All Questions

Looking at https://gssc.esa.int/navipedia/index.php/GPS_Navigation_Message and other websites, in order for a satellite receiver (which doesn't have other means of getting precise GPS time) to ...

The LVLH frame is widely used in rockets during launch. The space shuttle crew used it in its attitude readings beginning very early after launch, meaning it was very reliable as soon as the rocket ...

Computers and memory, radios, cameras, light sensors, temperature sensors, accelerometers & gyros1, power supplies, power conditioners and converters and battery interfaces can all be put together ...

Say, using the Planet Labs satellites Thank you

Would we have to build a orbiting launch station that uses centripetal force to launch the rockets? Or a station that freely floats through space not in a planets orbit? Would something like this ...

This question is NOT about a fictional planet: This question is about NASA JPL history and the naming of SPICE. It is not primarily about the fictional planet Arrakis nor the fictional drug Melange ...

This may be dumb (for reasons I cannot grasp) and even not related to space exploration at all, so feel free to vote to close this one. Yet obviously some large community of space enthusiasts is ...

The space shuttle had a digital readout of roll-pitch-yaw angles in a chosen frame (inertial, LVLH, or reference). What rotation sequence did they assume in that digital readout? Was it roll-pitch-yaw?...

Some of the last words from the doomed Challenger crew were "reading 486," which the Boston Globe describes as a routine air speed callout. Would this be vehicle speed relative to the air, ...

What altitude did the space shuttle normal target for orbital insertion on ISS rendezvous missions? In the likely case that there isn't a single typical number: can you give a number the shuttle might ...

The space shuttle used quaternions for navigation, guidance, and control which don't suffer from the singularities that affect euler angle sequences. Yet, the attitude indicator had a digital readout ...

The Transporter 1 mission has placed 143 satellites into low orbit in one go. The previous record was held by the Indian ISRO PSLV C37 mission with 104 satellites in 2017. Where can I find a complete ...

Having found the right ascension of the node, for example, $$ \begin{align*} \boldsymbol{\Omega} &= cos^{-1}\frac{N_X}{N} \\ &= \underline{15.60^\circ} \end{align*} $$ How do we know in ...

I saw this mrbeast stream where you could send a pic to the moon and he promises that he has made arrangements with nasa that they (nasa) will pack it up with a new rover to the moon to be launched ...

This answer to Can the space shuttle use OMS engines during landing? says: No and quotes Section 3.7 of the Orbital Maneuvering System Workbook; OMS 21002 October 10, 2006, Final version, USA006500 ...

Can the space shuttle use its OMS engines if the shuttle is short during the runway approach? Is fuel available for use in such a situation and will the engines provide reasonable thrust to get to the ...

I got the inlet and outlet pressure of Saturn V engines turbopumps here, but I couldn't find the turbopump pressure of the Merlin engine of Falcon 9.

I've read that TVC actuators are kept locked with pyro bolts which detonate when the engine is ready to fire. But do they detonate just before ignition, at the same time as ignition, or shortly after ...

Navigation and guidance systems generally use rotation matrices or quaternions to uniquely specify 3D rotations. But these are not the least bit intuitive, so we like to convert them to Euler angle ...

Does anyone know how pressure-fed/hypergolic rocket engines cool themselves down? Do they regenerativly cool themselves? Thanks!

Documentation on the space shuttle's GNC systems mentions that in the high-Q region, the flight control system compared the actual transverse accelerations with I-Loaded acceleration profiles, then ...

In several papers on powered explicit guidance, I've come across the term "range angle." I'm familiar with inclination and azimuth angles, but range angle is new to me. A quick search gave ...

Was just wondering what level of deceleration did they get during that belly flop manouver? Updated: Hiya, you're all correct, and I was a tad vague in my question! What I'm after is the vertical ...

When I read about engines like the RD-170 they might have a single turbopump feeding multiple combustion chambers, and each combustion chamber has its own nozzle. Is there, or would it be reasonable ...

I have the total thrust required to be F=16.9 KN. I am using nitrogen gas, and the stored temperature in the nitrogen gas cylinder is 155 bars with a temperature of 325k. How would I design the nozzle ...

Below I've assembled some research into the question of which launch is actually the first to carry two satellites into orbit, but so far I think the results are inconclusive. So despite there being ...

A European project purports to have a practical magnetic shield for cosmic rays, based on four MgB2 toroidL coils1 oriented around the spacecraft like the lines of longitude around the globe. I can't ...

Initially i proposed a 27cm thick barrier. But im not really sure thatll be enough

According to this usually fairly well-researched youtube channel, There are also some truly strange critters in the deep sea and some so strange it's been speculated they were alien, and not always ...

So let's say we have a space station or spacecraft in GEO, and I want to get another spacecraft to it from earth's surface on a direct geostationary transfer orbit, i.e. no waiting about in LEO for ...

Using sub-cooled propane, at approximately -90°C (b.p. -42°C at STP) in combination with >80% hydrogen peroxide, can any meaningful gains be made, and could the mixture be used in a low budget ...

This question is about techniques to calculate orbits. The Github post On the dynamical stability of Principia's modified Jool system (cited in this answer) says: Principia computes the trajectory of ...

So recently someone found out that the industry studies for SLS had been FOIAed by a site called government attic. While the other studies are interesting in their own right (check them out honestly), ...

Suppose somebody sent a rover to Psyche 16 and found massive concentrated deposits of platinum-group metals near the surface, and turned it into a 10 ton sphere of platinum/iridium/osmium/gold alloy ...

total mass = 275 kg, roll rate = 16.4 deg/s, moment of inertia I = 34.375 kg/m^2. I'm trying to determine the maximum thrust a ACS needs given a roll rate in the roll direction. Assume no gravity. ...

Which suborbital (sounding, balistic, amateur or else) rockets use or used liquid fuel? I could find (with help from A. Rumlin) New Shepard - Blue Origin - RP-1 Spica - Copenhagen Suborbitals - ...

A Mars probe leaves earth with a Characteristic energy (C3) of 16 km²/sec². How much ∆V is required for the probe to enter a Mars orbit with periapsis at 100 km and Apoapsis at 1000 km?

Are there any rocket engines that are small and light enough to be held in one or both hands? Gas, liquid and hybrid designs are fine but solid motors are excluded (with the exception of solids that ...

The Falcon 9 - Amos-6 - mission in 3 September 2016 failed before launch - the rocket exploded during the static fire test. Some lists contain such missions but others don't - like for example ...

There is currently one answer to How many solar system bodies have "knees" in their atmospheres? that points out that somewhere above roughly 100 km turbulent mixing drops off (thus the name ...

From what I can see, it looks like the Long March 3C is pretty much a Long March 3B with two strap-on boosters instead of four. The Long March 3B/E is actually a Long March 3B with a bit higher ...

I created a rocket trajectory simulator and optimizer using the following equations of motion for a non-rotating frame of reference $$\dot{v} = \frac{T \cos \varepsilon - D}{m} - g \sin \gamma$$ $$v \...

I'm still confused over what exactly falls under the scope of Navigation, Guidance, and Estimation systems. Say I have a bunch of IMUs and use them to determine my position and orientation and my ...

Before launching every Falcon 9 rocket, is SpaceX performing a Wet Dress Rehearshal (WDR) and a static fire? If not before every launch then is it doing it before every first launch of a new booster? ...

(See this Q&A for context if needed: What is a "Major Component Failure" referred to in news reports about the unsuccessful Space Launch System core stage test firing?) In the post-test ...

Which orbital rocket model has the largest number of successful consecutive missions? Active and inactive models. Falcon 9 just reached 77. Delta II reached 100. Is there any other model with a better ...

I am currently reading David Vallado's 'Fundamental of Astrodynamics and Applications' and I have this doubt on the 2nd chapter named 'Kepler's Equation and Kepler's Problems'. Although I understand ...

Exactly 15 years ago an uncrewed NASA spacecraft by the Name of New Horizons blasted off on a 3 billion-mile journey to Pluto from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at a speed 36,400 mph (16.26 km/s) ...

On the current Starlink mission as the 2nd stage passed over the Indian Ocean I heard mention of contact with a ground station at Diego Garcia. Checking that article I found the subsection Space ...

Say you want to build a base on a place where conventional food deliveries from Earth would be very expensive. What will be the most energy efficient food that could feed humans in the long term (...