted by pompomtom at 7:15 PM on October 30, 2019 [1 favorite]
And of course this is the year I start getting into shortwave radio DXing.
On the one hand, I could talk about getting into shortwave radio at the peak of Solar Cycle 21, when the bands were mad and the skip kept thundering in until 10pm all the way up to 10 metres and I could talk to the World Wide Spiderman in Des Moines on Channel 46 on my tweaked CB from deepest rural England. That was veh cool.
On the other, we now have mad digital shortwave modes that are a thousand times more efficient than 4 watts of AM CB. So, there's still enormous fun to be hand.
This is a golden age of space science, and a golden age of radio engineering, and there is plenty of joy to be had mixing the two if you have that inclination.
posted by Devonian at 8:03 PM on October 30, 2019 [6 favorites]
On the one hand, I could talk about getting into shortwave radio at the peak of Solar Cycle 21, when the bands were mad and the skip kept thundering in until 10pm all the way up to 10 metres and I could talk to the World Wide Spiderman in Des Moines on Channel 46 on my tweaked CB from deepest rural England. That was veh cool.
On the other, we now have mad digital shortwave modes that are a thousand times more efficient than 4 watts of AM CB. So, there's still enormous fun to be hand.
This is a golden age of space science, and a golden age of radio engineering, and there is plenty of joy to be had mixing the two if you have that inclination.
posted by Devonian at 8:03 PM on October 30, 2019 [6 favorites]
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And of course this is the year I start getting into shortwave radio DXing.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:56 PM on October 30, 2019 [2 favorites]