Launches This is the first article I am writing on my new Asus laptop. It is a powerful setup for a laptop and has a 8 core AMD Ryzen 7 processor. So far so good. Now to the article. Russia is not very happy with NASA and their plans to land on the moon. The director of the Russian Space Agency is ticked about the idea of the United States going back to the moon since it was announced. Why they are angry is simple. The Russians asked us if they could be included and they were told flat out NO. Since they are involved with us in many programs which have to do with space such as the International Space Station and have in the past linked up with our missions, I think they thought being included was inevitable. The proof is they are calling the program too U.S. centric. I am writing this before knowing the results of the election for president and I have to wonder how much the election results will mean to the space program. I hope we will continue to explore space. It is not only the exploration of space which matters, but what comes from it. There have been many advances made which came from things we learned during exploring and I would like to see this keep up. There has been a lot of talk about fast radio bursts. These are bursts of energy and some scientists initially thought they might have come from aliens trying to signal others. Typically, they came from other galaxies. Since they came from so far away it was unlikely even if an alien civilization sent them it would still be around. Now, for the first time one of these fast bursts has come from our own galaxy. It is interesting that scientists have been able to track it back to its source, which is a dead star. These bursts are so powerful, in a fraction of a second, they release more energy than our sun in a hundred years. Knowing where the signal comes from and finding it was from a dead star proves it is not an alien signal of any kind. I have often said an advanced alien race would not have to use slow radio signals as a means of communication. NASA got their shorts in a bunch the other day when they heard a space startup company was planning to launch many cell phone satellites into space. They are very afraid they will get hit by other satellites. Just recently an ESA, European Space Agency satellite had to alter course so it wouldn’t hit a Starlink satellite. There is no doubt the space around the earth where satellites orbit is getting crowded and it seems there has to be some limit on the amount of satellites that can be launched for a project. Of course, if a company offers to take down the same amount of their satellites they already have orbiting as the amount they will be sending into orbit that is a good start. It seems to me we have a tremendous opportunity which has to do with space. The scientific community has been talking about a meteor or asteroid which is entirely metal and worth an incredible amount of money. If we could figure how to capture it into a reasonable orbit and mine it, think what this would do not only for the first company being able to do this but also for the economy of the United States. There are a lot of treasures just floating around in space and it is only a matter of time before we figure out how to take advantage of this. Voyager 2 is a probe which we launched on August 20, 1977 and since that day it has been heading out into space. Scientists were able to communicate with it recently. It has gotten out of the solar system and is in what is known as the Interstellar medium which just means it is between solar systems. Maybe between is not the correct word since it is far closer to our solar system than the next one. It is said it has enough power to keep transmitting until 2024. This means the transmitter will have worked for 47 years. The probe is now 14.1 billion miles from the earth. This means when we radio it, the signal takes 17.5 hours each way. The discovery of water on the moon is changing everything. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, known as SOFIA had found water on the sunlit side of the moon which means it is not only in the dark shadowy places. It is not a lot of water, being about 12 ounces in a cubic meter of soil, but enough for a base. Scientists want to find out how water is created in such an airless place. If they could discover that perhaps they would be able to create more water themselves for settlers on the moon and even use that technology on earth in water parched places. I always wonder when scientists find something and then say it is impossible to exist. Such was the case with a recently discovered planet which is so hot, it is driving scientists crazy. The exoplanet is known as LTT 9779b. Planets this hot were thought to be unstable. The planet is 3000 degrees Fahrenheit which means its atmosphere should not exist and yet, it does. This planet is 30 times larger than earth and is 6 times closer to its sun. It orbits it sun in 24 hours and maybe this speed has to do with the fact it is still in one piece. This is just a guess. There are those who are not very happy with the software for the Artemis Project. Remember it malfunctioned in the past even though the rocket got into orbit. NASA wants the manufacturer to build a cross-program computer test capability. They want things to be as safe as possible. There are three separate programs which have to be used to test the rocket during a launch and each has its own software. China is really trying to get into space exploration in a big way. They have put rovers on the moon and their next target is Mars. They have established themselves as a space power. India is also getting into the space exploration business, but not in such a big way. To me the biggest surprise was the United Arab Republic launching a probe. It is beginning to look like it won’t be long before the entire world is involved in space exploration.
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