# The Great Ongoing Space Exploration Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** science-math\ **Created:** [November 16, 2020, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703 "2020-11-16T12:18:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 118
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2026, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2343 "2026-01-11T21:59:58Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > an advanced civilisation might want to live in what it calls a “red frame environment”: an area with heavy time dilation which would therefore allow it to explore outwards in a way that synchronises the rate of passing time. > > Interesting; do you mean a civilization that lives in the bottom of a deep gravity well (like in close orbit around a black hole) so that time passes for them at about the same rate as it does for explorers accelerating to a high fraction of C in flat space; so the people who launched an expedition and those who went on it can stay in close synchronization? My only quibble is how much extra dilation would be involved in climbing out of the gravity well before being able to embark on a voyage to other solar systems. I had envisioned “slow” civilizations that used hibernation at home to effect the same thing, waiting centuries to hear back from explorers… An interesting _Star Trek: Voyager_ episode along those lines: [Blink of an Eye (episode) | Memory Alpha | Fandom](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Blink_of_an_Eye_(episode)) ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2344 "2026-01-12T19:56:06Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Interesting; do you mean a civilization that lives in the bottom of a deep gravity well (like in close orbit around a black hole) so that time passes for them at about the same rate as it does for explorers accelerating to a high fraction of C in flat space OH, there’s an SF story using that idea! What was it? No worries, I’ll find it tomorrow; busy with dinner at the moment… ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2345 "2026-01-16T05:39:42Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > More likely [Russell] Vought wanted to cut it in half; Trump just went along with it. Now if they can do the same for the NSF, CDC, and NIH research budgets, there won’t be the destruction of US science that we’re facing. Some good news: the Senate voted to fund several research budgets at levels higher than Trump’s budget proposals. These are for NSF, NOAA and NASA, but not for the CDC and NIH. [https://www.reuters.com/world/us-senate-passes-bill-boost-federal-science-spending-after-white-house-sought-2026-01-15/](https://www.reuters.com/world/us-senate-passes-bill-boost-federal-science-spending-after-white-house-sought-2026-01-15/) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2346 "2026-01-16T06:15:20Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > OH, there’s an SF story using that idea! What was it? This one? > [@Have we reached the point when it is kooky to not believe in massive amounts of intelligent life having evolved throughout the universe?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-reached-the-point-when-it-is-kooky-to-not-believe-in-massive-amounts-of-intelligent-life-having-evolved-throughout-the-universe/969972/416): > > In the David Brin short story Crystal Spheres, it turned out that multiple advanced civilizations were using black hole time dilation to reach the future where there’d be more advanced civilizations. None of them wanted to be the burned-out, jaded “ancient precursors”. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2347 "2026-01-16T09:18:39Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > This one? Yes, and also in the [Heechee Saga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heechee_Saga). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2348 "2026-01-16T21:24:49Z")
So yesterday there could have been history’s first space capsule vs cruise ship collision. > **[Cruise Ship Appears in Live Footage as SpaceX Crew-11 Descends for Splashdown...](https://crew-center.com/cruise-ship-appears-live-footage-spacex-crew-11-descends-splashdown)** > > A large cruise ship briefly appeared in the background of NASA and SpaceX’s live broadcast as Crew-11’s Dragon descended toward the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, moments before splashdown.   The ship entered the frame during... ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2026, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2349 "2026-01-24T13:55:40Z")
CYA at NASA… or something to actually be worried about? > **[NASA is about to send people to the moon — in a spacecraft not everyone...](https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/23/science/artemis-2-orion-capsule-heat-shield)** > > As the four-person crew of Artemis II prepares to launch on a historic mission around the moon as soon as February, some experts are worried about the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2350 "2026-01-28T13:50:33Z")
This might be of interest to the crowd in this thread: > [@40th anniversary of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40th-anniversary-of-the-explosion-of-the-space-shuttle-challenger/1027118): > > Hard to believe. I recall the fifth anniversary. Someone called for a memorial at MIT, but only three people showed up, including me. It was a predicted and avoidable disaster, and has been chronicled in enough places, including Adam Higgibotham’s book Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space that came out two years ago. [https://www.npr.org/2026/01/25/g-s1-106940/40-years-after-challenger](https://www.npr.org/2026/01/25/g-s1-106940/40-years-after-challenger) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2026, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2351 "2026-01-28T16:00:17Z")
Lest we forget… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2352 "2026-01-30T18:17:38Z")
I was working at a radio station as an intern that day, and remember being both horrified at what had happened, and excited to be among the first to see the news coverage as it came in. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2353 "2026-02-15T21:04:31Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > OTOH, a Kessler event in LEO is inherently self-limiting in fairly short time. Like months. Soon all the debris will have re-entered and the problem is over. Unlike one up in MEO which might not self-clear for millennia. > > The relatively prompt loss of service from the various LEO constellations as Kessler picks up speed & takes them down would probably be the largest consequence to humanity. [Posting in response to a private request on this issue; my apologies to the requester for the ~2 month delay] This is a misunderstanding of the phenomenon of “Kessler syndrome”, which isn’t a discrete event but rather a state in which a substantial density of debris in a particular orbit will be in a self-sustaining condition, generating more debris through impacts with other spacecraft and objects in orbit. This will continue until the entire orbital azimuth is essentially cleared (by objects and debris falling out of orbit through natural decay or by a hypothetical method of debris removal). In the lowest part of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) i.e. below 500 km the orbital lifetime of an object in a near circular orbit will be on close order of a year (depending on solar activity effects on thermospheric drag and the ballistic coefficient for that regime) but at the higher end of LEO the decay time can be [on the order of hundreds or even thousands of years](https://www.spaceacademy.net.au/watch/debris/orblift.htm). Objects in more eccentric orbits may have shorter or longer orbital lifespans depending on how long they spend in the thicker parts of the thermosphere but bear in mind that as debris falls out of one orbit it falls into lower orbits and spreads across a broad range of azimuths into the path of objects that cross the trajectory of the slowly decaying debris. A an accidental Kessler syndrome (or intentional cascade from attacks on multiple satellites in different azimuths or dispersal of debris) at the mid-to-upper range of LEO could produce effective denial of orbital space and make even access to upper orbits and interplanetary space extremely risky for the foreseeable future. [_Aerospace America_: “Understanding the misunderstood Kessler Syndrome”](https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/category/commercial-space/commercial-spaceflight/) [_Aerospace America_: “A conversation with Donald Kessler”](https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/a-conversation-with-donald-kessler/) [Australian Bureau of Meteorology IPS Radio and Space Services: “ **Satellite Orbital Decay Calculations** ”](https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/Category/Educational/Space%20Weather/Space%20Weather%20Effects/SatelliteOrbitalDecayCalculations.pdf) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2354 "2026-02-15T21:39:54Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > “Kessler syndrome”, which isn’t a discrete event but rather a state in which a substantial density of debris in a particular orbit will be in a self-sustaining condition, generating more debris through impacts with other spacecraft and objects in orbit Right. It’s not a singular catastrophe, just an ongoing mess. Just how serious is a matter for research. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2026, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2355 "2026-02-20T16:34:29Z")
One of the best articles I’ve read about the _Artemis II_ mission: [After 54 Years, Astronauts Are Going Back to the Moon | TIME](https://time.com/7346146/artemis-ii-launch-nasa-astronauts-moon-mission/) ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2356 "2026-02-22T18:17:03Z")
Just putting this hear, visual exploration > **[James Webb Space Telescope Maps Uranus’s Atmosphere and Auroras for the First...](https://thedebrief.org/james-webb-space-telescope-maps-uranuss-atmosphere-and-auroras-for-the-first-time/)** > > James Webb Space Telescope data has allowed researchers to map Uranus’s upper atmosphere in three dimensions for the first time. From the article - …“Magnetic driven auroras on uranus” that’s a diagnosis I don’t need in my life. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2357 "2026-02-22T20:08:47Z")
Eh. Look at the bright side: it’ll sterilize your hemorrhoids. 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2358 "2026-02-25T21:08:34Z")
I hope astronomers are watching this star closely now: > **[One of the biggest stars in the universe might be getting ready to explode](https://theconversation.com/one-of-the-biggest-stars-in-the-universe-might-be-getting-ready-to-explode-276519)** > > Astronomers have been watching the supergiant WOH G64 for decades – and it might have turned into a hypergiant and be heading for self-destruction. > One of the largest known stars in the universe underwent a dramatic transformation in 2014, new research shows, and may be preparing to explode. > > A study led by Gonzalo Muñoz-Sanchez at the National Observatory of Athens, [published in Nature Astronomy today](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02789-7), argues that the enormous star WOH G64 has transitioned from a red supergiant to a rare yellow hypergiant – in what may be evidence of impending supernova. > > The evidence suggests we may be witnessing, in real time, a massive star shedding its outer layers, shrinking as it heats up, and moving closer to the end of its short life. I’m not sure how long such a process might take, and perhaps the experts don’t either. I suppose the very last bit happens **quickly** , but perhaps we are talking thousands of years until then. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2359 "2026-02-25T21:18:15Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > [One of the biggest stars in the universe might be getting ready to explode](https://theconversation.com/one-of-the-biggest-stars-in-the-universe-might-be-getting-ready-to-explode-276519) Remember it is about 160,000 light years away–so it may well have already happened–even though we can’t see the results yet. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2360 "2026-02-25T21:24:46Z")
The only timeline that matters (to us) is when the light gets here. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2026, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2361 "2026-02-26T00:39:39Z")
It has been revealed that it was Mike Fincke who experienced the medical emergency. What it was is still kept private – but probably not pregnancy 😉 > **[Astronaut Mike Fincke reveals it was his medical issue that led to...](https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/25/science/nasa-astronaut-medical-issue-mike-fincke-iss)** > > NASA’s Mike Fincke has publicly identified himself as the astronaut who had a concerning “medical event” that led to an early exit from the International Space Station. Brian ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2026, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/2362 "2026-02-26T06:52:06Z")
I’m going with, “chaotic flatulence” until disabused of this notion. 😁 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703.md?page=117) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703.md?page=119)