Sorry if this isn't the right sub but I thought you guys would appreciate the TKS spacecraft!

Sharing a fascinating piece of European space history from my personal archive. This is a 2-page gallery showing an original technical design sketch of the EXOSAT spacecraft, complete with handwritten engineer's notes at the top regarding the spacecraft configuration ("s/c config").

The second image is the official internal report from the Launching Programmes Advisory Committee (ESRO), dated February 25, 1975, in Neuilly. It details the operational and financial implications of choosing a high-eccentricity orbit to maximize moon occultation capabilities.

As a space race archivist, finding these documents from the exact transition period when ESRO and ELDO merged to form ESA is incredible.

I'm asking because unlike rovers on Mars barely scraping a few dozen km, Dragonfly will fly a lot faster and farther after landing in 2034, in what memory serves me, not too far from Huygens (hundreds of km?). Also, it would be nice to see how ~30 years of Titan's environment would affect an old probe, making the first unmanned mission to visit another on a different world. Is it theoretically possible?

Hi, I am part of a high school team doing a tech demo of the accuracy of an STM32U5 microcontroller's peripherals. We only wanna test the relevant ones, though. We noticed that STM32U5 has the Serial Audio Interface (SAI). But, one thing to note is that there is no natural sound in space. Not sure if it can operate in a vacuum either. Sure, there's sonification to consider, and maybe some stuff with radio communication systems. Though another thing to note is that if STM32U5 was ever used in space - it would probably only be for simple missions - and I'm pretty sure most simple missions wouldn't involve audio. Also not sure if SAI would be good enough in general for audio in space. So my main question is - would it be worth it to demo STM32U5's SAI interface in our in-orbit tech demo? Any insights, especially with scientific explanations or linked resources would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Off the coast of Los Angeles, Calif.  Photo Credit: (NASA)

It’s a JAXA-ESA phobos lander and sample return launching THIS MONTH. if it works this’ll be the first phobos lander and the furthest ever rock samples

I know the picture is a little grainy, it was an enlarged picture from who knows when. The thrift store was in Jacksonville FL. I know it's super close to Kennedy Space Center.

Disclosure: I’m involved with Scienshell, and this question grew out of a film project about future space infrastructure. For a realistic cislunar-to-deep-space transportation network, which should come first: a propellant depot, a repair-and-resupply station, or a crewed transfer habitat? What near-term missions would justify it, and which bottleneck—propellant, power, docking, maintenance, or traffic volume—should determine its location?

Got lucky with the timing of some business trips and got to see all the space flown shuttles. Slowly collecting shots of all the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo Capsules as well!

My ranking of displays:
1 - Atlantis. Great display with accessibility to take pics from many awesome angles. Intro movies and reveal are highly polished and had a “Disney-world” quality to the experience. Really the Mecca for space nerds.

2 - Endeavour. When comparing display alone this might eventually win once the launch tower opens and you can get closer to the crew compartment but I imagine the crowds and small viewing area may tarnish that experience. Otherwise there isn’t a bad shot of Endeavour anywhere in the pavilion. Found the intro movie lackluster and not as emotional as Atlantis and the reveal could’ve been improved with larger doors at a better angle.

3 - Discovery. Hot-take: Smithsonian does a disservice to the Discovery display. Poor placement of TVs and artifacts immediately around the shuttle make it difficult to get a good shot of it. The surrounding gallery is cramped so even from the few vantage points you cannot get a clear shot with just discovery in all her glory.