All Questions
2,142
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
21
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1
answer
889
views
What paper size do they use on the International Space Station?
We know they have at least one printer on the ISS – that's NASA-supplied so it would be in the US Orbital Segment. Presumably there is a printer in the Russian Orbital Segment as well. (Mir had a ...
- 369
19
votes
0
answers
441
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Does the post Apollo 13 roast mixtape still exist?
The debriefing party at the Hofbraugarten was merciless, beginning
with a parody of the mission. The tape prepared by the Apollo 13
backup crew and the CapComs was not for the thin-skinned. The parody
...
- 149
19
votes
0
answers
424
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 ...
- 149k
18
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0
answers
771
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Have there ever been any incidents where something valuable was unintentionally thrown out with the trash?
In "What do astronauts do with their trash on the ISS?", a commentator asked the title question and was encouraged to make it a new question, but apparently never did.
The linked question is ...
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17
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0
answers
355
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Has Buzz Aldrin’s Line-of-Sight rendezvous method ever been used?
Has Buzz Aldrin’s Line-of-Sight rendezvous method ever been used?
Buzz Aldrin’s 1963 doctoral thesis describes a line-of-sight (LOS) rendezvous technique which is independent of computer and radar ...
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16
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0
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361
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Has NASA ever included a ground controller or astronaut becoming insane/irrational/uncooperative in a training simulation?
NASA training simulations have included a wide variety of problems thrown at the pilots and ground controllers -- not only the typical technical failures, but also some unusual outside-world stuff ...
- 8,539
14
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0
answers
390
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Have astronauts ever used the helmet-to-helmet technique to talk to one another in vacuum?
Science Fiction has long written about this communication technique in vacuum: Astronauts touch their helmet against another astronaut's helmet, so that sound will transmit through that physical ...
- 2,073
13
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0
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307
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Does the SpaceX spacesuit address any of the criticisms of ACES raised by Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report?
A brief history of what Shuttle crews wore for ascent and entry, from the Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report:
The shuttle was originally designed to be operated in a shirtsleeve (bare-hands) ...
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13
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1
answer
389
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Will Soyuz spacecraft be able to visit the Lunar Gateway?
I mean launch from Earth, dock to the gateway and come back.
- 3,077
11
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0
answers
170
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Which kinds of survival equipment does Crew Dragon have, in case of an emergency landing?
Soyuz spacecraft has various survival equipment for different cases of emergency landing.
The cases include water landing, desert landing, snow winter landing (crews have special winter suits). They ...
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11
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0
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413
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What would be the disadvantages in Ingenuity accompanying Perseverance at a safe distance when the flight test program has been a success?
This answer to the question "How long could the Mars helicopter Ingenuity keep up with the Perseverance rover if it wanted to?" reasons that indeed it could for years !
But according to the ...
- 7,345
11
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0
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224
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Does Crew Dragon have a quick-release hatch?
After today's Crew Dragon launch was scrubbed, it took the pad ninjas at least ten minutes to open the hatch. One of the major criticisms of the Apollo Block 1 hatch design after the Apollo 1 fire ...
- 12.4k
11
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0
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357
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Were there any launch vehicles with so heavily pronounced Plume Induced Flow Separation (PIFS), other than Saturn V?
This answer describes a very interesting phenomenon of Plume Induced Flow Separation on Saturn V vehicle.
(Apollo-6 S68-29737 photo, courtesy NASA)
This is, basically, when "fire" from ...
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10
votes
0
answers
189
views
How well would a supersonic aircraft perform in the Martian atmosphere?
I started getting curious about this question during my Flight Test Engineering class. My professor was talking about a part of the International Standard Atmosphere that is a similar pressure to that ...
- 221
10
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0
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333
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What's the shiny triangular feature on this Progress vehicle?
Picture from here
What's the shiny, slightly curved triangular plate with rails above it?
A larger version, cropped from here, thanks to a comment by ohsin.
- 171k
9
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0
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251
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Has there ever been a deliberate "Find A Satellite" challenge? Actually, could there be?
Companies often offer rewards for finding security issues in their products or their own IT systems, and hackathons have a long history.
I'm just wondering if there has ever been a deliberate ...
- 149k
9
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0
answers
201
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Why is the water pumped out of the holding tank a minute before Falcon 9 liftoff?
SpaceX Falcon 9 - starlink mission on October 5. Video :
Why is the water discharged at T- 01m:30s from the holding tank far away from the launch pad?
This was also ...
- 2,596
9
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0
answers
255
views
Detailed information about the Soyuz descent module connection box?
Anyone have some detailed information about how all this connectors, located in the soyuz descent module?
Are they used only when they setup the Soyuz or they are ...
- 191
9
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0
answers
163
views
What rocket uses the largest percentage of Fuel/Oxidizer before liftoff?
inspired by this question: How much propellant is used up until liftoff?
which asks how much propellant (fuel/oxidizer) a typical rocket uses before liftoff. What has been or is the most non-typical ...
- 317
9
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0
answers
83
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What science data has been released from Chang'e 4?
Chang'e 4 was the first soft landing on the far side of the moon. What science data has been released from it? That is, in two parts: what science was done and of that, what data has been released to ...
- 191
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0
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197
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Was the Doppler shift of InSight's "tone" measured and plotted somewhere?
I watched a YouTube live broadcast from the InSight mission control area and saw lots of images of happy people cheering and jumping up and down, which is great! If it wasn't 4 AM where I was I might ...
- 149k
9
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0
answers
537
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Why was the Apollo 6 service module painted white?
All other SM's were silver except Apollo 6. I'm wondering what the justification for this was, if any?
- 2,255
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348
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What spinoff technologies have come from the Soviet/Russian space program?
There is plenty of information available on NASA spinoff technologies including a Wikipedia page and Space SE question. What innovations are a byproduct of the Russian space program?
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908
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Roughly how many self-viewing cameras are present in a Falcon 9 LEO mission?
Watch any of last year's SpaceX LEO satellite deployment missions's broadcasts in YouTube, and you can see views from at least several different cameras. At least two on the 2nd stage nozzle, at least ...
- 149k
9
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0
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442
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How do domes in lunar impact melts develop, and might they be hollow?
On the floors of young craters of the Moon, smoothly rounded domes are visible in some spots. Lalande crater has 4 of them, each around 200 m across.
Here are less regular ones on the floor of ...
- 21.1k
8
votes
0
answers
115
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Dimorphos natural orbit variability vs DART impact
As we know, DART spacecraft have impacted Dimorphos, a satellite of Didymos. The impact will change the orbital period.
Depending on the properties of Dimorphos (mass, porosity, cohesion), the period ...
- 8,876
8
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0
answers
117
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What is the cabling on the exterior of the SLS solid rocket boosters that wasn't on the shuttle solid rocket boosters?
I noticed what appears to be foamed-over cabling running roughly parallel to the systems tunnel on the exterior of the SLS Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). The cabling appears to run all the way from the ...
- 171k
8
votes
0
answers
296
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What are the negatives associated with Thrust-augmented Nozzles aka Afterburning Rocket Engines?
An interesting comment here introduced me to the concept of Thrust-augmented Nozzles aka Afterburning Rocket Engines. The pubs I've read on it so far introduce the concept as a way to provide good ...
- 171k
8
votes
0
answers
112
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How do people know how big the rocks are in the photos of Titan's surface?
How do people know how big the rocks are in the photos of Titan's surface?
8
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0
answers
97
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How does the JWST sunshade cover release work?
In animations of the James Webb Space Telescope unfolding, you see material rolling itself up to uncover the folded-up sunshade. How is that rolling-up process driven? The animations don't show any ...
- 8,084
8
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0
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177
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With an external airlock attached, could Commercial Crew Program spacecraft service Hubble?
Note just to clarify: is not about the requirements of the Commercial Crew Program, it is about the as-built capabilities of Crew Dragon and Starliner (hereafter referred to as CCPS, CCP (not that one)...
- 10.3k
8
votes
0
answers
158
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Is there any official Chinese website where we can follow the actions of the Zhurong rover?
Zhurong, China's first Mars rover, soft landed on Utopia Planitia on May 14, 2021.
Coordinates of the landing site are: 25.1⁰ N 109.7⁰ E
The planned operational lifetime is only 90 sols.
(Why should ...
- 7,345
8
votes
0
answers
115
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Was the recent uncontrolled Chinese rocket de-orbit exceptional?
The recent (April 2021) Chinese CZ-5B rocket launch gained widespread media attention because the large launcher was designed to de-orbit in an uncontrolled fashion, and ultimately landed in the ...
- 333
8
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0
answers
784
views
Is there anything that could speak 900 MHz ZigBee that could hear Ingenuity helicopter besides the Perseverance rover?
Interest is piqued by What could be strong arguments against Ingenuity following Perseverance at a safe distance when the flight test program has been a success?
Question: Can anything at Mars, or ...
- 149k
8
votes
0
answers
267
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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 ...
- 797
8
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0
answers
52
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Are there any sites that have collection of Bellcomm Inc. memos?
Bellcomm Inc was contracted by NASA to provide alternate and hypothetical launch vehicles, spacecraft, and missions. The memos combine the right blend of technical detail without heavy mathematics ...
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8
votes
0
answers
140
views
How often have signs of life been dismissed as abiotic?
Today, there are rumors about an upcoming announcement of the discovery of (non-conclusive) evidence for life on Venus, apparently they detected some phosphorus compound that is not produced by any ...
- 1,096
8
votes
0
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211
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Roughly, how much of our Moon's apparent libration amplitude seen from the Geocenter is due to different effects?
My understanding is that when tidal locking of a body first happens it transitions from a state where the average rotation period is faster than the orbital period to a state where they are the same ...
- 149k
8
votes
0
answers
377
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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 ...
- 149k
8
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0
answers
86
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Escape system of SLS vs Ares I
One of the criticism directed at the Ares I rocket was the danger during a launch termination of the solid-propellant 1st stage. As far as I understood it, a terminated Titan IV solid-propellant ...
- 621
8
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0
answers
806
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What are the general properties and specs for JWST's onboard data and image processing capabilities?
Answers and comments on What is the data storage capabilities onboard the James Webb Telescope? which reference the James Webb Space Telescope User Documentation item JWST Solid State Recorder mention ...
- 149k
8
votes
0
answers
152
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How long could the ISS function if removed from Earth orbit?
Suppose the ISS were instantaneously moved to the opposite side of the Sun from Earth - how long would it continue to function? Are there any systems aboard that depend on passing behind the planet ...
- 461
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0
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237
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Did CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang see the ISS during an EVA?
This answer to Has an astronaut ever seen another object in LEO pass by that wasn't mission-related? says:
The encounter happened at longer distances ($\sim47\;km$) and the Shenzhou-7 is smaller than ...
- 149k
8
votes
0
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199
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Onboard recording of trans-Mars injection
Is there any video recording of the Falcon Heavy trans-Mars injection burn from onboard cameras?
The live feed of the Tesla Roadster and Starman orbiting Earth cycled through multiple cameras ...
- 401
8
votes
0
answers
734
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ISS - Tiangong 2 minimum safe distance
Using the SGP4 propagator, I calculated the minimum distance between ISS and Tiangong-2 for this year.
I obtained 12.32 km for 2017-09-27 17:29:36.376 UTC (which ...
- 1,730
8
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0
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For the mathematical relationship between J2 (km^5/s^2) and dimensionless J2 - which one is derived from the other?
The term $J_2$ seen in discussions of nodal precession of orbits (e.g. sun-synchronous) appears to come in two flavors. For example, in the Wikipedia article Geopotential model it has a value of $1....
- 149k
8
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0
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628
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How is retropropulsion by the Falcon 9 first stage being used to design retropropulsion entry on Mars?
Much has been made of how the reentry burns of Falcon 9 first stages occur at an altitude where the atmosphere is similar in density to the atmosphere of Mars, and so they demonstrate that supersonic ...
- 21.1k
8
votes
0
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Smart suits in development
This is an offshoot of this question.
There's a new generation of space suits coming up (Z-series, anything that the Zvezda NPP has up its sleeves), and I wonder at the level of sophistication of ...
- 11.4k
8
votes
0
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633
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Dragon Pad Abort hot fire, how much cleanup work was needed?
The day before the Pad Abort test attempt (May 5, 2015) SpaceX test fired the SuperDraco engines in a hot fire. Similar to how they test the Falcon 9 a day or three before launch, the engines spin up ...
- 78.6k
8
votes
1
answer
245
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What is inside the overhead compartments in crew dragon
During the DEMO-2 live stream there was a black section visible above the heads of the astronauts. In an image tweeted out by Elon these were labeled as “9” and “10” with symbols of water droplets.
...
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