Comments by "mpetersen6" (@mpetersen6) on "Scott Manley" channel.

  1. In regards to Spin Launch. I remember an article in Scientific American close to 40 years ago. The article was on space weapons within the bounds known practice and reasonable foreseeable technology. One possible system that could be employed on low gee worlds such as Luna was a rotary throwing system capable of velocities up to at least Lunar surface escape velocity. Landing boosters in the Bahamas. Makes sense to me especially if it requires less fuel meaning a possible increase in payload mass or mission station keeping fuel. Given Space X's safety record in landings at the Cape I really do not think that the possible Bahamian government's opposition is going to be a major roadblock. Thinking about it it's actually a better launch location versus the Cape in terms of range safety.
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  2. Feet and miles are perfectly adequate units of measure. They may not be logically consistent in not being multiples of ten. But they work perfectly adequately as long you stick to one system of measurement. And just so you understand the inch/foot system is just accurate for use in just about any endeavor. The accuracy is in the standards and the measuring instruments. And yes I know that the inch is officially 25.4mm. And l am conversant in each system of measurement. Mainly because l refused to buy complete extra set of micrometers, calipers and other tools. And don't tell me about electronic micrometers and calipers. In general l don't like them and having the batteries die at inconvenient times is not fun. Plus the electronic mikes l had access to at work took special batteries. 🙄
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  3. ​ @MonkeyJedi99  You need a certain amount of financial and business management. But you also need management that understands your core business.
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  4. That's an idea that goes back a long way. The earliest designs were tested in vacuum chambers in the 60s. But then you still need temperature control units and heating elements probably.
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  5. One that a viable SSTO could be really good at is crew delivery. Especially if it could be robust enough to be Launch on Demand. Not every mission is going to require 100 tons to LEO. Myself l wish DARPA and the USAF would have pursued the Black Horse to at least hardware and flight test. That was a TSTO sort of. The first stage would have been a KC-10 or KC-135 that would refuel the Orbiter that would take off with a minimal fuel/oxidizer load. This would allow much lighter structure in the landing gear etc.
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  6. Once the program stretches into a new administration or Congress all bets are off.
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  7.  @johndododoe1411  I think they'd be better off using a fixed wing aircraft. Snagged the chute and winch into the cargo hold.
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  8. Falcon Heavy
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  9. Big surprise.
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  10. Those fairing must be under pretty hefty decellerstion.
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  11. There was also their experience building the Turbosuperchargers used in USAAF radial engines bombers and the two staged Allison V-12s used on the P-38. The early Whittle jet engines used compressor turbines similar to the ones used on automotive Turbos and an Axial Power Turbine. There was at least one other effort by Lockheed who had designed their own Axial Flow jet engine in the late 30s. There were a number of people around the world who had looked at building gas turbines for aviation use prior to the successful Power Jets but they were frustrated by the lack of high temperature alloys and the inability to make the designs light weight enough.
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  12.  @davidschwartz8125  Changing political requirements due to new administrations or changes in Congress have resulted in how many changes to programs. Or cancellations and starting over. Consider the SLS*. If it was to be limited to strictly heavy lift cargo they just could have dusted off the Shuttle C. But then everytime the government tries to save money by modifying something it seems like it costs more. *Senate Launch System. I'm all for putting all 100 of them onboard.
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  13. Of course the North American impact was by a giant feather pillow hence Lite Beer
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  14. And here I thought that was Chrysler
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  15. Every time they test a Starship at Boca Chica it's the 4th of July.
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  16.  @juliancrooks3031  Remember dinosaurs are still around. And they taste just like chicken 🍗🍗
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  17. I remember seeing some graffiti once that said 'free Huey Newton'. Newton was a Black Panther in the 60s. Somebody changed to 'free Huey, Dewey and Louie'
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  18. Corinthean leather for sure. Just ask Ricardo Montebalm
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  19. In some ways this reminds me of the orbital launcher that a German company wanted to build in Katanga. Literally dozens or more of identical super simple engine and tank assembly.
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  20. Its a technology that needs to be developed eventually.
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  21.  @aperson1  Well of course they're pretty light. Just as light as they can get away with. I'm surprised at how stable they are.
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  22. Why? Politics, pure plain and simple. The SLS, the NLS, the Shuttle C, the Jupiter all had to have 4 or 5 segmented SRBs to keep Morton Thiekol happy. And Utah politicians happy. Using the basic External Tank kept Lockeed Martin happy along with various politicans happy in Alabama, Maryland etc. Nevermind the tank had to be extensively redesigned given the thrust loads and where the payload mounts. For boosters I think you would just as well to contract for Falcon 9s. We know they work. We know they are reusable and we know they can return to the launch site. But there's those pesky politics sgain.
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  23.  @icegiant1000  The design and development team that came up with the computer mouse as showing it off to management. On hearing what the development team called it management's response was 'who's going to want a mouse on their desk'. Then they gave the idea away pretty much. That was Xerox. The stories a little more complicated than that of course.
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  24. In my mind the single greateet picture taken by an unmanned lunar mission was the Lunar Orbiter picture of Tycho taken at a low angle. It made the Moon an actual world in the publics eye.
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  25. Safety or hazarous equipment is going to yellow or possibly orange. As to the color of the paint used on machinery, tool carts etc. That's not a standard that I know of. The colors used today are better than the traditional industrial grey and greens of 60 years ago. Some of the color choice may simply come down to buying machine tools from the same manufacturers. Machine tool* builders do seen to have standard colors they use on their products. *this used to mean pretty much material removal aside from stamping, forming, casting and welding. Now machine tools include additive methods.
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  26. Was the vacuum a Dyson or Electrolux?
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  27. Better materials. Better manufacturing technology. The only thing with IC engines is the push to extract as much efficiency (and power) from them. This has resulted in engines that can be problematical as total time increases. Interference engines that destroy the engine if the valve timing gets out of time. Low friction piston rings that have a higher chance of failure simply because they are so thin. Internal components such as connecting rods made as light as possible. Plus they are made from scintered materials in many cases. Another problem with IC engines is owners not ignoring the maintenance schedule. Or in some cases going by the factory recommended oil change schedule. Which in some cases is 10,000 km or more between changes.
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  28.  @waynemapp6333  IMO SLS should never have been designed to be man rated. In fact I think we just should have built Shuttle C with the cargo front mounted and the engines in a return pod. Use Falcon 9 for crew launch.
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  29.  @TheReaverOfDarkness  The "investor" in this case would be a government sponsored science agency (NASA, ESA etc). This object is going to be moving fairly rapidly plus its orbit is highly inclined to the ecliptic. It is far less energy costly to change your orbital parameters in the plane of the ecliptic than to change your orbital parameters to an inclination to the ecliptic. Plus any flyby will most likely require a gravity assist of Jupiter or Saturn to bend the probes path in relation to the ecliptic. Most likely the vehicle would have to do a flyby of Saturn's southern polar regions. Just getting to Saturn takes time. Jupiter will complete just over 80% of one orbit between now and the objects closest approac. Saturn some where around a third. In this case a gravity assist may not even be possible given the time frame. In that case a low mass probe with the most delta vee that is achievable is what is needed.
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  30.  @92redferrari  Or a nautical mile. I agree Metric or more properly SI is internally logical although it does have units nobody uses. Decimeters anyone. And l hate when people use different systems of measurement on the same drawings products etc. Personally l wish the US would go metric fullbore. Not halfway like it has. We use metric for things that really matter. And traditional for stuff that is out in the everyday world.
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  31. Why do I get the idea that NASA cannot develop a damn thing anywhere near on time or budget. Is it political meddling? Engineering inability? Changing requirements? Or a combination of all three?
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  32. I thought of something sort of similiar years ago. Have the heat shield shaped as shallow conave cone. Have engine/s nozzle/arrayed in the center with the nozzles pointing so that the their exhaust flows over the heat shield. At the perimeter use a ring that can extend backward or a set of flaps that divert the exhaust gases. The idea is to use the whole heat shield as the expansion nozzle of the engine. Sort of a backward aerospike. The only area of the heat shield not used as the expansion nozzle is the cap over the engine assemblies. After all rocket engines work by expanding gases putting pressure on the engine assembly.
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  33.  @alphatrion100  As opposed to awarding the contract to Boeing, LockMart, Northrup Grumman or General Dynamics? Or they rely on the same development team as SLS.
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  34. The Paracone idea reminds me of the Monson Lung for escaping from subs. Yea it can work but is it more of sf something to make the families feel better.
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  35. To be honest I think anything proposed by NASA or any of the aerospace companies feeding the federal government trough will never be anything more than pretty pictures and animations. NASA's track record in the recent past has been less than stellar with the exception of the stuff done at JPL. Why is this? First it is because of incoming administrations changing goals and policy. Second it is because certain individuals in Congress care more about the jobs related to NASA Centers than anything actually getting accomplished in terms of actual goals, hardware being built and flown or much of anything else. LockMart, Launch Alliance and others are willing to play the game. The Shuttle was retired over 8 years ago and we are still no where near having any man rated system. I suspect Musk will launch man rated Dragons or even the BFR before NASA and the rest of the trough feeders are close to having a flight ready vehicle.
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  36. If we can't get images of the lunar lander descent stages I think JWST isn't going to show much
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  37. other way around Mica
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  38. Something like Spin Launch might work on a body with low enough surface gravity and no atmosphere. See my comment above. As to a Starlink constellation in orbit around Mars. Any serious manned Mars missions will require an orbiting communications constellation between the orbiter and the surface back to Earth. When thinking about manned Mars missions one major mission goal in my opinion should be to Phobos or Diemos to explore the possible production of propellant and oxidizer. If fuel production is possible that could be ramped up to the eventual construction of a fuel storage and refueling facility. Pumping fluids in low and zero gee can be a nightmare. One possible solution to that is if the fluid is stored in a bladder contained in vessel that can be pressurized.
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  39. Hancock does indeed go off the deep end. Carlson not so much. But there are some pretty intriqueing things around the world. Things that in a lot of ways don't make a lot of sense. Yonaguni (sp) off of Okinawa could well be partially worked by human hands. And just how long as it been underwater. Robert Ballard was working on a project for The National Geographic Society of the coast of Turkey looking for French and British warships lost during the Gallipoli Campaign. The ships weren't hard to find. But he found something else. Clearly artificial stone circles with stone piles/towers/altars at there center. This on the seabed that hadn't been above the waves for at least 8000 years. Right now the oldest constructions we know of besides the shelters built of mammoth bones and tusks is Gobekli Tepe and possibly the site in Indonesia on Java. These things just don't pop out of nowhere. There have to have been some precursor. I'm not saying cultures 13,000 years ago had technology as advanced as ours. But they weren't idiots either. Humans have been around for some 200K years at least. And in all that time nobody noticed that if we gather the seeds from this grass we like to eat and spread it in other spots we'll have another source. Or these roots are really tasty. Let's just try tossing some seeds around and see if they grow. I suspect that the traces of any "lost civilization" are out on the continental shelf's under 100 meters of water or more. There's another thing I find intriguing. And this is made possible with Google Earth. Look at ancient structures. Using the ruler tool draw a great circle through their main axis. You see it is quite common for them to be orientated towards the Poles. But not all. There is another group orientated towards a spot on Greenland at 47° West and about 83° North. And another group south of that. And a fourth group at about the southern tip of Greenland. And these are not structures in the same area. They are widely separated. And the number of them is more than just a few. Some individuals attribute this to the old idea of Crustal Displacement. I have a very hard time with that idea. One reason I have a very hard time imagining a mechanism that would initiate the process or stop it. Plus looking at the tracks of Hot Spot generated seamounts and islands to me it doesn't stand up. The odds that any random group of structures widely separated should be orientated to the same point seems to me to be highly unlikely. Is this the smoking gun for the Younger Dryas? I need to be convinced. If there is an impact that happened at that time I tend to think it would have been somewhere on the Laurentide Ice Sheet. One of the arguements against the Impact Theory is "where's the crater". Some of the arguements in favor are the nanodiamonds, sphericals etc. On top of that some of the non impact proponents point to the Younger Dryas being caused by the massive influx of melt water into the North Atlantic, the Arctic and Northern Pacific Oceans. The signs of massive floods is written in the landscape. The floods had to be meltwater. It had to have come off of the ice caps. What melted the ice. And does anyone seriously think that there ice caps would have been holding back the amounts of water needed. In many ways this can be thought of as a arguements between the Uniformitarianism school of gradual change. On the other side we gave the Catastrophism. When in reality they are both right. The Earth between Plate Tectonics and variations in it's orbit goes along moving continents. Going through Ice Ages. Building mountain ranges and wearing them away. And then the Earth has a bad day. A Mount Toba or Yellowstone erupts. A major igneous provinces spreads lava over a wide area miles thick like the Siberian or Decan Traps. Or like a bolt out of the blue a comet or an asteriod smacks us.
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  40. I am not an aerospace engineer but l have a few opinions about lander built for bodies with no appreciable atmosphere. 1) Given possible uneven surface and debris (boulders, rocks) and craters tall spacecraft with a narrow pattern are not a good idea. 2) If the lander is to be used as a manned habitat and research base design it to land horizontally. With wheels instead of just landing pads. Screw the weight penalty. Put drive motors in too. 3) If you are establishing a permanent base one of the most important first things to land is an excavator/bull dozer. You will need yhe excavator to provide loose regolith to shield surface structures. Plus the bull dozer to prepare your primary landing site.
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  41.  @221b-l3t  SLS Stationary Launch System
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  42. The one DARPA program I would of liked to see move forward was the air launched proposal to be launched from an F-15
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  43. With more launch vehicle builders looking at Liquid Methane I am surprised Lockheed/Martin didn't go that route. Yes H2 has better performance but it also requires larger tankage. Plus the storage issues with LH2. Also if you use the Lunar Gateway as a fuel depot you could ship the fuel up as water and a dense hydro carbon or even solid graphite. and manufacture the fuel on site at the Gateway. I could see the Gateway being primarily a fuel depot and supply site. Personally I see Methane as a more likely future for chemical propulsion systems. As to the RCS system. Why not use H2O2 at about a 90 to 95% solution
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  44. In the future Dawn along with various other space probes may be recovered and wind up in an equivilant of the Air & Space Museum
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  45. ​ @Andy_T79  We all know just what the big draw for space tourism will be.
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  46. Metric is no more or no less accurate than any other system of measurement. The accuracy lies in the standards, the instruments and traceability of the standard masters used in the field to calibrate sad instruments. But yes l agree Metric or SI is more logically consistent. As somebody who had to do inspection work on machine components designed using the Metric system and the associated tolerance bands for fits doing all the measurements with inch calibrated micrometers and having to do the conversions was a pain.
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  47. So basically they want to build a 21st century V-3. The last guy whowanted to build a launch gun got whacked by the Israelis. Do not go looking for funding in the Middle East.
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  48. Catches payloads returning from orbit is nothing new. USAF in the 60s catching film canisters returned from Corona reconnaissance satellites in the pre digital imaging days. Instead of using a helicopter I think Rocket Lab might be better off using fixed wing. At the same time the US also developed a system to allow the pick-up of individuals from the ground by fixed wing aircraft in flight.
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  49.  @grn1  One reason for using light colors is any leaks in hydraulic systems will show up like a neon sign. Personally I love hydraulics in the right application. Precise control and clamping pressures. The downside is leaks. Because all hydraulic systems will leak eventually. Be it through wear on hoses, seals or the connections. Often on the connections it is due to vibrations being transmitted through the system. Flared tube ends (flat or conical) are more prone to leaks. But systems using ferrules will leak also. One reason is any slight imperfection in the fit between the ferrule and the fitting body.
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  50. We could have done artificial gravity testing in LEO if we had wanted to.
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  51.  @ronschlorff7089  Around 15 years ago there was a lot of work being done on mechanical batteries. Also known as flywheels. Supported in magnetic bearings and spinning in a sealed vacuum casing. Made of carbon fiber they did have some problems with delamination. They could be spun up quickly. Only they needed to be installed in pairs spinning in opposite rotation. Otherwise the vehicle handling could be problamatical.
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  52. What if a crewed Dragon just should up?
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  53. Instead of mining the Belt maybe it would be more beneficial financially to not only surface mine the Moon but if we determine that the mass concentrations present in the Moon are the remnants of large bodies that buried themselves in the Moon's interior and are not too deep it might be possible to do resource extraction there. Just how deep could we mine on the moon using automated equipment. I think eve tually when people do live there in large numbers the ideal living spaces will excavated under the surface*. A lot of the materials could be used in expanding CIS space infrastructure while those destined for use on Earth could be delivered via a mass driver. And yes I understand that the Mass Driver is technically a weapon system. But then there is no such thing as an unarmed space ship. * are non CIS spaces treated prejudicial 🙄🙄 ** Future human habitation of the Moon depends on several things. 1) Reduced launch costs. 2) There has to the economic and social need to do so. 3) If long term living in a 1/6th G environment is not overly adverse to overall human health. We really have no data on just what low gee means. We have two data points. 1g and Zero g. Is the plot on a graph a straight line? A curve that rises rapidly and levels off? Or a curve that rises slowly and then shoot up close to one g. The only way to find the answers is to do the actual research with rotating labs that allow for research at 1/3rd and 1/6th g. We actually could have done this already using Shuttle hardware.
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  54.  @fernbedek6302  The implication was if Sudbury and its rich iron nickel ores are the result of an Asteriod impact (and I think they are) there are likely other such sites on the Moon. And eventually mining operations on Earth will be drastically reduced. Either from over extraction of readily accessible ores. Excessive extraction costs. Or because of environmental concerns. Lunar resource extraction provided it proves economically feasible has the advantage of you have a launch window virtually every single day.
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  55.  @David-yo5ws  That's what I get for recalling something from the History Channel The Track Ball (which I prefer actually goes back to the late 40s)
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  56. There was also a proposal for a cargo module at the bottom of the Extrnal Tank. This could be used for outsized cargo or an approximately 26 foot diameter habitation module. If this had been built an flown we could have docked two ETs nose on to a beam structure and spun the assembly to provide a research facility on the effects of reduced gravity. Specifically 1/3rd and 1/6th g. We know that long term zero g is bad. We have no real idea as to the effects of reduced gravity. Are the effects linear? An ascending curve. Or one that climbs rapidly and levels off. If we ever intend on becoming a space fairing civilization we need to know.
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  57. And it's not like new processors can't be made.
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  58. Well, I guess Ellie is gonna need a new radio telescope. Jokes aside. Nobody got injured or killed. What I'm wondering is would it have been possible to lower the reciever structure once they knew that a cable had failed I once had a steel cable part about 3 feet away from me. Happened so fast I didn't have time to be scared. I was thoroughly pissed off at the crane operator who was not paying attention to signals. I was 30 feet off the floor on top of a large stamping press and he was down on the floor.
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  59. So Hyabusa increased the amount of micrometers and small chunks of rock. Ok not that much in comparison to that generated by a tual impacts
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  60. In German the technical term for this is "Upgehfuckt".
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  61. The round hatches just forward of the wings look like RAF roundels
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  62. Why couldn't the fuel and oxidizer be held inside bladders inside the tank the same way hydraulic accumaltors hold fluid under pressure
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  63. As to the Sedniods currently known if we are spotting them at their perihelion or close to it how many others are out there that are simply too dim to see by virtue of being farther out in their orbits
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  64. It's my opinion that we already could have had usable data on the effects of living in a reduced acceleration state. Provided we were willing to a) spend the money. And b) if there was the will to do so. This could have been done using Shuttle External Tanks for the core of the experimental habitat. Modify the ETs to have mounting points on their forward ends for a mating structure that could be carried in the Shuttle cargo bay. Mate two ETs nose on with an additional mating interface on the aft end. For the habitation/lab module use something like the inflatable TransHab with a counterweight on the opposite end. For power use the residual propellant in the ET to power fuel cells. Run test programs of sufficient time at 1/6th and 1/3rd gee. These being the logical choices for what crew would experience on the surface of logical desinations in the inner Solar System. We currently have two data points. Zero Gee and 1 Gee. With no knowledge of the effects in between. Do the effects on the human body track in a straight line on a graph? Or are they on a curve? And if so what is the shape of the curve. Does it rise rapidly and then level out. Or does it start gradually only to rise rapidly as it approaches 1 Gee.
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  65. And they didn't include a camera.
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  66. Foes anyone 4lse remrmber that big piece of tooling Elon had made when they were still looking at doing CarbonFiber for BIG F'ing Rocket. Could that be used for producing modules? Cool video from the Falcon fairing re-entry.
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  67.  @rhekman  I think he identifies as Muhammad Ali
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  68. It's the special rock camouflage hut model.
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  69. Well, they made it to orbit and deployed a payload. Now how long before they launch again? Where is BO's launch vehicle factory? These things are getting so big moving them cross country is getting absurb. Yes l now the Shuttle ET and boosters were shipped but that was Congerssional districts getting the jobs.
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  70. There has also been work done on using Aluminum/Aluminium and LOX as a rocket fuel. If l recall correctly one fuel was a LOX/Aluminum slurry for a monopropellant. Aluminum Oxide is also very arbrasive. Lots of grinding wheels are made from it. Engines using this fuel would have pretty low ISP but if the use is restricted to operations from the Lunar surface to orbit and back down it is also dirt cheaper.
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  71. ​ @slipknottin  Thankfully we have never really "used" them. I'm sceptical of the fusion rocket working out. A lot depends on just how power it takes to run and where the power comes from. Solar arrays? That limits just how far from the Sun you can get and still run the system. Run it off of a fission reactor?
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  72. There were models of the A-12 available in the 1960s. Pre 67 for sure. The box art shoed the aircraft at altitude with the curve of the Earth in the background. Take that flattards
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  73. Can you make a space suit* out of Duct Tape? Only if you're Red Green *Space Suit is a stupid name.
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  74. If a BFR crashes it makes a BFH. Big Freaking Hole.
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  75.  @simongeard4824  Surplus C-130 or equivilant. Winch system in the cargo bay.
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  76. Let's face it. The biggest draw for space tourism is going to be the sex.
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  77. At some point, someone is going to dream big. And have the finances to do it. That said we should have doing artificial gravity research for a long time. And we could have.
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  78. Scott, Now you to can have a Crawler Transporter of your very own http://www.microartwork.com/html/crawler_transporter_1-96_model.html Price is 130EUR plus shipping (14.30EUR to the UK and 19.50 to the US The designer also has a 1/96th scale model of the #9 Swing Arm that served as the access bridge to the Apollo Command Module as a free download. As it a digital file it is possible to print at a larger scale. Yah I said print. Its made of card stock. And it isn't easy http://www.microartwork.com/html/command_module_service_arm_-_download.html If you want your own Saturn V then try this. This is just the first stage http://jleslie48.com/s1_96ok.zip About 8.5"/213mm in diameter. There's one guy that was scaling up this to 1/12th scale
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  79. ​ @jeromethiel4323  There are similiar systems that are used to evacuate contaminated air from enclosed workspaces. Basically centuries that bleed compressed air through a slot at the wide end of the venturi. The better ones will move 100 cm for every cm introduced at operating pressure (typically around 6.5 Bar). Operate on the Conada Effect. Another product that uses the same effect is a Dyson fan.
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  80. Starship is a loooong way from being human rated. But as a heavy lift vehicle it's pretty close.
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  81. If we were playing the game of "how would you design a lunar lander" there's a couple of things I would do. 1) I like the idea of a "horizontal" lander but i have other reasons for this. 2) The lander would not have pads on the legs. The lander would have wheels with electric motors in them. The crew explores and takes samples from a certain area. The crew then drives the lander to a new spot. More mass for sure but i still like this idea. 3) The horizontal layout is more functional in terms of the crew spaces in my opinion. Look it as landing an RV. 4) Unmanned cargo vehicles could be prepositioned at an area meant for a permanent research facility. These would carry needed equipment. The purpose of such a facility would be research in a number of fields. Lunar construction using lunar resources. Lunar manufacturing. Lunar resource extraction for minerals, oxygen etc.
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  82. Dust off the plans for Pluto Express! IMO if we are going to build probes design a basic probe chassis that is series built. Instead of one or two build 10. Have a set of experiment packages. The main reason is for reasonably fast response time.
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  83. To stal a line from fusion research. NASA's return to the Moon will be in ten years and ALWAYS WILL
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  84. But did they catch Beowulf Schaeffer's Skydiver in orbit?
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  85. The main issues I have with the Starship being chosen are the current landing leg system along with just how well it would tolerate re-entry temperatures. The landing legs can of course be changed. Any landing area will have to be carefully chosen for slope, and obstacles (aka rocks). Of course any future permanent base could or should have a designated landing area that is sufficiently smoothed.
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  86. When, oh when is some organization finally going to build an orbital facility that features a spin section. As a species we have a total data set of zero as to the effects of reduced gravity on human physiology. Another orbital facility that would benefit from spin gravity is an orbital fuel depot.
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  87. NASA, one of the perennial political footballs of the US Federal Government
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  88. I really didnt expect this test to go as well as it did. To paraphrase the old Tom Lehrer song. "Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down. That's OUR department Herr von Braun."
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  89. At some point in the future when regular flights to a permanent fa CV ability are taking place would it be advantageous to have the spacecraft land horizontally with some degree of horizontal motion with wheeled landing gear. Then "taxi" the spacecraft over to the airlock.
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  90. In a way this debate over what initiated the Younger Dryas 12,800 years ago reminds me of when Wegner and his publishing of first Continental Drift. He was vilified. His career ruined. One because he really couldn't come up with an explanation for the process. The other because he wasn't a geologist. Sometimes the experts in a field cannot see the trees for the forrest. Sometimes it takes somebody from the outside. Another example is J Harlin Brett's. His work on the massive floods in the Columbia River Basin at the end of the Ice Age was rejected out of had. In the end he was vindicated. In the end I think the people working on the impact will be too. It seems that some people just can't grasp the idea that the Earth's environment doesn't stop at the edge of the atmosphere. Earth orbits in a cosmic shooting gallery. Most times it's grains of dust and stuff like bird shot. But sometimes it's flying mountains. I don't think every climate downturn or major tsunami event is caused by an impact event. Or even most of them. But to think it never happens or it happens on the frequency of tens of millions of years is IMO either being blindly ignorant or will fully optimistic.
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  91. Even on a Niven Ringworld the structure needs to spin at 770 miles per second
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  92. OK cobber. I greeted Armstrong as he stepped off of the landing pad. And yes I stole the line.
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  93. And here on the chart showing possible formation processes Byrliium and Boron are stuck with only one way of forming.
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  94. Look at the mating face of the bottom half of the turbine housing. That surface along with the upper half. WAS FINISHED BY HAND. BY SKILLED CRAFTSMAN using hand tools called scrapers. The surfaces could be matched so closely that no gasket would be required between two halves of the turbine housing. Steam turbines were first used in the power houses of generating stations to spin dynamos. The steam turbine and reduction gear sets used in marine applications make Swiss watches look like Walmart specials
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  95. I'm surprised Scott didn't call the trunk the "Boot".
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  96. So for slightly more than the price of a decent chocolate bar from CVS you got a crappy 🔭. Now I know just what the initials CVS stand for. Crappy Vivitar 'Scope. And for those overseas drug stores in the US sell not only medication, perscription and over the counter, but damn near anything else. Including liquor
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  97. The most impressive thing is the autonomous docking. Just how much does the sample mass?
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  98. I have no idea if it is not on the schedule but I'd really like to see a repeat of the Hubble Deep Field image.
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  99. It will take a while to get competitive cost wise. One thing SpaceX has done with Starship is streamlining their build process due to their iteration test flight developing process. I doubt BO is anywhere near that mindset. Test,retest and test again.
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  100. The width to height ratio doesn't look that bad. I wonder just what the maximum angle it can land or stand on. Did the two vehicles land on the rim of craters? Ejecta boulders?
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  101. ​ @SteichenFamily  Their big problem is two things. One is McDonnelDouglas bought Boeing with Boeing's money. The other is the management becoming obsessed with the bottom line over everything else. They are an engineering company that builds aviation and aerospace systems. You cannot run a company like that as if it is a money laundering storefront.
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  102. Apophis on hearing that Aricebo had collapsed laughs maniacally. That aside, it would seem to me the the time frames during which Earths orbit has a greater amount of eccentricity the odds of a near Earth asteroid impact should be marginally higher. But then again maybe not.
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  103. I really did not expect perfect results but this actually went better than I expected. NASA would still working on the preliminary artwork.
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  104. Rotary arm launchers are theoretically possible for small payloads. There is also a short story about a moon base needing a much better computer system in order to track small projectiles that were placed into lunar orbit during a firefight between US and Soviet security forces.
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  105. As Tom Lehrer said "vonce der rocket goes üp, who kares vhere ict cumves down. Icts not my Department zays Wehner Von Braun
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  106. I finally recently started watching season one. Things l find implausible. 1) The sheer size of the vessels. And in comparison the volume ofcargo they carry. A perfectexampld is the first shp we see. Canterbury. Why haul around all that extra mass to store ice when you could melt the ice. Distill and store all the contaminates and haul the water in bladders or just refreeze it and push the frozen block of ice. 2) The sheer internal volume of the ships themselves. I know its a TV show but in the future when there are actually miners etc working out in the belt l doubt they will have the internal volume to spare. The MCRN battle ship is even worse. 3) Not just the volume of living space but how it is laid out. Again its a TV show and had to be shot on realistic budgets in sound stages. Given a continuous drive how ever it works. Let go with the approximate 1/3rd gee of Mars. Even during coasting phases some artificial gravity is nice. IMO the mag boots aren't going to cut it. Yes l can see there usefulness. A better solution especial for a merchantman water hauler would be a spin section with multiple modules that rotate on bearings with hatches inbetween the sections. The modules are arranged in a ring or partial rings. When the ship is coasting or at rest the modules are in their rest position. Meaning you head is pointed toward the Axis of the ship. When the vessel is accelerating the modules rotate so that your head is pointing in the direction of acceleration. At low thrust the spin section can still rotate with the floor being canted. Go to the Atomic Rockets website and look up Ezekiel Wheels. I had this idea years ago only to find out that somebody beat me to it. The vessels control station can be on the ships axis in zero gee when at rest. 3) The inplied scarcity of water and other vital supplies. Given what we know about the Solar System today or evenwhen Corey was writing The Expanse the Asteriod Belt is rich in water. At least in terms of what a human society would need. Given that Carbonacous Chondrite asteriods can be up to around 30% water and Ceres should be rich in water. You get the idea. And when the actorsare traversing the tunnels water is just dripping on them. Tunnels. Another dumb idea. Why do so many SF shows use tunnels. 4) Spining Ceres up for artificial gravity. The amount of energy needed to dpin up a body the size of Ceres to provide 1/3rd of a gee would better spent building an O Niel habitat. The Docks on Ceres or Eros Station. Wouldn't these be better situated at the axis in zero gee. The huilding of Navoo/Nathan Hale or Tycho Station implies implies they they could build O'Niels. 5) Martian terra forming and importing "supplies". Why not divert cometary bodies that are already headed in system. And start small. Roof over part or parts of Valles Marinaris and establish habitats there. Plus Mars may have substantial subsurface water. And given any need of metals why not mine Mercury. 5) Stealthed spaceships. Given the implied number of ships running around the Solar System there has to be some sort of traffic control system. Lord knows you do not want to be cruising through somebodies exhusst plume of fusion reaction products. Plus once your drive is running everybody with decent sensors will see you. Lets not talk about waste heat. Maybe use it to power a laser pointed out of the Plane of the Ecliptic? Kenetic Weapons Systems. Those rail guns aren't just hitting their targets. The rounds that miss are now dangerous projectiles racing through the Solar System. How fast are they? Above Solar escape velocity? We know the ships are given travel times.
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  107. Hitting an asteriod with an anti tank round is really no different than the asteriod getting smacked by a stray chunk of rock. Doing it from a stand-off distance with a small anti tank cannon or missle would work equally well. But then we'd have people yelling about weapons in space
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  108. I suppose Elon still has the tooling for the carbon fiber tanks. I'm no rocket engineer but one idea for the ring joints on the BFR*. Use a narrow ring with a slightly larger diameter that just slips over the outside of the main ring. This narrow ring is slipped over the main structural section. You then electron beam weld the joint ring in place. Slide the next section in and weld that in place. Then weld the two main sections together. Yes you are adding weight but I suspect Space X was trying to go as light as possible. *I don't care what Elon calls it. It's still a Big Freaking Rocket
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  109. Eventually we're going to got on of these over a populated area at a low enough altitude to cause massive casualties. It might be a year. Ten years, 100 or RIGHT NOW😱😱😱
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  110. Has anything for New Glenn even been built?
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  111. Oh, software. That's so you can be connected to the NASA CGI image server and amaze your friends with fake space pictures. At least that's what a flattard would say. Face it the average person buying one of these is meerly hoping to get a glimpse of the blond across the way stepping out of the shower. 😉
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  112. Let's say we have an interplanetary passenger ship with the habitat volume being a torus. And the ship is capable of transporting say 200 people. What happens if all 200 passengers congregate in one small portion if the torus?
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  113. @manw3bttcks  No easy solutions. But some day, soon hopefully, some nation, some corporation, some visionary will take a chance and build the first rotating habitat in LEO and start to gather data. And the initial research station is not going to be massive enough to damp out variations in mass distributions. Start with low gee environment. Say Lunar equivalent.
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  114. At some point in time we will be in the cross hairs. A largish body, say 500 meters across approaches unobserved from sunward. Say a body lurking in the Taurid Meteor Stream. And it impacts either near or in a densely populated region. I think this is what it is going to take for governments to really commit to finding and preventing such occurances
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  115. The problem is the centrifuge is still experiencing Earths 1 Gee acceleration. You can build a centrifuge to experience more than one gee. But not less.
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  116. Don't try this at Home!!!!
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  117. If you are building a suit meant for use in weightlessness why do you even need leg mobility. Why couldn't the legs and lower torso simply go into a sleeve that attaches at the chest level to accommodate different body types.
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  118. The artificial gravity on Star Trek operates Hand Wavium
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