SpaceTime 20171229 Series 20 Episode 100 Is Out Today

Solstice

About 12 hours ago we passed the solstice, the start of Winter for the Northern Hemisphere and Summer in the Southern Hemisphere. I’d have had this post done but my computer was misbehaving.

Anyway, one of my favorite things to check out on the solstice is the view from the Japanese Himawari-8 weather satellite. That satellite, launched a few years ago, sends back HD pictures and video from a geostationary orbit over the Pacific. That means it can watch as the earth rotates into shadow each night. Here’s its lovely solstice view from today – a thin band of light is always present at the south pole, and the north pole never appears.

-JBB

Video credit: https://twitter.com/himawari8bot/status/943853755753263104

Decade-long timelapse of M1: the Crab Nebula [OS][1920x1080]

Dragon Attached to Station for Month of Cargo Transfers

SpaceX - CRS-13 Dragon Mission patch. Dec. 17, 2017

Image above: The Dragon resupply ship is pictured just 10 meters away from the space station’s Canadarm2. Image Credit: NASA TV. The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft was installed on the Harmony module of the International Space Station at 8:26 a.m. EST. The 13th contracted commercial resupply mission from SpaceX (CRS-13) delivered more than 4,800 pounds of supplies and payloads to the station. Among the research materials flying inside Dragon’s pressurized area, one investigation will demonstrate the benefits of manufacturing fiber optic filaments in a microgravity environment. Designed by the company Made in Space, and sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the investigation will attempt to pull fiber optic wire from ZBLAN, a heavy metal fluoride glass commonly used to make fiber optic glass. Results from this investigation could lead to the production of higher-quality fiber optic products for use in space and on Earth.

U.S. Commercial Cargo Ship Arrives at the Space Station

Dragon is scheduled to depart the station in January 2018 and return to Earth with more than 3,600 pounds of research, hardware and crew supplies. Loaded with some three tons of experiments and supplies, the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft arrived at the International Space Station Dec. 17, where Expedition 53 crew members Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA captured it by using the Canadian-built robotic arm.

Image above: Dec. 17, 2017: International Space Station Configuration. Four spaceships are parked at the space station including the SpaceX Dragon space freighter, the Progress 67 and 68 resupply ships and the Soyuz MS-06 crew ship. Image Credit: NASA TV. Ground controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston took over after Dragon was grappled, sending commands to maneuver the ship to the Earth-facing side of the Harmony module where it was attached for a month-long stay. Dragon was launched Dec. 15 on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to begin its journey to the international outpost. Related links: Debris Sensor (SDS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/2145.html Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS): http://www.iss-casis.org/ Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor, or TSIS-1: http://www.nasa.gov/tsis-1 SpaceX: http://www.nasa.gov/spacex Commercial Resupply: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/index.html Expedition 54: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/future.html International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Images (mentioned), Video (NASA TV), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

Cut Timber

NGC 2170

Epic Mars portrait

via reddit

The Galaxy is a beautiful and mysterious place full of wonder