#space history

[charlesoberonn]

#wordplay #space history #this too is yuri #10k

[deep-space-netwerk]

So Venus is my favorite planet in the solar system - everything about it is just so weird.

It has this extraordinarily dense atmosphere that by all accounts shouldn't exist - Venus is close enough to the sun (and therefore hot enough) that the atmosphere should have literally evaporated away, just like Mercury's. We think Earth manages to keep its atmosphere by virtue of our magnetic field, but Venus doesn't even have that going for it. While Venus is probably volcanically active, it definitely doesn't have an internal magnetic dynamo, so whatever form of volcanism it has going on is very different from ours. And, it spins backwards! For some reason!!

But, for as many mysteries as Venus has, the United States really hasn't spent much time investigating it. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, sent no less than 16 probes to Venus between 1961 and 1984 as part of the Venera program - most of them looked like this!

The Soviet Union had a very different approach to space than the United States. NASA missions are typically extremely risk averse, and the spacecraft we launch are generally very expensive one-offs that have only one chance to succeed or fail.

It's lead to some really amazing science, but to put it into perspective, the Mars Opportunity rover only had to survive on Mars for 90 days for the mission to be declared a complete success. That thing lasted 15 years. I love the Opportunity rover as much as any self-respecting NASA engineer, but how much extra time and money did we spend that we didn't technically "need" to for it to last 60x longer than required?

Anyway, all to say, the Soviet Union took a more incremental approach, where failures were far less devastating. The Venera 9 through 14 probes were designed to land on the surface of Venus, and survive long enough to take a picture with two cameras - not an easy task, but a fairly straightforward goal compared to NASA standards. They had…mixed results.

Venera 9 managed to take a picture with one camera, but the other one's lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 10 also managed to take a picture with one camera, but again the other lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 11 took no pictures - neither lens cap deployed this time.

Venera 12 also took no pictures - because again, neither lens cap deployed.

Lotta problems with lens caps.

For Venera 13 and 14, in addition to the cameras they sent a device to sample the Venusian "soil". Upon landing, the arm was supposed to swing down and analyze the surface it touched - it was a simple mechanism that couldn't be re-deployed or adjusted after the first go.

This time, both lens caps FINALLY ejected perfectly, and we were treated to these marvelous, eerie pictures of the Venus landscape:

However, when the Venera 14 soil sampler arm deployed, instead of sampling the Venus surface, it managed to swing down and land perfectly on….an ejected lens cap.

#space #space history #venus #NASA #Venera #spost #I will talk all day about venus #ask me about venus floating sky cities #unpopular opinion venus > mars #this is probably my favorite space history story #the surface of venus is made of lens caps #don't try to tell me the universe doesn't have a sense of humor #well #I guess its more that people have a sense of humor and we happen to live in the universe

[rainbow-gend3r]

Sputnik 2, launched on November 3, 1957, carried the dog Laika, the first living creature to be shot into space and orbit Earth. Laika was a stray dog found on the streets of Moscow. There were no plans to return her to Earth, and she lived only a few hours in orbit. …

taken from @gallivantsofgillis on tiktok

#laika #laika the space dog #outer space #tw animal death #history #space history

[sovietpostcards]

Soviet Cosmonautics Day postcards with premier jour (first day) cancels

#postcards #april 12 (cosmonautics day) #cosmonauts #yuri gagarin #space #space history #vintage #ussr #soviet #russia #60s #70s #80s

[nemfrog]

First televison picture from space. Tiros 1 satellite. April 1, 1960.

NASA

#earth from space #space history #tiros #satellite #nemfrog #1960 #1960s

[astronotmovie]

Stepping out on the front porch. Astronaut David Scott opens the hatch to check out the view during Apollo 9, March 1969. In this pic taken by fellow astronaut Rusty Schweickart, ‘Gumdrop’, the Command Service Module is docked with ‘Spider’, the Lunar Module. A9 was the 1st flight incorporating all Apollo spacecraft components. The 10 day mission was the 2nd launched by a Saturn V rocket.

#apollo 9 #spacecraft #command module #low earth orbit #astronaut #space travel #1969 #earth orbit #astronauts #space exploration #vintage space #space #space age #nasa #moon landing #space race #spaceflight #nasa astronauts #nasa photos #space history #spacesuits #1960s

[stuckasmain]

Crying about Snoopy and NASA in the club. He’s just a little guy and he does Important work and they love him so much. 😭 he’s also literally been to space several times. Also, I don’t know if it’s still around but he’s also one of the higher awards in the field? Waahhhhhh

#it’s so cute I’m going to explode #space #space travel #space history #mascot history #space race #space age #nasa #snoopy #the peanuts #1960s #space program #moon

[banjohymns]

🚀💫 patron saint of one-way trips

#laika #kudryavka #laika the space dog #space history #my art #art #artists on tumblr #digital art #illustration #sketch #procreate #my artwork #animal art #space dog #space dogs

[oldguydoesstuff]

Computer interface from the Soviet MIR space station, circa 1986.

#retrocomputing #space #space history #ussr #space station #1980s

[ducksinspaceadventure]

Happy birthday to me which was three days ago and happy birthday to Huey Dewey and Louie!

That maybe I'm the only one who in my DuckTales in space headcanon and my stories somehow think that Huey Dewey and Louie are like the Apollo 11 crew that first set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. If Donald is like Gagarin, Della Duck is like Tereshkova and Anna Fischer, then Huey, Dewey and Louie are like Neil, Buzz and Michael. What do you think about that? I would love to see some kind of drawing challenge to see this famous DuckTales trio as the first astronauts on the moon in such poses in these space suits. That's just my opinion. Thank you!

#somehow dt17 Huey Dewey and Louie tell me the role of the Apollo 11 crew #happy birthday #ducktales #ducktales 2017 #ducktales reboot #huey duck #dewey duck #louie duck #apollo 11 #future astronauts #astronauts #like mother like sons #space race #space #space travel #space suits #neil armstrong #buzz aldrin #michael collins #redraw challenge #please #my opinion #first ducks on the moon #della duck #donald duck #space history #astronomy #space walk #1969 #space suit

[yokowan]

the interior of the russian MIR space station was something else. honestly makes me feel a lot better about my apartment.

"yeah just throw it in the backseat" ass spacecraft. i love it.

#space #space history

[kruncher]

✮HAPPY COSMONAUTICS DAY!✮

63 years ago, on April 12th, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was the first human to journey into outer space abroad the crewed spaceflight Vostok-1

Getting to that point wasn't easy, though, and before Yuri was able to leave Earth many people and animals put in colossal effort to make that flight possible

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Sergei Korolyov were the founders of cosmonautics and made every device and vehicle launched into space a reality. In 1957 on November 3rd Laika became the first dog(and living being in general) in space, launched there in artificial satellite Sputnik-2. She died 3 hours after the takeoff, but still paved the way for everyone who traveled into outer space afterwards. In 1960 on August 19th Belka and Strelka were the next dogs to leave our planet and the first ones to make it back alive, bringing humanity even closer to traversing cosmos as well

Space is still as mysterious and distant as ever, but even the smallest baby steps towards exploring it wouldn't be possible without the contribution of such strong, brave and intelligent creatures

⋆ ★🌌С праздником!🌌★⋆

#cosmomautics day #outer space #space #space travel #history #yuri gagarin #laika the space dog #belka and strelka #konstantin tsiolkovsky #sergei korolyov #space history #ussr #soviet union #astronaut #april 12

[deep-space-netwerk]

Ask and you shall receive.

So do y'all know about Curiosity's wheels? They have these cool hole patterns!

The holes are ostensibly for tracking wheel slippage. The pattern is stamped in the Martian sand, and by taking a picture of the tracks and measuring the distance between the repeating hole marks, you can tell how much the wheels are slipping.

But the pattern isn't arbitrary! Curiosity (along with many many other NASA missions) was built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - or "JPL". While JPL is entirely federally funded and almost exclusively works on NASA missions, it's technically operated by Caltech, not NASA. When JPL was assembling Curiosity, they added some "JPL" decals to it along with the cool "Curiosity" label on the arm.

Well, NASA HQ found out and got mad. "You can't put those JPL stickers all over our rover!" they said, and made JPL scrape them all off.

JPL reluctantly complied, but definitely got the last laugh. No decals allowed? Well fine - the holes in Curiosity's wheels say "JPL" in Morse code. So every few feet, the name of the real creator of the rover is stamped into the surface of Mars!

#space #nasa #mars #curiosity #rover #space history #spost #plasmagiiica

[taraross-1787]

This Week in History: The X-15 Hypersonic Plane

At about this time in 1963, a NASA test pilot soars into space. Joseph A. Walker was then flying an experimental spaceplane, the X-15. The trip made him the first to twice pass the Kármán line, the internationally accepted altitude where outer space begins.

Do you know about the X-15 hypersonic plane? Three were built, then piloted by NASA and U.S. Air Force pilots. From 1959 to 1968, these planes would conduct 199 different missions in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

“The North American Aviation X-15 rocket planes,” a NASA website concludes, “designed to explore the problems of atmospheric and space flight at supersonic and hypersonic speeds . . . contributed directly to the success of the Apollo lunar missions.”

The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-joe-walker-x15

#this week in history #twih #history #history blog #nasa #space #space history #aviation history #aviation #America #sharethehistory

[byonic]

Sonic Showers

So I’ve been watching Lower Decks recently and this scene reminded me of sonic showers.

Basically they use ultrasonic waves to blast the grime, sweat, dead skin, etc, from bodies thereby conserving water. This is important on a spaceship, even  ones that can magically make food and other inert materials out of energy. 

Unfortunately they are complete fiction. Not really a way for sounds waves to blast stuff off your skin unless they are also removing your flesh.

But apparently NASA was working on a hydro-sonic shower in the 70s. The concept was to use jets to apply a film of water over the user and apply the ultrasonic waves. This would have used the sonic waves to agitate the water and soap to remove dirt and grime. The benefits of this would have been reduced water consumption as it would replace the agitation by running water that is used in regular showers.

Unfortunately #2 is that the only reference I can find of this is in a star trek forum post from 2005. If anyone has any info on if this actually existed I would be very grateful.

I have found some patents from the late 90s-early 00s for an ultrasonic shower device but that is the most I can find for any attempts at an ultrasonic cleansing device aimed at humans.

I guess in the meantime I’m gonna get some ultrasonic transducers to mess around with and see if I can get a handheld ultrasonic shower/hose thing to work as a proof of concept.

#star trek #engineering #space #nasa #science #sci fi #space history #build #mechanical engineering #lower decks

[proustianlesbian]

Today is the 59th anniversary of the first ever spacewalk in the history of humanity !! The cosmonaut-painter Alexei Arkhipovitch Leonov (Алексе́й Архи́пович Лео́нов) realised it on this day, the 18th of March, in 1965 !!

🎨🚀🛰️👨🏼‍🚀🌌💙

Here he is with three of my other favorite cosmonauts : Yuri Gagarin, Boris Volynov and Sigmund Jähn !!

Alexei Leonov painted since childhood, and very well, so he obviously portrayed his experience as the first man going outside in the cosmos. Here are some paintings of him that I particulary love. The first one is the one he realised while on board of the Voskhod 2 flight mission, which is the first art made in space, representing the sunrise over the Earth.

I really adore how his art makes space look so silent and almost terrifying because of its endless immensity yet manages to show its beauty because of the stars and planets and nebulas 🌌💙. I absolutely love his work on the colours, he makes the cosmos looks bright and dreamlike and so hopeful !!

Alexei Leonov was also captain during the Apollo-Soyuz mission, ten years later in July 1975.

#sophia talks #personal #alexei leonov #Алексе́й Лео́нов #cosmonauts #cosmonaut #ussr history #cccp #soviet union #space exploration #Алексе́й Архи́пович Лео́нов #soviet history #space history