Notices by AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)

The weekly editorial cartoon from The Economist - "Me First."

https://www.economist.com/the-world-this-week/2025/05/15/the-weekly-cartoon
1/n

The venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft underwent another surgery in March.

The team had to revive a thruster used for roll control whose heaters had failed in 2004. The tubes of the backup thrusters currently in use are getting clogged and may fail this year.

The delicate operation required turning on the failed thruster and flipping a switch to enable its heater and 🤞

All very tricky and risky operations, performed from 23 light-hours away on 1970’s era hardware.

👏
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-voyager-1-revives-backup-thrusters-before-command-pause/
1/n

Good News - India and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cwy3jnl3nvwt
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/5/10/india-pakistan-live-pakistan-airbases-targeted-as-blasts-rock-north-india

Current position of Cosmos 482 is just past apogee in the southernmost location. Now coming back to make another run over western Africa.

Altitude at apogee was around 186.15 km, quite a drop from the 200 km apogee 7.5 hours ago.

https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=6073
7/n

The impact speed of Cosmos 482 is estimated at ~242 km/h.

"With a mass of just under 500 kg and 1-m size, a TUDAT reentry analysis suggests an impact speed (after atmospheric deceleration) of about 65-70 meter per sec (~242 km/h), assuming the reentering lander did not break up or extensively ablate during reentry.

The kinetic energy at impact is similar to that of a 40-55 cm large (after ablation) meteorite fragment."

https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-craft-reentry.html
Also follow https://bsky.app/profile/marcolangbroek.bsky.social
5/n

We can follow the orbit and track of the Cosmos 482 Venus landing craft on the web at https://www.n2yo.com/?s=6073

This is another good site with additional details -
https://www.satcat.com/sats/6073
🛰️
4/n

The graph below by Marco Langbroek shows the change in apogee and perigee over the past 1.5 years for the Kosmos 482 descent craft.

"Notably apogee has been coming down steadily, but in the past few months, perigee has started to come down too. Mid May 9 (today), the object was in a 194 x 126 km orbit, with apogee coming down by 40 km/day and perigee by 8 km/day."

https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=6073 shows a 200.9 x 134.8 km orbit with 51.9° inclination and 87.7 minute period.

https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-craft-reentry.html
3/n

Last update from Aerospace Corp. has narrowed the reentry time window of Kosmos 482 to 6 hours.

May 10th, 6:12 AM UTC +/- 3 hours.

So, the reentry window opens at 3:12 UTC (11:12 EDT).

Keep in mind that the orbital period of Cosmos 482 is ~1.5 hours.

6/n

Cosmos 482 (aka Kosmos 482) was a Soviet Union mission to Venus, launched in 1972, which failed to escape low orbit.

The Venera landing module was designed to descend into the extremely harsh and hostile atmosphere of Venus and to withstand 300 G’s of acceleration and 100 atmospheres of pressure. As a result, the 495 kg, 1-meter wide, almost spherical, probe is less likely to break up during reentry and might strike earth at ~242 km/h..

https://blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/2025/05/07/reentry-prediction-soviet-era-venera-venus-lander-cosmos-482-descent-craft/
https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-craft-reentry.html
2/n

You are all aware of the uncontrolled reentry of the failed Soviet era COSMOS 482 Venera Venus lander tonight.

Here is the trajectory map from Aerospace Corp. with some added annotations to help make sense of it. It shows 6 orbital tracks over 8 hours centered around the expected reentry time. It will strike the ground along one of these tracks, but not between them. Reentry will occur near the northern end of the orbit.

Launch date: Mar 31, 1972
Weight: ~495 kg

https://aerospace.org/reentries/6073
1/n

Mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men? Take your pick.

JD Vance: The India-Pakistan conflict is "fundamentally none of our business."

trump: Oh it's so terrible. My position is I get along with both. I know both very well and I want to see them work it out. I want to see them stop and hopefully they can stop now.
:eyeroll:

Russia and China will be more than happy to fill the void left behind by the new and degraded U.S.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/fundamentally-none-of-our-business-jd-vance-on-india-pak-conflict-8367272
#Politics
2/n

Harvey Korman playing trump -

"I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLpmswBKVN4

Latest addition: Fox channel host Jeanine Pirro as interim US attorney for DC.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/08/politics/jeanine-pirro-trump-acting-dc-prosecutor
#Poliitics
1/n

It's hard to keep track of the daily barrage of destructive actions by the trump regime.

Here's one hot of the press today - the trump administration plans to end the Energy Star program for home appliances, a familiar and popular program that since 1992, has helped American families and businesses save more than $500 billion in energy costs.

Ask your republican friends how they benefit from energy-wasting appliances?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/05/06/energy-star-program-epa-trump/
https://www.energystar.gov/
#Politics

This is the new director of the NIH Jay Bhattacharya, co-author of the "Great Barrington Declaration."

Like trump, he lies and attacks the interviewer and the media, instead of answering questions honestly or thoughtfully.

He comes with a bag full of grievances and vendettas, now leading an organization that used to treat him like a idiot.

https://www.science.org/content/article/it-s-been-tough-period-nih-s-new-director-speaks-science
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-104.html
1/n

During these challenging times, May the 4th be with you.

#MayThe4th #MayThe4thBeWithYou #StarWars

1/n

The NASA Psyche mission, launched on Oct 13, 2023, will orbit and study the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche beginning in 2029.

Psyche uses solar-powered Hall-effect thrusters for propulsion and orbital maneuvering, the first interplanetary spacecraft to use that technology. It's also the first mission to use laser optical communications beyond the Earth-Moon system.

https://psyche.asu.edu/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyche_(spacecraft)
2/n

NASA engineers are troubleshooting an issue with the solar electric hall-effect thrusters on the Psyche spacecraft. A drop in pressure in the line that feeds xenon gas to the thrusters (36 psi -> 26 psi) has caused the thrusters to shut down. If a fix is not found by mid-June, a back-up fuel line may be activated.

Hall-effect thrusters work by ionizing atoms of a gas like Xenon, accelerating them to high speeds and expelling them to generate a gentle steady thrust.

https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/psyche/2025/04/29/nasas-psyche-mission-looking-into-propulsion-system/
1/n

Hall-effect thrusters work by ionizing atoms of a gas like Xenon, accelerating them to high speeds and expelling them to generate a gentle steady thrust.

Electrons emitted by the cathode circulate around an annular ceramic channel guided by a magnetic field. Xenon atoms, injected along the anode, get ionized by the high energy electrons.The ionized Xenon plasma is accelerated axially by an electric field, to exit velocities of up to 100,000 km/h to produce thrust.

https://psyche.asu.edu/2018/01/19/electric-thrusters-psyche-spacecraft-work/
4/n

Here is the trajectory of the Psyche spacecraft over its 8 year mission to asteroid Psyche.

Launch: Oct 13, 2023
May 2026: Flyby and gravity assist by Mars
May 2029: Arrival at Psyche
July 2029: Orbit around Psyche
Nov 2031: End of mission

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/press-kits/psyche/mission/
#Psyche #MissiontoPsyche
3/n

Sen. Chuck Grassley going against the grain with trump on Ukraine and Russia -

"IVE SEEN ENOUGH KILLING OF INNOCENT UKRAINIAN women + children. President Trump pls put the toughest of sanctions on Putin. U ought to c from clear evidence that he is playing America as a patsy."

We hope he means it and that he will stand by his words.

#Politics
1/n