The Current Space Event Thread

[Kerbalsaurus]

The idea I have for this thread is that somebody shares an article from NASA.gov or other space agency websites that piques their interest, share the link, and provide a quick summary. After they share their found article, people can discuss about it below. I think it's a pretty good idea. I don't think if a thread like this has been done before or in the recent past.

I just read this article, and it was pretty interesting.

https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/science-enabling-technology/digging-deeper-to-find-life-on-ocean-worlds/

The article talks about a study NASA researchers did for a potential lander that could be sent to Europa. The lander itself would be more of a communication platform, while the actual scientific vessel would be a drill that uses heat to dig below the surface. Once in the subsurface ocean, it will start searching for microbes that pass by the probe. This article does get me excited for future exploration of the Solar System, as well as give me hope that we'll finally answer the most fundamental question in Human History: are we alone?

[Spaceception]

I think the science news thread probably cover this, but I can see the appeal of a dedicated thread for space related news.

The system they talked about looks promising enough, aside from the risk of using fiber optics and having the cable snapping. My question is how much range they can give the bot. It already needs a cable up to 19/25 km long (maybe shorter if probes like Europa Clipper show thinner ice), which if this figure is anything close to what a cryobot would need (https://www.thefoa.org/tech/ref/cable/HighFiberCountCables.html#:~:text=Of course the cable is,1%2F2 pound per foot.), would mass out at 14-19 tonnes on its own. SLS can apparently do 16 tonnes to Jupiter, but even being optimstic only leaves 2 metric tonnes for everything else.  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spacexs-starship-and-nasas-sls-could-supercharge-space-science/ This would be a mission for a refueled Starship. Feel free to correct me, I didn't look too deeply into it, these were some of the first sources I saw.

So in lieu of that, I think some sort of wireless system, like acoustic communication should be the focus for an underwater probe, so the lander and cryobot have more to work with.

[SunlitZelkova]

This is kind of already covered by the individual space program threads. The link you shared could be posted in the NASA general discussion thread or the science news thread.

EDIT- Here.

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by SunlitZelkova

[Gargamel]

The whole sub forum is space related.    
 

There’s nothing wrong with posting a space or general science article in a thread on its own.    If it needs merged we can do that later.