Questions tagged [identify-this-object]
Questions which ask for an object in a photograph or other media to be identified and/or have its function described.
182
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27
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1answer
4k views
What is this large fan in front of the Space Shuttle during Ground Turnaround?
In this amazing video of multiple camera angles of Endeavour landing and post-landing processing, at around the 15:45–15:56 minute mark, we see a large propeller running in front of the Orbiter.
It ...
13
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2answers
2k views
What happens differently when ISS is inside this red boundary (Russia & Europe & …)?
The question Why are there advertisements in the Russian ISS flight control room? shows the image below. There is a large red boundary that looks like the boundary of the overlap of several circles ...
15
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1answer
2k views
What's the shiny silver turnip on the bottom of this Ariane 5 launcher?
The beautiful cutaway drawing included in this answer shows a metallic turnip-shaped object attached to the bottom of the Ariane V core stage.
What is that object?
2
votes
1answer
84 views
How to identify an object in orbit last night?
I saw an object last night (November 24, 2019) in the sky that was rather unusual and am curious about what it might have been. It had the luminosity and speed of movement across the sky (generally ...
1
vote
1answer
55 views
What is the purpose of the pairs of cylinders on the interstage of PSLV?
In the following images, it can be seen that the interstage (separating the first stage PS1 and the second stage PS2) of the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (...
6
votes
1answer
92 views
What is the reason behind the chromatic aberration on this DISCOVR picture?
Earlier in a question on this website, I saw the following picture:
If you look to the right side of the moon, you will see a massive yellow transparent area.
I am wondering what caused the yellow, ...
3
votes
1answer
89 views
How often did Apollo astronauts wear red helmets?
Images of NAsA astronaut David R. Scott performing a spacewalk during Apollo 9 show a red helmet.
When did NASA's use of red-colored helmets begin, and when did it end, and was there a special name ...
10
votes
2answers
2k views
What antenna is this in an Apollo 15 LM photo?
The video Apollo 15 landing from PDI to Touchdown (found in Why did the Apollo 15 LM violently shake & raise dust after the contact probes touched the lunar surface?) seems to pan across a still ...
2
votes
1answer
116 views
What is the purpose and necessity of this giant structure being used in tests of China's Mars lander?
Question: What is the purpose and necessity of this giant structure being used in tests of landing hovering and searching techniques to be used by China's Mars lander? It is shown in images (and a ...
1
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2answers
88 views
What are these Soyuz Astronauts/Cosmonauts holding in their hands before launch? [duplicate]
What are these Soyuz Astronauts/Cosmonauts holding in their left hands before launch? I suspect it must be the pump for the active cooling system by pumping water similar to those in EVA suits, but it ...
4
votes
1answer
105 views
What's the puffy fabric-like material around the upper stage at launch of Ranger 5?
The Ranger 5 mission launched 57 years ago today. In a photograph of the launch, there's an irregular shroud of wrinkled white material either next to or wrapped around the upper Agena stage of the ...
8
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0answers
179 views
What is the utility of this peanut-shaped ground facility?
The following image is from GSLV-F11 GSAT-7A Mission:
Location: Second Launch Pad (SLP), Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, India.
Please click here in case you want to see the image in ISRO's ...
3
votes
1answer
221 views
What are SpaceX's Starship's header tanks?
In the Everyday Astronaut video A conversation with Elon Musk about Starship after about 13:00 Musk shows Dodd a cell phone video that he shot in the top(?) of the ...
3
votes
1answer
217 views
What are these things in Elon Musk's tweeted Starship video?
I don't understand what I'm looking at in the video of this Elon Musk tweet. The text says:
Just leaving SpaceX Starship build site in Boca
These are reminiscent of funhouse mirrors. What are ...
2
votes
1answer
98 views
For which “2 billion dollar spacecraft launched in 1999” did NASA “specially design” an Aronson Trolley Positioner?
This answer to What are those tilting/rotating platforms called that hold spacecraft during assembly, testing, and sometimes transport? quotes this Weld Plus website as follows:
(The) Aronson ...
2
votes
1answer
157 views
Why does Curiosity have two images of itself on itself, or is one a QR-code?
The first image in CNN"s New images show Mars as you've never seen it before shows a partial "selfie" by the Curiosity rover which includes what looks like two images on the rover itself.
The one on ...
0
votes
1answer
78 views
What are those tilting/rotating platforms called that hold spacecraft during assembly, testing, and sometimes transport? [duplicate]
The first image from the BBC's Euclid space telescope to study 'dark Universe' makes progress reminded me of the second two, which are taken from What are these air-vent-like structures on this ...
2
votes
1answer
97 views
What did Luna 3's illuminator illuminate and why did it need a cover?
This comment below this answer to How was it possible for the Apollo 11 to film and take pictures with such radiation? links to the svengrahn.pp.se post Luna 3 - the first view of the moon's far side.
...
1
vote
1answer
66 views
Is this a NASA building in the background?
The Washington Post video It's looking more and more likely there will be a Tropical Storm Humberto near Florida shows some footage with the caption "Titusville Fla." and I've included a screen shot ...
3
votes
2answers
135 views
Does this image of 91-core OTRAG “asparagus-staging” show a real launch, or is it “space-art”?
This answer to Were there any non-state organizations to organize space flight and colonizations in the second half of the 20th century? mentions OTRAG and links to Astronautix's OTRAG page.
The ...
1
vote
1answer
118 views
What do all these vectors point to in this New Horizons trajectory/operations simulation?
Sir Brian May's New Horizons music video (below) shows an animation of the spacecraft and its launch vehicle from countdown to MU69 Ultima Thule.
Part way through the video at about ...
11
votes
2answers
1k views
Features seen on the Space Shuttle's solid booster; what does “LOADED” mean exactly?
The question Please explain the time reference shown in Shuttle launch engineering video links to the very cool video Ascent - Commemorating Shuttle. After about ...
5
votes
1answer
185 views
Why does this photo of the Hubble Space Telescope look so weird?
Question: Can someone identify this photograph of the Hubble Space Telescope seen as a still in the Los Angeles Times YouTube video Scientists witness huge cosmic crash, find origins of gold, figure ...
21
votes
1answer
1k views
Function of the separated, individual solar cells on Telstar 1 and 2? Why were they “special”?
The image below shows a part of a backup satellite for Telstar 1 and 2. In addition to the many small and highly segmented solar panels, there are what look like individual elements of the same kind ...
3
votes
1answer
145 views
What is a propellant burner trailer?
CNN and NPR have pointed out that the US president recently tweeted a surveillance photo of an explosion of a rocket on a launch pad.
One of the items identified in the photo is labeled as a ...
2
votes
1answer
101 views
Which Apollo 12 astronaut is shown examining the Surveyor 3 lander in this photograph?
I used this image in Exactly what was Surveyor 3 doing with a spring-loaded boxing glove-like device? but in the captions for the image on two NASA sites I noticed a disagreement in the identify of ...
2
votes
1answer
72 views
Exactly what was Surveyor 3 doing with a spring-loaded boxing glove-like device?
The thorough moon.NASA.gov/exploration page Moon Missions shows the image below.
I learned almost all of what I know about Physics and Engineering from the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons,...
3
votes
2answers
290 views
Stanley Kubrick used a NASA-inspired lens to film by candlelight in Barry Lyndon, but what did NASA use it for?
At 07:35 in the CinemaTyler video How Kubrick Achieved the Beautiful Cinematography of Barry Lyndon he says:
As far back as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick and ...
2
votes
1answer
115 views
Saint Elmo's fire on the ISS? What are these green glowing balls of plasma on a solar panel? Dangerous?
This tweet says:
Almost the entire population of Egypt lives within a few miles of the Nile.
But my eye is on the green glowing balls on what looks like it might be a solar panel.
Question: What ...
1
vote
1answer
223 views
Does this Soyuz vehicle burn coal or oil? What is its official name?
This tweet shows the image below and says:
Soyuz rocket on its way to the launch pad (on a train of course).
Question: Does this Soyuz vehicle (a train engine) burn coal or oil? Does it have an ...
1
vote
1answer
145 views
What cubesats are these, what flags are on them, and why? What's the background story?
This tweet includes the image below and says:
Cubesats deploying from ISS.
Question: What cubesats are these, what flags are on them, and why? What's the background story?
Cropped, magnified and ...
10
votes
2answers
1k views
What are these circular spots on these Ariane V SRB nozzles?
This Space Shuttle Almanac tweet says:
Pics 1-4 of todays @Arianespace #ArianeV VA249 launch carrying the #EDRSC & #Intelsat39 comsats from Kourou
and includes the cool (hot) image below.
...
2
votes
0answers
93 views
Why do these satellite antennas look so weird? (strangely shaped with little white dots…)
The NASA Spaceflight article Arianespace press onward with dual-passenger Ariane 5 launch shows a photo of Intelsat 39 during testing. The dish reflectors are strangely shaped:
rather than being ...
6
votes
1answer
264 views
What is Tesseract's “secret sauce”? (green propellant)
TechCrunch's Tesseract makes spacecraft propulsion smaller, greener, stronger tells us to "ditch the hazmat suits" and https://www.tesseract.space/products-and-services lists the Lyra 22 (i.e. 22 ...
3
votes
1answer
137 views
What kind of camera was used to produce this Apollo-era footage of the Earth?
The question Reflected Earth is 1/3 the size of primary Earth in Apollo footage through spacecraft window; why? begins:
In the video Brian Eno on Apollo at 08:20 ...
9
votes
3answers
2k views
What is this spacecraft tethered to another spacecraft in LEO (vintage)
In the really nice video Brian Eno on Apollo at 03:40 there is (possibly Apollo-era but not necessarily Apollo) footage of a spacecraft tethered to another ...
5
votes
1answer
418 views
Humanoid silhouette on SpaceX's Starhopper; what does it represent?
update: The silhouette now has a page in Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hughmann_for_scale.svg
The images below are from a NASA Spaceflight forum post and can be seen in @...
2
votes
0answers
112 views
What do these three historical IBM staff at NASA insignias designate?
The question Where are these historical IBM + Apollo related locations within NASA? What do these computers do? shows four images. Three of them show different IBM insignias on shirts of IBM staff.
...
4
votes
1answer
155 views
Where are these historical IBM + Apollo related locations within NASA? What do these computers do?
In the Fortune Magazine video IBM's Moonshot: Past and Future with the notes
BM’s John Kelly reflects on Apollo 11’s historic mission and looks forward to what future technology will accomplish.
...
4
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0answers
106 views
Why does this “Midas missile early warning satellite” have a tilting cone with such a complex black-and-white checkerboard pattern?
Clicking on images of historic satellites led me to the airvectors.net page Foundations Of Automated Space Technology which includes this image and passage:
A number of Samos satellites were also ...
4
votes
1answer
272 views
Help understanding this Apollo 11 docking probe image, what are we looking at, and from where?
The New York Times mix media "article" Apollo 11
As They Shot It shows original photographic images taken by the astronauts and related quotes by them.
In one section the text says:
Inspecting the ...
24
votes
1answer
3k views
In this iconic lunar orbit rendezvous photo of John Houbolt, why do arrows #5 and #6 point the “wrong” way?
The NPR.org news item Meet John Houbolt: He Figured Out How To Go To The Moon, But Few Were Listening shows the iconic photo of John Houbolt next to a black board showing a free return scenario.
I ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
What was this capsule dropped from a truck?
I've been watching the PBS American Experience documentary, and they showed a brief clip of some accidents at NASA. One involved a capsule being carried on the back of a truck, on some kind of crane. ...
6
votes
2answers
270 views
What are the bumps on the Vega rocket
In the image below, we see some bumps at the conical section of what I believe is the transition from the first to the second stage.
What function do they serve?
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
3
votes
1answer
134 views
What exactly are Tindallgrams? (spaceflight related)
The word "Tindallgram" appears in three posts:
this answer to How complex was the math and physics necessary to place Apollo 11 on the moon?
What is a “Lear Processor” and how did it work?
this ...
2
votes
1answer
466 views
What is this red spacesuit made out of, and why is it red?
The BBC News website often uses this file photo on spaceflight-related pages such as this one.
Is it possible to identify the following?
the astronaut
the spacecraft
the spacesuit
the external red ...
1
vote
0answers
207 views
What are these white cylindrical objects pointed in different directions in this photo of the Saturn V instrument unit?
The BBC News article Apollo in 50 Numbers; The Technology shows an image of the Saturn V's computer along with the caption:
The Saturn V's computer was probably the largest computer ever blasted ...
5
votes
0answers
153 views
What's this purple donut in the video of the Falcon 9 fairing's atmospheric reentry?
This SpaceX tweet (found in CNET's SpaceX camera captures incredible view of rocket part returning to Earth) shows a video taken by a camera in one half of the fairing on the recent STP-2 mission and ...
6
votes
1answer
281 views
How do you plot a porkchop plot like this one?
I was looking around for gravity gradients then got sidetracked by looking at pork-chop plots because they're extremely cool. I'm still struggling to fully understand them, but I did find an ...
9
votes
2answers
828 views
Apollo Mission Operations Control Room 2 display, what do these numbers indicate?
There are some really beautiful photos in Ars Technica's NASA’s restored Apollo Mission Control is a slice of ’60s life, frozen in amber
See also NYTimes' NASA Reopens Apollo Mission Control Room ...
