# 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:** 25
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/482 "2022-11-15T20:58:56Z")
NASA has their Artemis I livestream up, though not much happening yet: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/21X5lGlDOfg/maxresdefault.jpg "NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg) Launch attempt is for 1:04am ET, 11/16. So ~10pm tonight for us on the west coast. As much of a critic as I am, I hope it all goes on time and without a hitch. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/483 "2022-11-15T23:06:47Z")
I was at the Kennedy Space Center today; could see the Artemis from a couple miles away. I’ve got a ticket to watch the launch from there. Gonna be a long night, but I’ve been waiting 50 years to see something like this. Fingers crossed. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/484 "2022-11-15T23:09:37Z")
Nice! I’d definitely be prepared for a long night. The chances of it launching right on the dot are probably… slim. It could end up launching well into the wee hours. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/485 "2022-11-15T23:36:23Z")
The window closes at 3:00. I can stay up until then. I’ll probably take a couple water bottles, a windbreaker/raincoat, and some snacks. ---
**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:** [November 15, 2022, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/486 "2022-11-15T23:40:28Z")
And a camera. Don’t forget the _camera_. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/487 "2022-11-16T11:15:13Z")
It launched! HOORAY!! ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/488 "2022-11-16T15:54:42Z")
Was I watching the correct channel on YouTube? It was very bad - mostly cheerleading with a distinct lack of facts and info. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kvaz66nMEls/maxresdefault.jpg "NASA Launch of Artemis I to the Moon Aboard SLS") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvaz66nMEls) ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/489 "2022-11-16T15:59:23Z")
That’s a fan channel. Everyday Astronaut is usually a pretty good channel on which to watch launches, but there is some amount of cheerleading as well. Somewhere there will be an official channel/coverage which is pretty dry and may have more or less video coverage depending. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/490 "2022-11-16T16:00:47Z")
This is my preferred one – Spaceflight Now: [Watch live as NASA launches its Artemis 1 moon rocket - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INf9LwaEGKU) ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/491 "2022-11-16T17:33:33Z")
Replying to myself: So everyday astronaut as mentioned a few posts above had some pretty high resolution tracking cams shooting in 8K. In the replays way near the end of the livestream they showed those tracking shots and they turned out better than NASA’s official coverage. Worth fast forwarding through the feed to see those. And yes there is cheering and a little (deserved) back patting. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/492 "2022-11-16T22:43:31Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > And a camera. Don’t forget the _camera_. 🙂 Everyone has a camera on their person nowadays. ---
**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:** [November 16, 2022, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/493 "2022-11-16T22:54:59Z")
> **[Is Space-Based Solar Power Ready for Its Moment in the Sun?](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-space-based-solar-power-ready-for-its-moment-in-the-sun/)** > > Around the world, researchers are betting that beamed power from space could be the next big thing for clean energy on Earth ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/494 "2022-11-16T23:24:42Z")
It would be nice to see some actual cost projections. The devil will be in the details. Terrestrial solar is cheap and probably impossible to beat on its own. However, it needs storage, and possibly that could change the cost threshold enough to make space solar worthwhile. It also depends very much on whether Starship (or others) really can dramatically reduce the cost to orbit. I expect we’ll need at least another order of magnitude reduction ($2k/kg → $200/kg) to make it remotely practical. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/495 "2022-11-18T15:24:13Z")
The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 is de-orbiting today, most likely. The latest info (see their [mission control dashboard](https://secure.planetary.org/site/SPageNavigator/mission_control.html)) 1. Its orbital altitude (modeled based on TLE) is currently in the 180 km range and dropping about 5 km _per orbit_ at this point. It’s in the re-entry spiral, or terminal phase, of its life cycle. 2. This spacecraft is a solar sailing demonstration, and it did that, but now the solar sail is acting like a great big drag sail, so its decay is a lot more rapid than otherwise. (It is a 3U cubesat with a 2m square mylar sail) 3. We’ve been monitoring spacecraft telemetry, which is downlinked a few times per day to the university tracking stations at Cal Poly, Purdue and Georgia Tech. During the last week the mission ops team have been turning attitude control on and off, doing some experimentation (e.g., will the sail cause its attitude to stabilize aerodynamically? I don’t have access to this data, but someone might write a paper about it.) Bruce Betts [wrote an announcement 4 days ago](https://www.planetary.org/articles/lightsail-2-is-about-to-burn-up) about its impending demise. There was an [announcement yesterday that the spacecraft had burned up according to modeling](https://www.planetary.org/articles/lightsail-2-completes-mission), which means I’m a day late posting here. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/496 "2022-11-18T21:40:43Z")
Very cool – thanks. ---
**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:** [December 8, 2022, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/497 "2022-12-08T23:10:46Z")
Tim “Everyday Astronaut” Dodd is chosen for the dearMoon mission: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/QFIuzormhYU/maxresdefault.jpg "I'm going to the moon!!!... Literally! #dearMoon") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFIuzormhYU) N.B. Orbiting, but not landing, on the moon. Still cool. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/498 "2022-12-09T00:03:15Z")
Is there any set date for that mission? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/499 "2022-12-09T02:49:53Z")
Elon Musk is sending a dumb ass around the moon. Neil Armstrong turns over in his grave. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2022, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/500 "2022-12-09T03:05:51Z")
Lots of good people were killed on the way to perfecting the miracle of heavier-than-air flight. Nowadays folks sleep, fornicate, or attack flight attendants in a drunken rage while experiencing that same miracle. Pioneers of whatever later turns out to be successful bits of Progress all turn over in their graves witnessing the debasement of their pioneering. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2022, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703/501 "2022-12-09T04:23:12Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > Is there any set date for that mission?. Well, officially it’s 2023. In practice, there’s zero chance that happens. I’d be surprised even by 2025. They have not detailed the exact mission. They could go sooner if they launch via Crew Dragon and dock with Starship in orbit, and then land with Dragon. That’s a proven system, so Starship would only need to be reliable in space. But launching and landing in Starship is going to take dozens, maybe hundreds of flights before it’s considered reliable enough for civilians. It’s just too different an approach. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-space-exploration-thread/925703.md?page=26)