Recent comments in /f/space

FTL_Diesel t1_je17m5v wrote

Reply to comment by gg_account in James Webb Space Telescope finds no atmosphere on Earth-like TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet by locus_towers

The observation planning assumed that -1b would have an atmosphere similar to Venus. This is why they observed five eclipses, since a Venus-like atmosphere would have been just detectable after combining all that data. What ended up happening is that the dayside of the planet is much hotter than predicted for a Venus-like atmosphere, and the eclipse was actually detected right off the bat on the first observation!

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sryforcomment t1_je16pn0 wrote

Reply to comment by CurtisLeow in German launch startup Isar secures €155M in Series C funding. The company has now raised more than €300M by AndrewParsonson

Isar Aerospace already has a binding agreement with CNES to launch from the work-in-progress commercial launch complex at Kourou (French Guiana).

> As the first privately funded launch company, Isar Aerospace has signed a binding agreement with the French space agency CNES (Centre national d'études spatiales, National Center for Space Research) for the use of the launch site in Kourou. [...] Before the launches take place, the appropriate infrastructure is still to be built at the "Centre Spatial Guyanais" (CSG) launch site.

(Source: Astrodrom, 21 July 2022).

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Brain_Hawk t1_je16al7 wrote

Reply to comment by larsschellhas in Is Space-Based Solar Power An Option to Solve Humanity's Energy Hunger After All? by larsschellhas

That $10 per kilogram is an extremely optimistic estimate cited by a person who was well known to exaggerate in order to drive interest and investment.

Personally I suspect it's going to be quite a bit more than that, not that I'm an expert on launch cost. But I think we need to be a bit more skeptical of the claims being made at this time.

To the bigger question, I think any technology may be feasible in the future, but as far as I can see there's still a lot of challenges with orbital-based power. In particular the cost of sending it up and maintaining it, and the amount of power we can get generated back down on earth, and distributing that to a wide area.

But, if we don't come up with a better solution, it's definitely something I can see being in place in the next 50 or 100 years.

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CurtisLeow t1_je15eph wrote

Reply to German launch startup Isar secures €155M in Series C funding. The company has now raised more than €300M by AndrewParsonson

> In addition to working on the launch facility, Isar began discussions with the Norwegian government regarding launch licenses last year.

Norway is suitable for test launches and polar launches. But that is not a suitable launch site for the vast majority of orbital launches. They need a launch site closer to the equator, with a large area to the east clear of people so the rocket can launch in the direction of the Earth’s rotation. Long term where do they plan on launching?

The rocket is very reminiscent of the Falcon 9, but smaller. Its a bit bigger than Electron. It’s good that Europe is finally coming around to that design. But they will need billions of dollars in contracts or investments, if they are serious about competing with American rockets. A couple hundred might be good for a couple test launches, that’s it.

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ElDruinsMight t1_je12mep wrote

Reply to Could Hawking radiation coming from black holes be the same as the dark energy accelerating expansion of the universe? by Rskingen

No. But if you’re interested in how black holes and dark energy can be related, here’s a link to a recently published paper that you will find very interesting:

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/acb704

TLDR: black holes, above class 3 size, don’t need to eat matter to grow. They grow with the expansion of the universe and may account for some of the dark energy in the universe.

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