Yup. That capsule (vid in that link) is just lovely. 4k moonwalk footage is going to be great!

SpaceGazelle wrote:

Yup. That capsule (vid in that link) is just lovely. 4k moonwalk footage is going to be great!

Capsule looks palatial compared to Apollo.

The footage is going to be stunning.

Wonder what the lunar module looks like.

davyK wrote:

Wonder what the lunar module looks like.

https://www.nasa.gov/content/more-about-the-human-landing-system-program

SpaceX has also been given a NASA wad of cash to develop Starship, which lands on the moon as a rocket ready to takeoff again. I presume the general idea is for NASA to land for show, like the Moon landings, and maybe SpaceX to do the heavy lifting for building bases. I think NASA are also doing a permanent Moon orbiter that can be uses as a supplied manned outpost thing.

Edit: It appears SpaceX have won the contract for the first landing with the Starship! This seems a bit mental tbh.

It appears the Starship got the contract because it was actually the cheapest! It's kind of mad but it's pretty exciting, proper futuristic stuff. 

But yeah, they still have a way to go with it. Isn't there another planned landing test soon?

SpaceGazelle wrote:

davyK wrote:

Wonder what the lunar module looks like.

https://www.nasa.gov/content/more-about-the-human-landing-system-program SpaceX has also been given a NASA wad of cash to develop Starship, which lands on the moon as a rocket ready to takeoff again. I presume the general idea is for NASA to land for show, like the Moon landings, and maybe SpaceX to do the heavy lifting for building bases. I think NASA are also doing a permanent Moon orbiter that can be uses as a supplied manned outpost thing. Edit: It appears SpaceX have won the contract for the first landing with the Starship! This seems a bit mental tbh.

There are 6 currently planned missions for Artemis.

Artemis I: Send an unmanned capsule on a Lunar flyby.
Artemis II: Send a crewed capsule on a Lunar flyby.
Artemis III: Send a crew into Lunar orbit on the Lunar Gateway, and then land on the Moon, using Starship.
Artemis IV: Send a crew to Lunar orbit, and deliver an additional module to the Lunar Gateway.
Artemis V: Send a crew into Lunar orbit on the Lunar Gateway, and then land on the Moon, using Starship, then drive around on the moon in case there are Moon Chicks to impress. Also deliver a new module to the Gateway.
Artemis VI: Send a crew into Lunar orbit on the Lunar Gateway, and then land on the Moon, using Starship. Also deliver a new module to the Gateway.

The reason for Starship is that it doesn't leave a landing stage behind.

The Daddy wrote:

GooberTheHat wrote:

Anyone got a link to the uncompressed James Webb image of Jupiter?

This any good?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/52303461859/sizes/l/

The super hi-res stuff gets put on here, but there's no Jupiter yet:

https://webbtelescope.org/resource-gallery/images

I was hoping for the super hi-res stuff. Thanks for the link, I'll bookmark that.

davyK wrote:

Starship is big and heavy though - that has to integrate with the launch vehicle which has to have enough power to get the whole assembly (including the lunar gateway?) into Earth orbit. I presume they have figured that out though!!      Artemis III looks horrifically complicated. 

I presume starship forms the upper portion of the assembly. 

Starship will also require hugely detailed landing plans. It's quite a different thing landing upright to dropping the old Apollo module. 

Landing looks to be a vanity project at the minute. The gateway is far more important. But I guess landing on the Moon will be essential before a Martian landing. Plenty of time for that though.

The Gateway will already be in position prior to Artemis III. That's it's own separate mission, which will be sent up on a Falcon Heavy. 

When we say Starship, it's actually Starship HLS, which again will be sent in advance. As this only has to deal with the Lunar atmosphere, there's no heat shielding like Starship has.

The actual Artemis III mission will launch on SLS like the others, and dock in Lunar orbit.

Over 50 yrs since Apollo so I guess it's about bloody time for all this. I can't keep up. Let's hope they can keep the momentum and it seems a lot is riding on SpaceX, which is probably good tbh. 

Mars by the 2030's is just silly, mind.

Woah im way behind. Ill look into all this later, so Gateway is some staging post( space station) for the moon?

Somebody (*cough Dante *cough) should start an Artemis thread!

TBF Davy, that Starship news was only recently confirmed. Blue Origin and someone else were also competing for it, but their designs both left parts behind on the Moon.

‘Starships were meant to fly’



Jeff Tracy would be proud.

Diluted Dante wrote:

TBF Davy, that Starship news was only recently confirmed. Blue Origin and someone else were also competing for it, but their designs both left parts behind on the Moon.

I really haven't been keeping up though. I had no idea plans were so advanced.  That 2nd mission - the manned lunar orbit and return is a redux of the 1968 Apollo 8 mission which gave us the Earthrise photo / Jim Lovell (Apollo 13) reading Genesis on Christmas Eve etc. I actually think it's my favourite Apollo mission.

So Space Engine is on steam. 

I believe you can get older versions for free from their website, but I just dabbled in the paid version as it was on special. Solid sized download to get all the planets in our solar system, but damn, just had a look around at the base version and it looks rather spiffy.

I assume it's old news in here. Still 1:1 scale galaxy is pretty neat.

Any rocket for that matter!

Must be the automation making the movement appear like CGI.