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"Humanity Star" or "Space Disco Ball"?

p1t1o

By p1t1o
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PakledHostage

PakledHostage

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Posted (edited)

 

7 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Sorry, but it serves no function but to be shiny for a couple months??? At least putting a car in orbit around Mars serves as a test to see of something that heavy can make it to LMO... 

Just to be clear, nobody is putting a car into Martian orbit. At least not now. SpaceX is launching Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster aboard Falcon Heavy, but it will only be placed in an elliptical orbit about the Sun, with Pe near Earth's "orbital distance" and Ap near Mars' "orbital distance". 

 

7 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

He probably hasn't even thought of this and I can imagine that whomever he hires to launch this thing in space will probably have to take that in consideration. 

Nobody is being hired to launch this thing. It is already up there. It was launched last Sunday as a dummy payload on the first orbital rocket launched by Rocket Lab. Rocket Lab could have made up that dummy payload with a lump of concrete, a bag of used shoes, a stack of old DVDs, a heap of All Blacks jerseys, or whatever, but they chose to launch their "Humanity Star" disco ball and "Curie" engine powered kick stage (along with two small cubesats), instead. That's their prerogative.

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sevenperforce

sevenperforce

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On 1/26/2018 at 9:47 AM, adsii1970 said:
On 1/25/2018 at 1:50 PM, Scotius said:

So, its only purpose is to be a piece of shiny bling in space. No scientific or practical purpose whatsoever. It's going to be a piece of useless trash that someone will have to track, making sure it doesn't endanger other obiects in already cluttered low orbit. Meh.

He probably hasn't even thought of this and I can imagine that whomever he hires to launch this thing in space will probably have to take that in consideration.

 

Uh, he is launching it. It is a mass sim.

13 hours ago, Clockwork13 said:

Uhh, people can already 'be inspired to look up' just with, for example, the Moon or ISS.

Well, the moon is pretty standard fare. And the ISS isn't at a great inclination to be seen regularly, and it doesn't flash, so it's easy to miss.

As a mass simulator, it's a great deal more interesting than alternatives.

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Scotius

Scotius

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Lack of imagination and style, man *shakes his head sadly*. Elon Musk does have it - hence, Tesla in spaaaaace! Jeff Bezos does have it too - thus, awesome decals on his rockets and inspiring names. But the rest of space industry? I find their lack of flair... disturbing :wink: How can they make new generation interested in space exploration, while feeding young minds only dry technicals and long strings of numbers?

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Mitchz95

Mitchz95

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5 hours ago, Scotius said:

Yes. I get that. But it's not even awesome :P I'm not expecting another car in space... but it could be at least a big, shiny "Eat at Joe's!!!" sign :sticktongue:

I'd rather have a disco ball in space than a ****ing advertisement any day of the week.

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lajoswinkler

lajoswinkler

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I look forward tracking this in the sky. It supposedly spins at 60 r/min. Its intrinsic brightness will be very low but if you get hit by its reflection of the Sun, it will probably appear at least shinier than Sirius. And if you happen to be in the right place at the right time, you might see it blinking few times.

 

It will reenter in nine months or so, therefore it's not an issue of orbital debris at all, but it is an issue for astronomers.

 

Its purpose is very similar to Mayak which has failed to deploy its reflective surfaces.

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PakledHostage

PakledHostage

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6 hours ago, lajoswinkler said:

I look forward tracking this in the sky. It supposedly spins at 60 r/min. Its intrinsic brightness will be very low but if you get hit by its reflection of the Sun, it will probably appear at least shinier than Sirius. And if you happen to be in the right place at the right time, you might see it blinking few times.

Me too. According to Heaven's Above, its brightness will only range from magnitude 1.6 to magnitude 7. So at its faintest (magnitude 7), you won't even be able to see it with the naked eye. And at its brightest, you'll have to know where to look to spot it. 

By contrast, the ISS tracker app on my phone (ISS Detector) routinely notifies me about ISS passes where its brightness will be on the order of magnitude -3 and higher, and about Iridium flares with brightness upwards of on the order of magnitude -6.

In short, this whole thing is much ado about nothing.

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monstah

monstah

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I've just found out about this today, and, to be honest, I don't care much. As in, either way. It'd probably be pretty cool to see it (knowing what it is). Honestly, it's the reaction I see on some newspapers and Twitterers that I find completely ridiculous, not someone launching a ball in space.

"OMG NZ IS POLLUTING THE NIGHT SKY FOR THE WHOLE WORLD, ENJOY YOUR VIEW NOW BECAUSE ITS OVER, OVER!"

...Yeah. Right. One object on a polar orbit, which if you're lucky will pass overhead you twice a day, "visible" at magnitude 7. Sure. My sky is ruined. Oh noes.

P.s. Almost out of likes on this thread. Glad to know there are more people here who think the "controversy" is more clickbait than the actual thing :)

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Laie

Laie

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Someone put up bling because they can. Meh. It's the "because they can" part that irks me: even though this particular thing is very nearly a non-incident, I seriously hope that it doesn't start a trend.

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Bill Phil

Bill Phil

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16 hours ago, monstah said:

I've just found out about this today, and, to be honest, I don't care much. As in, either way. It'd probably be pretty cool to see it (knowing what it is). Honestly, it's the reaction I see on some newspapers and Twitterers that I find completely ridiculous, not someone launching a ball in space.

"OMG NZ IS POLLUTING THE NIGHT SKY FOR THE WHOLE WORLD, ENJOY YOUR VIEW NOW BECAUSE ITS OVER, OVER!"

...Yeah. Right. One object on a polar orbit, which if you're lucky will pass overhead you twice a day, "visible" at magnitude 7. Sure. My sky is ruined. Oh noes.

P.s. Almost out of likes on this thread. Glad to know there are more people here who think the "controversy" is more clickbait than the actual thing :)

Yeah. Light pollution from cities has ruined the nighy sky already. A space disco ball won't do anything.

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PakledHostage

PakledHostage

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On 31/01/2018 at 11:27 AM, kerbiloid said:

Light pollution killed our hope to see the space disco ball. :((

It passed directly overhead for me earlier this evening, about an hour after sunset. I didn't see a thing, despite knowing exactly through which constellations it would pass, down to the second, via the tracking app on my phone. Clearly it is far from being "the brightest thing in the sky".

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Green Baron

Green Baron

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*phew*

More and more things find their way into space that have nothing to do there. Apparently we are entering a phase where companies or whoever feels like shoots more or less useful things into space no matter what.

Guys, if you want to go to Mars, do it now. The way might be blocked in 5 years ;-)

 

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Reactordrone

Reactordrone

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5 hours ago, PakledHostage said:

It passed directly overhead for me earlier this evening, about an hour after sunset. I didn't see a thing, despite knowing exactly through which constellations it would pass, down to the second, via the tracking app on my phone. Clearly it is far from being "the brightest thing in the sky".

I've tried to see it a couple of times and couldn't see anything either. I think the faceting actually makes it less likely to be visible since any light hitting it will mostly be reflected away from  you (much like the radar returns from a stealth aircraft). You have to be lucky to catch a panel that's angled correctly to reflect the sunlight onto your position.

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kerbiloid

kerbiloid

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The more disco balls will be put into orbit and fall back, the earlier the humanity will get an equatorial embankment made of rubbish.
Then instead of those space elevator fantasies they should just attach highway exits. And ride the Teslas right into space.

Edited by kerbiloid
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