> It also holds record for launching 102 satellites at the same time.

Small correction, that record was actually broken by SpaceX launching 143 at once during a Transporter mission. But overall yes you are right, India has a distinguished history as a reliable and cheap launcher, earning them a tidy sum over the years.

I must admit I'm terrible at physics so I don't fully grasp it, but seems like it's because the solar system formed out of a spinning ball of gas and over time the spin caused it to flatten out (like a pizza dough, I guess?).

https://science.psu.edu/science-journal/winter-2021/FlatSolarSystems

As for why atoms aren't similarly flat, it seems to be because at that small scale the gravity is a negligible factor compared to the other forces, such as electromagnetism. The electrons repulse each other.

https://www.quora.com/Our-solar-system-spins-on-a-flat-plane-so-do-atoms-also-do-this

I think you're referencing the ecliptic plane.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecliptic

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Ecliptic_plane_side_view.gif

Yes, most of the stuff in the solar system orbits roughly along this line, with a few outliers.

I'm sure there'll be one on the first crew landing on Mars.

The Artemis 1 launch was amazing. I've always been sad that it's been so long since the last time humans went to the Moon. Over 50 years since the last landing, long before I was born. I can't wait for the Artemis 2 flyby and the Artemis 3 landing this decade. I really hope Buzz and the other surviving Apollo astronauts live to see it.

Possibly my favourite story of all time.

First sentence from the NASA page:

> With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/

Happened a few hours ago and was successful! Well, mostly. 31/33 engines, and it went the full planned duration. I slept through it alas. I also hope to one day see a launch live.

From the FAA, they got a mitigated Findings Of No Significant Impact, meaning they were given a checklist of like 70 items they had to complete in order to proceed. That was in the middle of last year, and they've been working on that behind the scenes. Most of it was pretty basic stuff.

Wait, what?! Woah that's unexpected. I thought they still had at least one spin prime to do and was thinking the fire might be next week at best.

The single most powerful rocket blast in human history. Truly a sight to behold. "Success Is Far From Certain, But Excitement Is Guaranteed" indeed.

Seems to be pretty specialized. Here's some articles on it:

https://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/building-a-lunar-base-with-3d-printing/

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2018/11/3D-printed_ceramic_parts_made_from_lunar_regolith

> Artemis’ Orion has been designed with an array of features to protect both humans and hardware in a worst-case scenario. A stowage bag or other material found onboard might be used to construct a temporary radiation shelter inside the spacecraft.

> As per NASA, the crew might need to stay in this storm shelter for at least a day. Extreme space weather would not prevent the crew from carrying out "critical mission activities," though, thanks to the protective radiation vests.

That's good. Hope it's enough.

> During periods of severe solar activity, astronauts might potentially construct a shielded habitat using local resources, such as lunar soil, dirt, and rocks. For instance, walls about one meter thick can be built by 3D printing building blocks from lunar dust (regolith).

They'll need to pack a fair amount of equipment and spend some time setting this up, but it would be worthwhile.

The initial HLS lander should also be big enough to fit in some kind of hardy radiation protection room as well. Astronauts on a moonwalk should have enough warning time to return to the lander and take shelter.

Very expensive and very risky. We don't yet have a rocket or crew capsule capable of sending humans that far yet, let alone bringing them home. So robots have been much cheaper and safer in the meantime.

Hmm Zootopia >!has wolves in an antagonistic role, but in the end they're not really bad nor even close to the main villain!<.

Does Game of Thrones count? House Stark are the wolf house and they're more or less the "good guys".

Oh man you guys aren't thinking creative enough.

Solar Gravitational Lens Telescope. use the Sun itself to get some amazing data. Either our own star or put it around some other massive star or even a black hole, get some crazy data.

1 day on Mars is equal to 1 day and 37 minutes on Earth. In the Mars SciFi trilogy, they just used a standard 24 hour clock and the extra 37 minutes was just used as a spare break time.

Why are you sharing this old article? Did you even read it? It says:

> Update: Liftoff of Falcon 9 at 4:32 a.m. EST! The rocket boosted 56 Starlink satellites to orbit then landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Read our full post-launch story here.

Cuz we haven't even figured out basic nuclear fusion yet, let alone the kind that needs Helium-3. Even if we did, it would probably be cheaper to mine or produce it right here on Earth.

I remember thinking their early goal of 52 launches was a stretch. Then they completed 61. The machine keeps getting smoother and more polished, faster and faster turnaround times. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they hit 100 in 2023.

Just wish we get more Falcon Heavy launches too! Oh and Starship of course, but it's clear now that development still has a long way to go.

> Earth science is a top priority for President Joe Biden, and the budget provides $2.2 billion (6 percent more than last year's funding) to address climate research priorities. An additional $935 million is provided for aeronautics, which includes improving airplane fuel efficiency and conducting research and development for electric propulsion.

> Then there is $3.2 billion provided for planetary science. Roughly a quarter of this, $822 million, is for the Mars Sample Return mission where NASA and the European Space Agency are partnering to bring Martian rocks back to Earth in the early to mid 2030s. Dreier said this program is at a crucial stage of development, and Congress is providing a level of funding greater than what NASA's entire Heliophysics division is receiving to study the sun ($805 million).

> "Congress is willing to fund ambitious exploration missions," Dreier said. "Those are the projects that got the funding they needed."

> Lawmakers also recognized the importance of the Near-Earth Object Surveyor, a space telescope that would help NASA discover potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth's orbit. The White House budget had requested $40 million — down from NASA's planned 2023 budget of $174.2 million — but Congress allocated $90 million for this planetary science mission.

Good to see lots of stuff is getting funded. Tho it doesn't seem like the small increase is enough to counter inflation this year. But lots of projects are getting the go ahead, so we'll see great results over the years. Artemis, Mars Sample Return, etc. plenty to look forward to.

A Canadian is already reserved for the A2 flyby, so probably none on A3 or A4. Maybe A5 though.

As epic it would be to see something like that happen, I don't think it's likely as France is an a Artemis signatory and SpaceX doesn't wanna show up their biggest partner and patron.

> “I have a candidate for you for flying to the moon,” the French president told U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as the two met at NASA headquarters Wednesday, according to a video posted on social media.

> The contender standing next to him was Thomas Pesquet, a 44-year-old Frenchman first selected as a European Space Agency astronaut in 2009, who has since been to the International Space Station twice.

> The U.S. government is aiming to return humans to the surface of the moon around 2025 under the third stage of its Artemis program.

> The third Artemis mission, which won’t happen until 2025 at the earliest, will then aim to transport humans back to the lunar surface.

> “He wants to go to Artemis 3,” Macron said of Pesquet in the video posted to his personal Twitter account, putting his compatriot forward as a willing candidate.

> However, the standing deal was not expected to include a spot on Artemis 3 and, regardless, the ESA’s management, not national leaders, usually decides which of the serving astronauts are put forward for international missions.

> [NASA] has so far not publicly selected who from its recently enlarged astronaut core would be selected for any future moon mission. However, Pesquet is keen to fly and previously told POLITICO he’d like to see Europe embark on its own human spaceflight program.

That's exciting. I know a Canadian is slated to go on the Artemis 2 flyby, but they haven't announced anything for the other missions yet. I believe Artemis 3 and 4 will each only carry 2 astronauts down to the surface, so it's pretty limited. I can't imagine the government agreeing to put anyone other than 2 Americans on A3, but there's a chance for an international crewmate on A4.

I really hope they can expand the crew sizes eventually. The planned lander is certainly large enough to accommodate a whole bunch of people, but Orion is too small and is limited to only 4 at a time. But maybe in time they'll upgrade to a bigger capsule. Would be fantastic to land like a dozen people all at once from multiple Artemis Accords partners.