While driving on our vacation this year, we discovered the [URL="https://www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/home/index.html"]John C. Stennis Space Center[/URL] less than an hour from New Orleans. None of us had ever heard of it before. This NASA site is used for testing rocket engines. Although we didn't get to see any tests we did get to see the massive structure they use to hold the rockets for those tests. We also saw a stage 1 booster from a Saturn V and various artifacts from the Apollo missions.

I was on vacation in 2017 and had Stennis on my list of possible locations to see. Unfortunately Hurricane Harvey made that a real poor choice. I could have gotten a friends and family tour of the place.....

We are going to Titan (Largest moon of saturn)
A quadcopter Drone! (except it will be 3M long and weigh 450 kilos-990 pound?-), equipped with nuclear generator.
Well, launch is slated for 2026, and landing for 8 year later.

[YOUTUBE]xn3-0a19sC8[/YOUTUBE]


[URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(spacecraft[/URL])
[url]https://gizmodo.com/will-nasa-find-life-on-titan-1835956477[/url]

The question will not be 'is there a life on mars" anymore, but is there life on Titan?

The Europa Clipper mission is proceeding !
 

The decision has been made to proceed with design of the spacecraft and mission.
It may be ready by 2023 but 2025 is more realistic.
BTW, Europa has TWICE the amount of water as Earth !!!!!

[URL="https://europa.nasa.gov/news/25/mission-to-jupiters-icy-moon-confirmed/"]https://europa.nasa.gov/news/25/mission-to-jupiters-icy-moon-confirmed/[/URL]
I wonder if they'll find a monolith there?
"All these worlds are yours, except Europa."

"How does the law work in space?"

Press article: [URL]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-49457912[/URL]
I'm not sure they've worked out the full implications for space tourism!

Dragon capsule returned today.

And Starhopper completed its test flight.

"Man of steel...
 

SWMBO thinks I have a "man-crush" on Musk.

I don't; I just greatly admire the work he, and others, are doing -- just getting stuff done...

[URL="https://arstechnica.com/features/2019/09/after-starship-unveiling-mars-seems-a-little-closer/"]Elon Musk, Man of Steel, reveals his stainless Starship[/URL]...

P.S. To put on the record, I /would/ bear children for Musk, but only if he asked... :wink:

[url=https://www.sciencealert.com/we-ve-found-a-serious-new-health-risk-to-spaceflight-that-could-make-a-mars-trip-risky]We've Found a Serious New Health Risk to Human Spaceflight[/url] | ScienceAlert

Every SciFi film from the 1950s and 60s which I can recall featuring some kind of space station had a rotating-torus one, even if the alleged corresponding interior shots were clearly incompatible with a toroidal layout, Kubrick's [i]2001[/i] being one of the very few ones which went to great pains to get details like that right. turns out that when it comes time to actual *build* such a beast, quasi-linear layouts built up from small straight-tubular modules is far, far cheaper. So if Elon Musk wants to move to his exclusive gated community on Mars in his lifetime, he's gonna have to shell out some of those tens of $billions he made off Tesla to build a rotating setup, and solve the radiation problem, to boot. But the man clearly relishes an engineering challenge...

Followup to my above post - long story short, if you want artifical-g at a reasonable cost, use paired modules connected by a tether and sling 'em like a gaucho's bola:

[url]https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/11/links-11-18-19.html#comment-3244743[/url]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;531007]Followup to my above post - long story short, if you want artifical-g at a reasonable cost, use paired modules connected by a tether and sling 'em like a gaucho's bola:[/QUOTE]Spent stages or fuel tanks are useful for that. If your rocket is all-in-one, then you need a pair of launches.

Followup to [url=https://www.mersenneforum.org/showpost.php?p=525361&postcount=1049]this post[/url] in RIP

[url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/dec/03/indias-crashed-vikram-moon-lander-spotted-on-lunar-surface]India's crashed Vikram moon lander spotted on lunar surface[/url][quote]A Nasa satellite orbiting the moon has found India’s Vikram lander, which crashed on the lunar surface in September, the US space agency said on Monday.

Nasa released an image taken by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that showed the site of the spacecraft’s impact and associated debris field, with parts scattered over almost two dozen locations spanning several kilometres.

In a statement, Nasa said it had released a mosaic image of the site on 26 September, inviting the public to search it for signs of the lander.

It added that a person named Shanmuga Subramanian contacted the LRO project with a positive identification of debris – with the first piece found about 750 metres north-west of the main crash site.[/quote]More on this "person" (a 33 year old engineer in Chennai [formerly known as Madras]) [url=https://www.ndtv.com/chennai-news/chandrayaan-2-shanmuga-subramanian-chennai-engineer-alerted-nasa-about-vikram-lander-2142378]here[/url]