Questions tagged [weather]

Questions regarding effects of weather on space exploration and how it can be forecasted and managed on Earth and on other bodies with atmospheres.

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What would have happened if lightning struck the Orion LES instead of the umbilical tower?

Yesterday, a lightning struck the SLS' umbilical tower during a scrubbed wet dress rehearsal. Is it normal for a lightning to strike the umbilical tower instead of the 3 lightning arresters around the ...
Ashvin's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
95 views

Has an aircraft's flight ever been delayed on another planet? If so, who, what, when, where and why exactly?

For the benefit of future readers and our spaceflight-firsts tag: Question: Has an aircraft's flight ever been delayed on another planet? If so, who issued the delay order, what spacecraft's flight ...
uhoh's user avatar
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1 vote
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How does the wind behave throughout the day in Jezero Crater? (worried about Ingenuity)

JPL tweet links to mars.nasa.gov's Flying on Mars Is Getting Harder and Harder which explains that seasonal changes are lowering the density of the local atmosphere, presumably due to warmer seasonal ...
uhoh's user avatar
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9 votes
2 answers
163 views

Is there an atmospheric pressure model for Mars that takes different temperatures and seasons into account?

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Above are the pressure data from Curiosity's REMS sensor for the first 200 sols at Gale crater. At about sol 170 Mars was at perihelion and a month later it was southern ...
Cornelis's user avatar
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4 votes
3 answers
460 views

How long would astronauts' footprints on Mars persist?

The Apollo astronauts' footsteps can remain theoretically forever on the Moon as it has no atmosphere. Mars does have an atmosphere but a very thin one. Its pressure ranges from 72 Pa (0.0104 psi) on ...
Giovanni's user avatar
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8 votes
3 answers
459 views

Might Ingenuity tip over?

While Ingenuity patiently waits for its preflight checks to pass, how likely is it that a wind gust could tip it over? How strong and how rare a gust? Those rotors have plenty of area. (Surely NASA ...
Camille Goudeseune's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
257 views

SN11 was launched in fog. Why not wait for better conditions?

The fog certainly frustrated the external observers, but it doesn't seem ideal from SpaceX perspective either. All the external observers were very distant from the launch/landing site and would be ...
Roger Wood's user avatar
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1 answer
130 views

How many planets have had their limbs scanned with radio signals?

This answer to When did planetary scientists realize Venus' surface pressure was almost 100x that on Earth? How did they find out? describes one example of scanning the limb of a planet using ...
uhoh's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
461 views

Perseverance individual sample collection post-mission; what stops them from blowing away or getting covered and hidden by dust?

I have been seeing videos that the plan after Perseverance is done collecting samples to distribute them in 'strategic' locations around Mars for another rover to drive around and pick up later. Why ...
necroncryptek's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

Are launch windows to Mars avoided if they result in landings during dust storm season?

This comment suggests that orbit before descent to Mars' surface allows a mission to delay the landing if the weather conditions are bad. I think that Tianwen-1 will be the first to put a lander rover ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
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Propulsion thrust vs high winds?

While I do understand that high wind speed is a risk for space launches (and all air flights), still, is it a physical constraint or a computational problem given we are not dealing with a hurricane/...
J. Doe's user avatar
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70 votes
4 answers
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Why did it take so long to notice that the ozone layer had holes in it? Which satellite provided the data?

Wikipedia says: The discovery of the annual depletion of ozone above the Antarctic was first announced by Joe Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin, in a paper which appeared in Nature on May ...
uhoh's user avatar
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22 votes
5 answers
4k views

Does upper atmosphere rotate with earth?

Basic question that I should know the answer to but sadly don't. The lower atmosphere must rotate with the earth because of friction---at least the very bottom of it. But what about 30 miles up? There ...
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4 votes
1 answer
388 views

What if you tried to fly a kite on Mars?

I wonder what kite flying might be like on Mars, in one per cent the atmospheric pressure of Earth, about two per cent the Earth's atmospheric density and 38% the Earth's surface gravity. Are there ...
Giovanni's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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Did any sounding rocket ever fly through a noctilucent cloud?

Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds forming above the Earth, up in the mesosphere. They form in late spring / early summer and above latitudes closer to the poles. Was a sounding rocket ever ...
Giovanni's user avatar
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8 votes
0 answers
527 views

What did NASA Vehicle Assembly Building's "weather" look like? Did it really have clouds? Did it rain?

Comments below this answer to Would there be snow, rain, fog or clouds in a deep, sealed, subsurface cavern on the Moon if water were present? point out that the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
134 views

What routinely happened in the TIROS control center? Was anything controlled there?

Question: What actually happened in the TIROS control center at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland? Did they receive and print out satellite images in this room? If so, how? Did they ...
uhoh's user avatar
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16 votes
1 answer
3k views

Would the national flag planted by astronauts on Mars need an upper horizontal pole like the ones on the Moon?

Due to the lack of an atmosphere on the Moon, the Apollo lunar flags had an upper horizontal pole in order to make them fully hoisted, looking like floating in the wind. Now Mars does have an ...
LoveForChrist's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
4k views

Why doesn't the USA use structurally stronger rockets for the more important launches?

Russia uses the R-7 ICBM-derived Soyuz launch vehicle for most of its space launches. The advantage of it is that there's no concern on what the weather is like on launch day and Soyuz launches almost ...
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8 votes
2 answers
629 views

How were video tape recorders adapted to work in orbit in 1962?

Livescience's Satellite spies gigantic 'fuzzball' clouds spreading near Australia coast says: Actinoform clouds were first captured by NASA’s Television Infrared Observation Satellite V in 1962, but ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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Where is http://thunder.msfc.nasa.gov/?

In the question Methods of lightning detection on Mars? I included an image of A lightning detector at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida: Source The Wikimedia's page cites http://thunder....
uhoh's user avatar
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18 votes
1 answer
2k views

Did any of the Space Shuttles land through rain or rainclouds?

My web research resulted in figuring out that launching Space Shuttles in rain, apart from lightning, wind and turbulence related problems, wasn't permitted due to: brittleness of the heat shield ...
Sergiy Lenzion's user avatar
22 votes
4 answers
6k views

Why does the U.S. military maintain their own weather satellites?

Why does the U.S. military maintain their own weather satellites like the DMSP Block 5D2? What's the difference to "normal" weather satellites? Do they use other sensors or orbits? If they have ...
mike's user avatar
  • 1,636
2 votes
0 answers
48 views

How often has weather interfered with the Deep Space Network?

This answer provides some information about the potential that precipitation can interfere with signals of the Deep Space Network. In practice, how often (a count, ratio or percent) has weather ...
DrSheldon's user avatar
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7 votes
3 answers
436 views

Fast spinning solar cells to clear Martian dust possible?

I've seen a fast spinning glass wheel used in front of a camera to clear away water, dust or ice. Could Solar panels be made circular and spin to clear dust off of them in the same way may? As ...
Muze's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
523 views

Does Mars have a known "prevailing wind" direction?

Venus has a general retrograde wind direction, and a few days of measurements from the InSight lander so far suggest steady winds from the north-west, but are there any measurements that indicate Mars ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
7 votes
2 answers
670 views

How does InSight measure wind speed?

According to this answer to How can I find a daily record of the temperature on Mars? the weather at the InSight lander can now be seen online at https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/weather/ This includes ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
8 votes
1 answer
748 views

What are "high altitude winds" and why do they often delay rocket launches?

High altitude winds seem to frequently postpone launches from Earth to orbit. Presumably, they are fast and strong enough to induce stresses on a rocket or impede guidance, but that's guessing from ...
Rick 0xfff's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
301 views

How soon will LC-39A be at significant risk to storm-surge damage?

from Format/interpretation of NOAA Elevation Data Rising sea levels due to thermal expansion due to global warming due to farting cattle and unicorns and of course also due to CO2 emissions caused by ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
285 views

Which Live satellites can the public view of earth? [closed]

Does anybody know if there is a LIVE satellite? Like a cross between Google Earth (zoom) and GOES 16 (LIVE)? So WE can see what's really going on around here? I want to see inside of the crater in ...
Elizabeth Drake's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
581 views

How quickly might a Titan rover or drone get covered in oil and dirt? Will it need windshield-wipers?

These questions and their answers address some potential aspects of a rover on Saturn's moon Titan. Titan rover survival challenges What are the technical challenges in building a Titan rover that ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
13 votes
1 answer
514 views

Are there microclimates with better weather conditions on Mars?

On Earth, a microclimate mostly refers to an area which differs from the surrounding areas in temperature or humidity. And what about Mars ? Are there places with atmospheric conditions that are less ...
Cornelis's user avatar
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18 votes
0 answers
445 views

How did "the kid" (John Meisenheimer) calculate that there was a wave in the jet stream and Explorer 1 would be okay to launch?

The tough but timely question NASA at sIxty years, will there be a new moonshot mandate? links to the NASA YouTube video NASA 60th: How It All Began which shows a lot of really nice, historical file ...
uhoh's user avatar
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20 votes
2 answers
3k views

Will SpaceX delay launches, if the landing site weather is unacceptable?

With the initial landing attempts, it was not a big deal, twas all an experiment and they only reused Block 1-4 boosters once at best. So holding a launch because of weather at the landing site ...
geoffc's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
251 views

Have weather satellites been sent to other planets?

Has an orbiting weather satellite, similar to those used around Earth, been sent to other planets to study their atmospheric weather? I am curious if a weather satellite is generic enough to serve ...
Dan Sorensen's user avatar
  • 3,551
5 votes
1 answer
116 views

Would landing on mars during a storm considerably increase atmospheric drag?

Any chance we could harvest all those dust particles for an significant improvement in aero-breaking capabilities or would it destroy most heat-shields?
drandrul's user avatar
  • 658
8 votes
1 answer
392 views

How much does pressure on Mars change with weather?

A great answer about the Mars atmosphere and water triple point shows there is a region on Mars where clean liquid water slightly above 0°C can exist on the surface. I still wonder, though, how ...
SF.'s user avatar
  • 55k
15 votes
4 answers
8k views

What is the warmest place on Mars?

What is the warmest place on the Martian surface? What temperatures are seen there? (day, night, seasons, etc.) I am asking about weather; not anything out of the ordinary such as a volcano.
William Jockusch's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
417 views

Do smaller rockets require better weather at launch than larger ones?

The Spaceflight Now article Rocket Lab test launch halted by ship traffic, deteriorating weather mentions that the recent planned launch of the Electron rocket was cancelled due to a combination of ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Has an astronaut ever seen pixies, ELVEs, sprites or blue jets (without a camera)?

The NASA Science video ScienceCasts: A Display of Lights Above the Storm shows several examples of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) (Upper Atmospheric Lightning) being filmed by high-sensitivity ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
7 votes
2 answers
1k views

What is KSC's HURCON II?

HURCON II sounds like DEFCON 2, the 2nd highest level of five levels of The DEFense readiness CONdition (DEFCON); an alert state used by the United States Armed ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
0 votes
1 answer
146 views

What responsibilities does the Hurricane Harvey OPS team have, and what challenges?

Here is a tweet from NASA flight director Royce Renfrew's personal twitter account. I believe at least some of the Hurricane Harvey OPS team is on-site at Johnson Space Center but the work might be ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
2 votes
1 answer
523 views

Do the SpaceX ASDS orient themselves in a particular direction before a landing? Is there a "landing ellipse"?

The SpaceX Autonomous spaceport drone ships have longer and shorter direction, both for the flat, apparently land-able area, and total footprint in the water. The ships have vertical projections at ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
1 vote
0 answers
245 views

Was the telltale on the Mars Phoenix Lander used for meteorology? Why not a hot wire anemometer instead?

Reading about ping pong ball anemometers I discovered that the Mars Phoenix Lander had an anemometer of this design, and there are images and GIFs of it moving. When imaged from one or two different ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
10 votes
2 answers
518 views

How can I find a daily record of the temperature on Mars?

Does any probe or lander track the temperature on Mars, and is this data published anywhere? I recall the MGS used to issue a "Martian Weather Report", but it has ceased operating.
tomh's user avatar
  • 703
12 votes
1 answer
590 views

Does Venus have doldrums or horse latitudes (latitudes with lower winds)?

Because of all the heat fueling convection cells, Venus has some brisk winds especially in the upper atmosphere (up to 370 km/h). I realize the winds are quite slow at the surface, but are there any ...
King-Ink's user avatar
  • 381
5 votes
1 answer
139 views

Acid fog on Mars?

Recently a study on the data from the Spirit rover in Gusev crater suggested that there may be acid fog changing the rocks. What exactly is this acid fog? How is it formed on Mars and where? Is it ...
r2_d2's user avatar
  • 779
7 votes
1 answer
594 views

Lightning on Mars?

I watched the movie The Martian, and there is a brief scene where there is lightning on Mars. Something about this seems unlikely to me, but I can't remember if it's actually possible or not. Is there ...
PearsonArtPhoto's user avatar
  • 121k
7 votes
3 answers
916 views

Were there any issues with wind on rockets / shuttle?

In architecture and engineering obviously wind and wind shear are important issues for tall buildings. I understand that weather is an important condition for the launch of rockets or the hundreds of ...
Mikey's user avatar
  • 2,941
8 votes
1 answer
473 views

What are the known historic global and regional dust storms on Mars?

What is the actual calendar of observed global dust storms on Mars? And if available, any data about regional dust storms' dates, duration and coverage. I find online information about global Martian ...
LocalFluff's user avatar