Ufos & Space Exploration

There are aliens out there, somewhere. I strongly believe this. Not sure what they look like, though. I really doubt they are green, like they are in science fiction movies. I also don’t think they look like us. But I’m sure they exist and I just don’t think we’ll ever see any or find any.

[ufosnspace-exploration]

Delta II rocket successfully launches NOAA’s JPSS-1 Satellite

VANDENBERG, Calif. — In a spectacular nighttime launch from Space Launch Complex 2 (SLC-2) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, United Launch Alliance’s penultimate Delta II rocket successfully lofted the newest and most advanced weather satellite in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA)’s fleet into polar orbit early this morning on November 18, 2017. The launch carrying the first of the Joint Polar Satellite System, or JPSS-1, which had been previously delayed due to a battery issue, and then twice again earlier in the week due to various technical, weather, and range issues, provided a dramatic sight that was visible across central and southern California, as well as parts of Nevada, Arizona, and Baja California. Laura Maginnis, ULA vice president of Government Satellite Launch, said: “It has been an honor to partner with our teammates at NASA and NOAA in launching this critical Earth-observation mission. Together, we were able to overcome multiple challenges in the last two weeks, culminating in the successful delivery of JPSS to orbit today. “The Delta II rocket has truly created a legacy throughout its history, and has proven to be an industry workhorse. After almost 3 years since our last Delta II mission, it was great to see it flying and delivering mission success for our customers once again.” Read more at http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/space-centers/vafb/delta-ii-rocket-successfully-launches-noaa-jpss-1-satellite/#FOS1hWhDLiUPVIsw.99

[spaceexp]

Are We Alone In The Universe?

[everythingspacex]

The Revolution in Space - SpaceX & Mini Satellites - Steve Jurvetson

[spaceexp]

This news article from 50 years ago when Russia was at the top of their game

via reddit

[spaceexp]

Cassini : Final Flight to Saturn

[ufosnspace-exploration]

Timeline of space exploration - Events leading to space exploration 8

1927 - Verein für Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel) formed; it includes many top European rocket scientists. Country - Germany. 1927 - “The Conquest of Interplanetary Space” discusses rocket mechanics and orbital effects including the gravitational slingshot. - Country - Soviet Union, Researcher - Yuri Kondratyuk. 1930 -  Hermann Oberth,with students including Wernher von Braun, launches his first liquid-fueled rocket.

Hermann Oberth (center, in profile) demonstrated his tiny liquid-fuel rocket engine in Berlin in 1930. Second from the right is 18-year-old student Wernher von Braun.

[ufosnspace-exploration]

Timeline of space exploration - Events leading to space exploration 7

16 March 1926 - Robert H. Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket.

Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled (gasoline and liquid oxygen) rocket on March 16, 1926, in Auburn, Massachusetts. Goddard’s diary entry of the event was notable for its understatement: March 16. Went to Auburn with S[achs] in am. E[sther] and Mr. Roope came out at 1 p.m. Tried rocket at 2.30. It rose 41 feet & went 184 feet, in 2.5 secs., after the lower half of the nozzle burned off. Brought materials to lab…. His diary entry the next day elaborated: March 17, 1926. The first flight with a rocket using liquid propellants was made yesterday at Aunt Effie’s farm in Auburn…. Even though the release was pulled, the rocket did not rise at first, but the flame came out, and there was a steady roar. After a number of seconds it rose, slowly until it cleared the frame, and then at express train speed, curving over to the left, and striking the ice and snow, still going at a rapid rate.

The rocket, which was later dubbed “Nell”, rose just 41 feet during a 2.5-second flight that ended 184 feet away in a cabbage field, but it was an important demonstration that liquid propellants were possible. The launch site is now a National Historic Landmark, the Goddard Rocket Launching Site.

[nasa]

Solar System: 10 Things to Know This Week

Need some space? 

Here are 10 perspective-building images for your computer desktop and mobile device wallpaper. 

These are all real images, sent very recently by our planetary missions throughout the solar system. 

1. Our Sun

Warm up with this view from our Solar Dynamics Observatory showing active regions on the Sun in October 2017. They were observed in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light that reveals plasma heated to over a million degrees. 

Downloads  Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334

2. Jupiter Up-Close

This series of enhanced-color images shows Jupiter up close and personal, as our Juno spacecraft performed its eighth flyby of the gas giant planet on Sept. 1, 2017. 

Downloads Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560  | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334

3. Saturn’s and Its Rings

With this mosaic from Oct. 28, 2016, our Cassini spacecraft captured one of its last looks at Saturn and its main rings from a distance. 

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4. Gale Crater on Mars

This look from our Curiosity Mars rover includes several geological layers in Gale crater to be examined by the mission, as well as the higher reaches of Mount Sharp beyond. The redder rocks of the foreground are part of the Murray formation. Pale gray rocks in the middle distance of the right half of the image are in the Clay Unit. A band between those terrains is “Vera Rubin Ridge,” where the rover is working currently. The view combines six images taken with the rover’s Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Jan. 24, 2017. 

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5. Sliver of Saturn

Cassini peers toward a sliver of Saturn’s sunlit atmosphere while the icy rings stretch across the foreground as a dark band on March 31, 2017. This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 7 degrees below the ring plane. 

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6. Dwarf Planet Ceres 

This image of the limb of dwarf planet Ceres shows a section of the northern hemisphere, as seen by our Dawn mission. Prominently featured is Occator Crater, home of Ceres’ intriguing “bright spots.” The latest research suggests that the bright material in this crater is comprised of salts left behind after a briny liquid emerged from below. 

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7. Martian Crater

This image from our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows a crater in the region with the most impressive known gully activity in Mars’ northern hemisphere. Gullies are active in the winter due to carbon dioxide frost, but northern winters are shorter and warmer than southern winters, so there is less frost and less gully activity. 

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8. Dynamic Storm on Jupiter

A dynamic storm at the southern edge of Jupiter’s northern polar region dominates this Jovian cloudscape, courtesy of Juno. This storm is a long-lived anticyclonic oval named North North Temperate Little Red Spot 1. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran processed this image using data from the JunoCam imager. 

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9. Rings Beyond Saturn’s Sunlit Horizon 

This false-color view from the Cassini spacecraft gazes toward the rings beyond Saturn’s sunlit horizon. Along the limb (the planet’s edge) at left can be seen a thin, detached haze. 

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10. Saturn’s Ocean-Bearing Moon Enceladus

Saturn’s active, ocean-bearing moon Enceladus sinks behind the giant planet in a farewell portrait from Cassini. This view of Enceladus was taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on Sept. 13, 2017. It is among the last images Cassini sent back before its mission came to an end on Sept. 15, after nearly 20 years in space. 

Downloads Desktop: 1280 x 800 | 1600 x 1200 | 1920 x 1200 Mobile: 1440 x 2560 | 1080 x 1920 | 750 x 1334

Applying Wallpaper: 1. Click on the screen resolution you would like to use. 2. Right-click on the image (control-click on a Mac) and select the option ‘Set the Background’ or ‘Set as Wallpaper’ (or similar).

Places to look for more of our pictures include solarsystem.nasa.gov/galleries, images.nasa.gov and www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

[ufosnspace-exploration]

Timeline of space exploration - Events leading to space exploration 6

1924 - Society for Studies of Interplanetary Travel founded in Soviet Union.

The Society for Studies of Interplanetary Travel (Russian: Общество изучения межпланетных сообщений or OIMS) was founded in Moscow in May 1924. It was a spin-off of a military science society at the Zhukovsky Airforce Academy, and was chaired by Grigory Kramarov. Its 200 charter members included important Soviet space-exploration and rocketry experts such as Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Fridrikh Tsander, and Vladimir Vetchinkin.The society allowed engineers and educators to meet and discuss space travel, and it organized public educational events. OIMS hosted a famous public debate on October 4, 1924 to discuss the idea of Robert Goddard to launch a rocket to the Moon.

Friedrich Tsander co-founded the Society for Studies of Interplanetary Travel in 1924 with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. He published articles on theories about human spaceflight and helped design the first successful Soviet liquid-fuel rocket.

[ufosnspace-exploration]

Timeline of space exploration - Events leading to space exploration 5

1914 - Robert H. Goddard files for and is subsequently awarded U.S. patents on multistage and liquid-fueled rockets.

Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket,which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926. Goddard and his team launched 34 rockets between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes as high as 2.6 km (1.6 mi) and speeds as high as 885 km/h (550 mph).

In 1914, his first two landmark patents were accepted and registered. The first, U.S. Patent 1,102,653, described a multi-stage rocket fueled with a solid “explosive material.” The second, U.S. Patent 1,103,503, described a rocket fueled with a solid fuel (explosive material) or with liquid propellants (gasoline and liquid nitrous oxide). The two patents would eventually become important milestones in the history of rocketry. Overall, he published 214 patents. His 1919 monograph A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes is considered one of the classic texts of 20th-century rocket science. Goddard successfully applied three-axis control, gyroscopes and steerable thrust to rockets, to effectively control their flight.

[for-all-mankind]

Bringing home the booster - last Saturn V first stage en route to new home.

For the first time since 1969, the first stage of a Saturn V moon rocket departed its New Orleans assembly facility June 16. 

S-IC-15, the first stage of the last moon rocket ever built, is being transported to the Infinity Science Center, where it will go on public display. The stage has sat at the entrance to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility, where it and 19 other Moon rockets were fabricated from 1961-1970. Only four S-IC stages remain, with the other 15 having been launched or scrapped. Infinity plans to display conserve and display the stage outdoors parallel to Interstate 10. It will be passed by over 8.5 million cars per year, attracting visitors to the science center, which serves as the official visitor’s center for Stennis Space Center, six miles north. The stage was loaded on to a barge June 16, and will travel 40 miles east on the Intracoastal waterway to Stennis. Monday evening, June 20, it will be offloaded and trucked nearly 7 miles to Infinity. Arrival is expected early Tuesday morning. S-IC-15 is still attached to its original overland transport carriage, which will be used during the land portion of its journey to Infinity.

Artist’s concept of S-IC-15′s display at Infinity Science Center in Mississippi. The stage will be displayed in between the center and Interstate 10.

In preparation for its flight on Apollo 19, S-IC-15 traveled to Stennis in September 1970 for a full-duration firing of all its engines. However, shortly after the test fire was completed, all lunar missions following Apollo 17 were cancelled, making the rocket stage excess hardware. It was returned to Michoud in 1978, where it has sat on display ever since. Stennis was constructed in 1961 as the Mississippi Test Facility. From 1966-1970, it tested all Saturn V first and second stages, verifying their engines and systems before seeing flight. Beginning in 1975, Stennis has tested all RS-25 space shuttle main engines, which has continued into the 21st century with the use of the engines on the Space Launch System.

P/c: Stennis Space Center/Infinity Science Center.

[ufosnspace-exploration]

Timeline of space exploration - Events leading to space exploration 4

1903 - Inspired by the writings of Jules Verne, first serious work published that showed physical space exploration was theoretically possible: Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами (The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices). (Russian paper).

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was a Russian and Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of the astronautic theory. Along with his followers, the German Hermann Oberth and the American Robert H. Goddard, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics. His works later inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers such as Sergey Korolyov and Valentin Glushko and contributed to the success of the Soviet space program.

His  most important work, published in 1903, was The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices. Tsiolkovsky calculated, using the Tsiolkovsky equation, that the horizontal speed required for a minimal orbit around the Earth is 8,000 m/s (5 miles per second) and that this could be achieved by means of a multistage rocket fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. In 1903 he published an article “Investigation of Outer Space Rocket Devices,” in which for the first time it was proved that a rocket could perform space flight. In this article and its subsequent sequels (1911 and 1914), he developed some ideas of missiles and the use of liquid rocket engines.

[ufosnspace-exploration]

Timeline of space exploration - Events leading to space exploration 3

1898 - The War of the Worlds published.

The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells.It is the first-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and that of his younger brother in London as Earth is invaded by Martians. it is one of the earliest stories that detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. The War of the Worlds has been both popular and influential, spawning half a dozen feature films, radio dramas, a record album, various comic book adaptations, a television series, and sequels or parallel stories by other authors. It has even influenced the work of scientists, notably Robert Hutchings Goddard.

[ufosnspace-exploration]

Timeline of space exploration - Events leading to space exploration 2

1813 - .First exposition of the rocket equation based on Newton’s third law of motion: Treatise on the Motion of Rockets.

The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, or ideal rocket equation, describes the motion of vehicles that follow the basic principle of a rocket: a device that can apply acceleration to itself (a thrust) by expelling part of its mass with high speed and move due to the conservation of momentum. The equation relates the delta-v (the maximum change of speed of the rocket if no other external forces act) with the effective exhaust velocity and the initial and final mass of a rocket (or other reaction engine). The equation is named after Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky who independently derived it and published it in his 1903 work. The equation had been derived earlier by the British mathematician William Moore in 1813.

1865 - From the Earth to the Moon published - France - Jules Verne.

[ufosnspace-exploration]

Timeline of space exploration - Events leading to space exploration 1

1687 - Publication of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Latin for “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”, often referred to as simply the Principia, is a work in three books by Sir Isaac Newton, in Latin, first published 5 July 1687. The Principia states Newton’s laws of motion, forming the foundation of classical mechanics, also Newton’s law of universal gravitation, and a derivation of Kepler’s laws of planetary motion (which Kepler first obtained empirically). The Principia is “justly regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science”

[ufosnspace-exploration]

What is Area 51 ?

The United States Air Force facility commonly known as Area 51 is a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base, within the Nevada Test and Training Range. According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the correct names for the facility are Homey Airport (ICAO: KXTA) and Groom Lake, though the name Area 51 was used in a CIA document from the Vietnam War. Other names used for the facility include Dreamland, and nicknames Paradise Ranch, Home Base and Watertown. The Special use airspace around the field is referred to as a Restricted Area 4808 North (R-4808N). The base’s current primary purpose is publicly unknown; however, based on historical evidence, it most likely supports development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems. The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component to unidentified flying object (UFO) folklore. Although the base has never been declared a secret base, all research and occurrings in Area 51 are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI). In July 2013, following a FOIA request filed in 2005, the CIA publicly acknowledged the existence of the base for the first time, declassifying documents detailing the history and purpose of Area 51. Area 51 is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles (134 km) north-northwest of Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield. The site was acquired by the United States Air Force in 1955, primarily for the testing of the Lockheed U-2 aircraft. The area around Area 51, including the small town of Rachel on the aptly named “Extraterrestrial Highway”, is a popular tourist destination.

[ufosnspace-exploration]

September 29, 2001 - Hungary.

DESCRIPTION :

BUDAPEST, Hungary - A military pilot recorded a spectacular video of a silver disk object on September 29, 2001. The craft was flying to his left side and then moved very fast past him in the clouds as can be seen in the video. "I was on a flight over Budapest, Hungary," said the pilot, who has requested that his name be withheld until the official inquiry by the Hungarian Ministry of Defence is complete. "To my left I saw a bright metal aircraft that was the shape of a perfect disk. I was careful to film the object, not to try and chase it since it I could not match its speed. As I was flying a reconnaisance aircraft, I got the idea to film it and used our equipment." Officials at the Ministry of Defence would not answer questions about the video when asked and warned that officially they have no comment. Despite the denial, when informed of the pilot's name, they did acknowledge that the he was a real air force pilot and that it was true that he flew photo reconnaisance airplanes.