Latest Space Missions (& Other Science Stuff)

Picture of Ultima Thule -

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Argh, news articles… It’s the far side of the moon, for crying out loud. It’s no darker than the near side…

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Technically true
Both sides of the Moon experience two weeks of sunlight followed by two weeks of night; the far side is sometimes called the " dark side of the Moon ," meaning unseen rather than lacking light.

There is also a signal loss experienced as you reach the far side so communications also go dark

Blame it on Pink Floyd

Just don’t lose sight of the bigger picture

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It is a common synonym, the problem is that in my experience a lot of people take it literally. I.e. the term does not come from people that think the far side is dark, but it makes a lot of people think that.

I do, actually! :smile:

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I don’t know if this will work outside the UK. If it doesn’t, let me know, and I’ll copy/paste something.

Mysterious Space Radio Signals Detected

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After years of careful analysis it turns out to be…

…but wait there’s more! In a limited time offer for the listeners, we will include this set of steak knives absolutely free…

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https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/holy-cow-mysterious-blast-studied-with-nasa-telescopes

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Soooo… can she roll herself into a sphere and survive in a vacuum? :rofl:

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Please! NO!
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-russian-startup-wants-to-put-advertising-in-low-earth-orbit-because-they-re-capitalist-scum

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Hmmm… Really torn here. On the one hand, it’s completely bonkers and useless. On the other, that thing is basically a power satellite prototype. If you can make that work, all you need is to get it more focused and build a solar-thermal ground receiver. It would not be unthinkable to bootstrap power satellite development onto its heels.

Of course, such power satellites are also excellent weapons of mass harassment… Everything has a drawback, I guess.

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I imagine an “accidental” collision with some handy space junk wouldn’t be too hard to arrange. Where is Elon Musk’s car when we need it?

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Hopefully this will not be one of those “We thought of doing something stupid and then did it anyway” moments. There are too many billboards on the ground I really done care to have them blocking the sky too.

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That sounds as if the experiment went according to plan, though. They tested if the seedlings would sprout under the radiation conditions with the resources provided. They full-well knew that they weren’t going to last the night without heating, and it was also clear that there would be no power during the night.

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Agreed. I am sure there was not enough room for the plant to mature. Full growth was never the plan. Too bad the other seeds did not sprout.

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