Space Exploration Weekly Newsletter - Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Space Exploration newsletter

Top new questions this week: Why does the ISS atmosphere contain nitrogen? The Wikipedia page for the International Space Station says that it has a fairly Earth-like, sea-level atmosphere: 21% oxygen, balance nitrogen at 101.3 kPa. Supposedly it's because a pure-oxygen ... iss life-support   asked by Nick T 25 votes answered by David Hammen 23 votes What constellation is on the NASA logo? While watching the ORB3 Antares explosion press conference, I began to wonder about the design of the NASA logo. Do the white stars on the blue background represent some particular stellar pattern, ... nasa   asked by Jerard Puckett 16 votes answered by TildalWave 14 votes Why are rocket engines operating above 100% often considered nominal? It was brought to the attention of the community that right before the crash of Antares the commentator noted: "Main engines at 108%" It was noted that other engines were also reported to work ... launch engine-design engines   asked by horsh 13 votes answered by geoffc 15 votes Why did a flight controller say "Avionics power nominal" as Antares exploded? The Antares rocket carrying Cygnus just exploded. A video is available here, explosion at around 3:00. In the video, right as the rocket begins to slide down and explode, a flight controller says ... antares accident   asked by Undo 13 votes answered by Russell Borogove 15 votes What are the challenges of turning a rocket stage around and firing its engines into a supersonic wind? So I went to the link in a recent question and discovered SpaceX turns its first stage around while it is going, what, several km/s in the upper atmosphere, restarts 3 of the engines and fires ... launch spacex reusability propulsive-deceleration super-sonic   asked by briligg 11 votes answered by Mark Adler 11 votes Espionage in the Space Race During the space race (let's say 1956 to 1969, US and USSR), were there any advances in space exploration technology that were stolen by the other side? I've read a lot about espionage in military ... space-race   asked by Joe 8 votes answered by David Ratti 2 votes What entails "Avionics" on the the Antares Rocket? In today's crash, seen below, there was a control operator who stated, right as the rocket blew up, "Avionics Power nominal". What does that mean exactly? Was he referring to the rocket power, power ... launch rockets failure antares avionics   asked by PearsonArtPhoto 6 votes answered by Russell Borogove 9 votes Greatest hits from previous weeks: Would colonising Antarctica be a good test for colonising Mars? I've seen a lot of documentaries, articles, papers, etc which show people living in the desert or other deserted places to simulate living on Mars. However, it seems to me that a better way to really ... mars colonization   asked by simontemplar 26 votes answered by Rory Alsop 19 votes How fast will 1g get you there? If you have the energy for a constant 1G thrust, how long would it take to get to the planets in our solar system? How long for the 5 nearest solar systems? Assuming turn over and decelerate at ... propulsion   asked by James Jenkins 8 votes answered by HopDavid 6 votes Can you answer these? How should one analyze the video of the Antares CRS-3 explosion to find the clues to the cause? From the raw video of the event (which just happened), a trained eye can narrow the possibilities, given good general knowledge of the rocket. What in the video indicates which systems were involved, ... launch failure antares explosions   asked by briligg 5 votes What was the first rocket to use gimbaled thrust? A gimbaled thrust system was used on the Space Shuttle, which is easily recognized in the beginning of this launch video. Was this technology first used by jet fighters, or was it first invented for ... history engine-design thrust   asked by Stu 5 votes Who has built the largest number of Transport/Erector/Launch (TEL)? I was looking at some SpaceX pictures and realized that with the last ten years, and the coming two years, SpaceX will have built a TEL for: Falcon 1 - Kwajelin Atol Falcon 1 - SLC-4 (before they ... launch spacex launchpad record tel   asked by geoffc 3 votes

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