Starship Asterisk*

geckzilla wrote:.... call it fake because of the invisible stars.

BDanielMayfield wrote:

• To get a shot of the fully lit Earth we’d need to send a probe nearly directly at the sun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodrigo_de_Triana wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF][size=150]Diagram of the DSCOVR / GORESAT / TRIANA spacecraft[/size][/color][/b]

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Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) (formerly known as Triana, unofficially known as GoreSat) is a NOAA Earth observation and solar weather satellite scheduled to launch by SpaceX in 2014 on a Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket. It was originally developed as a NASA satellite proposed in 1998 by then-Vice President Al Gore for the purpose of Earth observation. It is intended to be positioned at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point, at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. At this location it will have a continuous view of the sunlit side of the Earth.

The satellite's original purpose was to provide a near-continuous view of the entire Earth and make that live image available via the Internet. Gore hoped not only to advance science with these images, but also to raise awareness of the Earth itself, updating the influential The Blue Marble photograph taken by Apollo 17.

In addition to an imaging camera, a radiometer would take the first direct measurements of how much sunlight is reflected and emitted from the whole Earth (albedo). This data could constitute a barometer for the process of global warming. The scientific goals expanded to measure the amount of solar energy reaching Earth, cloud patterns, weather systems, monitor the health of Earth's vegetation, and track the amount of UV light reaching the surface through the ozone layer.

In 1999, NASA's Inspector General reported that "the basic concept of the Triana mission was not peer reviewed", and "Triana's added science may not represent the best expenditure of NASA's limited science funding." Congress asked the National Academy of Sciences whether the project was worthwhile. The resulting report stated that the mission was "strong and scientifically vital."

Triana was named after Rodrigo de Triana, the first of Columbus's crew to sight land in the Americas. NASA renamed the satellite Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), in an attempt to regain support for the project.

Triana was removed from its original launch opportunity on STS-107 (the ill-fated Columbia mission in 2003). The $100 million satellite remained in storage for the duration of the Bush administration. In November 2008 the satellite was removed from storage and began recertification for a possible launch on board a Delta II or a Falcon 9. As of February 2011, the Obama administration is attempting to secure funding to re-purpose the DSCOVR spacecraft as a solar observatory to replace the aging Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft.

In Al Gore's Our Choice, he uses part of the book as an attempt to revive debate on the DSCOVR payload. The book mentions legislative efforts by Senators Barbara Mikulski and Bill Nelson to try to get the satellite launched. On December 5, 2012, it was announced that SpaceX would be launching DSCOVR on its Falcon 9 rocket.>>

peter bradford wrote:What a shame there's no elapsed time record on the video. I guess I could count the Earth revolutions to get an approximate day-count.

Anthony Barreiro wrote:Somebody usually complains when apod features a picture or video of the Earth. Why no complaints today?

geckzilla wrote:

keel131 wrote:So what is that big black splotch on the Earth every quarter turn of the planet? It's not a cloud shadow nor a moon shadow.

Australia and then southern Africa?

Mountainjim wrote:You can see the reflection of the sun on the water. Not just the light of the sun but the sun itself. This is a GREAT APOD! Can you get us one with a full Earth? Perhaps the Reteival mission can film it on the way back.

APOD Robot wrote:MESSENGER is one of the few things created on the Earth that has left and will never return -- at the end of its mission MESSENGER will be crashed into Mercury's surface.

neufer wrote:Technically, Charlie returns for a sandwich every day at quarter past two

Beyond wrote:
Messenger will never return. But unlike Charlie, who never returned from the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) and who's fate is unknown, Messengers fate is to be a blemish on the surface of Mercury.

• Technically, Charlie returns for a sandwich every day at quarter past two
  (unless, of course, there are "eternal Charlies").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_the_messenger wrote:

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<<The advice "Don't shoot the messenger" was expressed (very obliquely) by Shakespeare in Henry IV, part 2 and in Antony and Cleopatra: when told Antony has married another, Cleopatra threatens to treat the messenger's eyes as balls, eliciting the response 'gracious madam, I that do bring the news made not the match'. Prior to that, a related sentiment was expressed in Antigone by Sophocles as "No one loves the messenger who brings bad news". Plutarch's Lives has this line: "The first messenger that gave notice of Lucullus's coming was so far from pleasing Tigranes that he had his head cut off for his pains; and no man daring to bring further information, without any intelligence at all, Tigranes sat while war was already blazing around him, giving ear only to those who flattered him...".

The term also applied to a town crier, an officer of the court who made public pronouncements in the name of the ruling monarch. This often included bad news, such as tax increases. Harming a town crier was considered to be treason.

A syntactically similar expression is "Don't shoot the piano player; he's doing the best he can." During his 1883 tour of the United States, Oscar Wilde saw this saying on a notice in a Leadville, Colorado, saloon.>>

keel131 wrote:So what is that big black splotch on the Earth every quarter turn of the planet? It's not a cloud shadow nor a moon shadow.