# All Questions

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### Why does a launch due south (180° azimuth) not translate into a polar orbit from Vandenberg?

I found this image showing the allowable launch azimuths for Vandenberg AFB and I was wondering why a 180° launch azimuth doesn't match a 90° inclination orbit. This led me to question the equation ...
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1 vote
94 views

### What is the equation to find how much fuel you need to reach a velocity? [closed]

Theoretically, I need to launch a rocket, and I need to find how much fuel I need to reach a velocity however I do not know the equation.
55 views

### How does the data rate of the Psyche mission's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) system scale with distance?

NASA's Mission Page Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) includes the following: Key DSOC technologies developed for the project include: a low-mass spacecraft disturbance isolation and pointing ...
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### What's this small source of glowing blue plasma next to Psyche's Hall effect thruster for? What does it do and why does the plasma curve and connect?

PV Magazine's NASA’s 1.5 billion-mile Psyche asteroid mission will be solar-powered includes the image below which is PIA24030 and the relevent part of the NASA caption is: The photo on the left ...
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### Largest solar panel (by area) deployed in space? Largest below/at/above GEO?

NASA news item NASA’s Psyche Gets Huge Solar Arrays for Trip to Metal-Rich Asteroid At 800 square feet (75 square meters), the five-panel, cross-shaped solar arrays are the largest ever installed at ...
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### Using belt drive in LEO spacecraft?

I am designing a concept for a LEO spacecraft and need to transmit mechanical power (0.5Nm @200rpm rotation) over a distance (1-2ft). Chains or belts would be a natural choice for terrestrial ...
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842 views

### Will JUICE be doing science en-route?

JUICE will fly by the Earth, the Moon and Venus on its way to Jupiter. Will it be doing any science during these fly-bys?
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68 views

### Solar sail for a 3U cubesat: do we have to buy one or can we design one?

We are working on a conceptual design for a 3U CubeSat with solar sail propulsion; we aren’t actually building one or buying one. However we still need to make decisions like whether to build our own ...
1k views

### What is the purpose of these three taut cables near an ISS astronaut during EVA? To what do they connect and why do two appear intertwined?

During CBS News senior space analyst Bill Harwood's explanations in the video Russia's space agency severs ties with the U.S. and its European partners they keep showing the same five seconds of an ...
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1 vote
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### What is "trade space" in the context of libration orbit mission design? (used in trade analysis, launch window analysis and trade study)

The introduction to Launch Window Trade Analysis for the James Webb Space Telescope reads: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large-scale space telescope mission designed to study fundamental ...
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### What is the furthest from Earth that a military spacecraft is thought to have been intentionally deployed or moved to?

Space.com's Space Force plans to send a patrol probe out past the moon includes a quote from the new AFResearchLab video Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS). "Until now, the United States ...
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### Why is the sunny side of JWST's sunshield purple and covered with silicon?

After about 08:52 in Destin's Smarter Every Day's Why Are there Holes in the James Webb Sunshield? (Explained by My Dad) - Smarter Every Day 270 (linked below) ...
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### Woz in space! What will make Privateer's Jah's tracking software so much better than the current state of the art?

CNN's Steve Wozniak's new venture takes aim at space junk discusses a project with Wozniak, Alex Fielding and Moriba Jah: But the money, according to Wozniak's co-founder in this new venture, couldn'...
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967 views

### Mariner 9 computing equipment

I am guessing the word CPU can't be used in reference to computers in 1971. So I am wondering what type of electronic equipment were put in place of a regular CPU ...
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1 vote
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### CubeSat's ConOps implementation as a FSM with thread management [closed]

Can anyone shed light on this for me: How would you implement a Concept of Operations of a CubeSat as a Finite State Machine that manages each thread's priority? Thank you !
1 vote
47 views

### Is it true that 18SPCS is "not really concerned with tracking deep-space debris like" the Chang’e 5-T1 rocket body that hit the Moon?

The Verge's After mistaken identity and confusion, a piece of space junk slams into the Moon goes through the identification saga of the thing that hit the Moon March 4 and includes the following: ...
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### Will the NASA Commercial Crew "zip line away from the tower and into" this "military armoured truck" in case of emergency? Does the truck have a name?

The NASA Commercial Crew @Commercial_Crewtweet The #Crew4 astronauts have been busy getting ready for their upcoming mission to the @Space_Station! The crew recently participated in simulations ...
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1 vote
74 views

### What is this figure I have obtained from this MATLAB code around Earth-Moon Lagrange point 2?

This is part of the code I used, where EM: Earth moon ...
46 views

### How I calculate the speed of Cubsat after deploymewnt in Leo orbit and how i calculate the speed which be reach the LOW LUNAR ORBIT? [closed]

How I calculate the speed of a Cube Sat after deployment in GEO and how can I calculate the speed which will reach the low lunar orbit?
63 views

### Is the impact of Chang’e 5-T1 rocket stage on the Moon's far side on March 4th likely to launch any debris into Moon or Earth orbit?

It is predicted that the Chang’e 5-T1 rocket stage will impact the Moon's far side on March 4th. The stage apparently weighs about 4 tonnes and will impact at 2.5 km/s at a shallow angle. There's ...
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489 views

### What is the equation for fuel equals distance for a rocket? [closed]

Theoretically, I am trying to launch a rocket from space and trying to figure out how much fuel I would need to get to a certain distance.
1 vote
54 views

### Will Cygnus do anything special when it "looses its NACHOS"?

CBS News' NASA's new "NACHOS" instrument could help predict volcanic eruptions explains that this nanosatellite will be deployed from the Cygnus spacecraft launched February 19, 2022 after ...
• 148k
209 views

### Can we watch the object move towards the Moon and hit it this week at home? Will there be live telescope feeds?

I'm not even going to name the object because there's been some variability and excitement in its identification (DSCOVR 2nd stage, no not DSCOVR, it's Chinese, no not that Chinse rocket body, this ...
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55 views

### 3U CubeSat components

as a project for school, we are designing a preliminary conceptual 3U CubeSat design. The mission is to launch in orbit at 1,000 km and Maintain orbit for 1 month. After orbit is maintained for 1 ...
265 views

### Where in the constellation Camelopardalis is Gliese 445?

Gliese 445 (Gl 445 or AC +79 3888) is an M-type main sequence star in the northern part of the constellation Camelopardalis. In about 38,000 years Voyager 1 will make its closest approach to it. ...
73 views

### Atlas V booster appearance change in flight

In the livestream of the latest Atlas V 541 flight launching the GOES-T satelite I saw that the nosecones of the two visible boosters changed the appearance within a few seconds in the flight. Is this ...
1 vote
46 views

### how I can find the radius vector and the velocity vector satellite in elliptic orbits? [closed]

In order to evaluate the following expression at each point in an elliptical orbit, I first need the state vector $\mathbf{r}, \mathbf{v}$.  \omega_j=\frac{1}{r^2||\textbf{v} \times \textbf{r}||} \ \...
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### With the new (Feb 2022) NASA SpaceX Crew Dragon contract extension, how much per flight?

NASA awarded flights 7, 8, and 9 for Crew Dragon in an extension of the existing contract, bringing the total value to \$3,490,872,904 . We know that in 2014 SpaceX was awarded about$2.6 billion to ...
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82 views

### Satellite Revisit Time Analysis

I am currently making up my mind about revisit analysis. I am searching for clever algorithms to implement this in Matlab. I want to define targets on Earth surface and get the revisit times for each ...
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### Could an astronaut with a jump and a "jet pack" "jump" off of moon?

The initial naive question was: "Could an astronaut with a jump and a "jet pack" "jump" off of moon?" :) For fun let's assume the most beneficial circumstances: Gemini ...
79 views

### Would we include the main engine shield if we were designing the Cassini orbiter today?

The Cassini spacecraft flew two bipropellant main engines for major trajectory changes, each with a nominal thrust of 445N (100 lb for us Americans). The engines were located at the aft end of the ...
184 views

### Conversion of velocity vectors between ICRF frames with different central objects

Following the very nice answers to this question, I am trying to implement an appropriate procedure for change of central body during orbit propagation. The very interesting thesis by Mana Vautier ...
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1 vote
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### Sensor for charged particle density [closed]

How would I go about specifying a sensor that measures charged particles in Low Earth Orbit deployed at 1000 km? Are there designs for instruments already that do this, or would I have to actually ...
33 views

### Sensors for measuring charged particle density and particle density [closed]

We are designing a 3U CubeSat using solar sail. We have everything we need for all the subsystems except payload. Our mission is to measure charged particle density, particle density and temperature. ...
115 views

### Can you become an astronaut with Strabismus?

When I was 2 years old, I had eye surgery and got diagnosed with strabismus. Strabismus is an eye condition where both eyes don’t look at exactly the same spot. Would I still be able to become an ...
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1k views

### Would it be possible to get a modified SprHvy booster to orbit, then send a full stack with Starship on a "standard" config. Then mate them in orbit?

Ok, so the idea is to get a modified Superheavy booster to orbit minus Starship. Then send a Starship to orbit on a standard configuration and mate the first booster with the recently arrived Starship....
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368 views

### Why was SERT-1 put in a suborbital trajectory (4000 km apogee) while SERT-2 (1970-009A) was put in a 1000 km circular polar orbit?

Wikipedia's SERT-1 says SERT-1 (Space Electric Rocket Test) was a NASA probe used to test electrostatic ion thruster design and was built by NASA's Lewis Research Center (now NASA Glenn). SERT-1 was ...
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### Could SpaceX deliver the Interim Control Module to the ISS?

Three days ago Roscosmos chief, Dmitry Rogozin, bemoaned the sanctions on Twitter saying they could break the ISS cooperation, asking Joe Biden how he'd manage to manage the course corrections given ...
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### How can I find the true anomaly of satellites in elliptic orbits?

I want to find the true anomaly of satellites in elliptic orbits. How can I do that with following information about elliptic orbit: Altitude, km 543.8832 Period, sec 6114 Eccentricity 0.0727 Semi-...
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### Has JWST done its first station keeping yet?

Has JWST done its first station keeping yet? The last burn I know about was the MCC2 burn on Jan24; more than 21 days ago; and that was a pretty long burn with a $\Delta v$ of 1.6 m/sec or 160 cm/sec, ...
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1 vote
1k views

### How do second stage rockets ignite their engines?

When launching, the fuel mixes and then ignites when it hits oxygen in our atmosphere. How does a second stage ignite once in the vacuum of space?
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### Different/better ways to calculate the shadow region passage of the satellite and the effect of orbital elements, other than shadow cone technique?

The NASA Technical Publication Method for the calculation of spacecraft umbra and penumbra shadow terminator points; TP-3547 describes the following: A method for calculating orbital shadow ...
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### Has Lucy's solar panel been fully deployed yet?

Shortly after launch, one of the two solar panels on spacecraft Lucy didn't fully deploy. Has the Lucy team managed to finish deployment since? If not, will there be any more attempts to deploy it?
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### Why do "Relativistic Light Sails Need to Billow"?

The University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science blogpost How to Design a Sail that Won’t Tear or Melt on an Interstellar Voyage links to two new Nano Letters papers: Matthew ...
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### GMAT: How to Access startup file variables such as PYTHON_MODULE_PATH?

I use the python interface quite frequently and read-in tables of control variables created by another standalone module. I need to be sure that a file created by the standalone python module can be ...
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### What are "transcritical, pitchfork, period-doubling, torus, and subharmonic bifurcations" in the context of three-body orbits? (e.g. butterflies)

MattB's excellent and well-sourced answer to Where do the butterflies land on this bifurcation plot? (Earth-Moon three-body butterfly orbits) begins: I'm fairly certain that the butterfly family is ...
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### Which spacecraft have entered lunar orbit through L1?

I'm examining entering lunar orbit through the Earth-Moon L1 point with low-thrust propulsion. As part of this, I'm interested in all examples of spacecraft (both actually flown and ones that didn't ...
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### How frequent are (or will be) JWST station keeping burns at L2?

Does anyone have solid information regarding the scheduled/anticipated station keeping burns for JWST at L2? In an online video I've heard mention of 'every 21 days' which at first look seems ...
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### How does the Russian invasion of Ukraine affect ISS operations? [closed]

I realise this question may be shut down as opinion-based, but here goes anyway. With diplomatic relations in the toilet following Russian military activity in Ukraine, how will this affect future ...
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