Comments by "Helium Road" (@RCAvhstape) on "Scott Manley" channel.

  1. I'm guessing I'm not the only one who's a bit sad to see the Atlas program marching towards an end. It's one of the world's oldest rocket programs, dating to the mid-1950s as an ICBM, morphing into a series of reliable launch vehicles. Atlas V is radically different than the OG Atlas, but the program has been a good one. Will miss it when it's gone.
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  2. Definitely Nike X!
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  3. In the long run it's all moot anyway. Mars is too close to the sun to be an escape from it when it swells.
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  4. Too easy to pile on, it would just come off as being mean, like picking on a special needs kid or something. I agree with ignoring the idiot.
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  5. At least in Europe they don't line up and execute the engineers when a rocket fails. Not now, anyway.
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  6.  @dpscloud3324  They can also cook hot dogs by sticking skewers out the window and asking ground to turn the lasers to max.
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  7.  @ronschlorff7089  Oh yes. And 1960s Teri Garr. (RIP)
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  8.  @callmeshaggy5166  Link?
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  9.  @KuK137  Communism is a political ideology, not a race.
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  10. This is all a smokescreen. The launches will take place in secret, very soon, to set up our defenses against the UFOs. Commander Straker is seeing to it.
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  11.  @GenoLoma  And for Sandra Bullock.
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  12. The movie Ad Astra from a few years ago was of questionable quality in some ways, but its depiction of what Neptune would look like up close to the naked eye was pretty spectacular.
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  13. About the linear accelerator on the moon: the goal is to launch the payload at greater than lunar escape velocity, so that it goes into orbit around the earth. If you locate the accelerator in the right place on the moon and point it in the right direction, so that the payload leaves the lunar sphere of influence traveling in the right direction, the payload will have a perigee closer to earth, or if shot fast enough, even hit the earth. With a bit of aiming, you could splash down payloads routinely in the same spot in a body of water, such as the Gulf of Mexico or wherever your pickup operation is.
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  14. Anytime somebody tries to guilt me into buying into something by labeling it as "eco-friendly" I start with the assumption that it's probably a scam.
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  15. The difference between being killed or being maimed for life.
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  16. I hope he got the thrust of your remark.
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  17.  @MattMcIrvin  I find the look of The Last Starfighter to be part of its charm, part of what makes it nostalgic and stand out as an early 80s film. They also used CGI on the TV show Babylon 5 in the 90s and it's really not that much more advanced that The Last Starfighter.
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  18.  @stoic.little  I see what you did there.
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  19.  @steveadams7550  As long as it's an older Boeing he be aright.
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  20. I knew there would be a Tholian Web reference!
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  21. Please fix that squeaky chair. Just sayin'.
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  22.  @gamerfortynine  Oh, well, sorry you're not impressed. Here's your money back:
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  23. In the Tom Clancy book Red Storm Rising one of the characters, a female F-15 pilot, actually becomes a space ace by shooting down 5 satellites with this missile type in a war with the USSR.
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  24.  @headcrab4090  Kim Stanley Robinson is a hard SF guy, so I assume he did his homework. I just wonder how humongous an airship would need to carry two people, living quarters, and supplies for a weeks-long voyage like he describes. My next question would be how do I get to ride one.
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  25.  @Bora_H  That makes a lot more sense.
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  26. I would reallllly love to spend some time on Mars just to see what it all looks like in person. Long way to travel just to take some cool photos, but what the hell.
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  27. 2010 was a great film, and the book was also good, in my opinion the book was Clarke's best full-length novel. I read it in 1983 or 84 before the movie came out. In the preface Clarke said that he wrote the book as a sequel not to his earlier book, but as a sequel to Kubrick's film, because Kubrick's film was significantly different from the book version and Clark believed most people were more familiar with the film. I read the book 2001 and have to say the film was way better and more mystifying. The film 2010 is great, but obviously doesn't have the Kubrick touch. I was later saddened when I found that the story of 2010 was unrealistic due to most of the story taking place deep in Jupiter's radiation belts.
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  28. There was a character in Star Trek who basically was exactly this.
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  29. Did I miss it, or did you fail to mention the cannon fired by the Soviet space station in the 70s? AFAIK it's the only test of a firearm in space to date. Also, I have actually seen and handled a gyrojet pistol. After hearing about them I was underwhelmed. It was very light and cheaply made, and felt flimsy. The owner was a gun dealer and he kept it in his shop on display. He said the ammo is super rare. He also explained why it never caught on: it was extremely inaccurate due to the projectile taking too much time to spin up. In addition, it's useless at close range because the projectile takes several yards to accelerate to ballistic velocity. Basically you could probably hold your finger over the muzzle, fire it, and the bullet would just fizzle against your finger for a moment (I wouldn't recommend that, though). Maybe with more development it could work, but like caseless ammunition it hasn't been made practical yet.
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  30. I want to recommend the book "Atlas: The Ultimate Weapon" for anyone who wants a good history of the Atlas program from the 1950s up to about 2005 when the first Atlas V's were built. I love that the old Atlas program logo is still on the side of every launch vehicle. Convair, Martin, Lockheed Martin, and finally ULA, the program endures.
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  31.  @regulatormachine2788  Well, okay, I will then. And I'll keep your five bucks, then, too.
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  32.  @eliasnewall-vuillemot2680  I'm not talking about a launch abort. I'm talking about abandoning ship while still in orbit.
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  33. Eris? Ahem, Team Xena here...get your nomenclature right!
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  34. The projectiles were hitting the Earth at translunar velocities, so about 11 km/s or so. Possibly a bit faster, depending. They were also likely falling at a pretty steep angle, as opposed to just grazing the atmosphere like a returning Apollo vehicle would, so a big enough rock would make it to the surface. Awesome book, one of my favorites. Fortunately they have yet to butcher it with a bad movie.
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  35.  @lawrencedoliveiro9104  There is, believe it or not, a conspiracy theory out there that says that nuclear weapons are fake and that the whole Cold War was a hoax to keep the world's population fearful and under control. Shit you not. These people dwell in their own private Plato Caves and have crazy imaginations of the shadows they see on that wall.
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  36.  @somedude4805  Well, if there is a monolith nearby, just level the ground next to it, knock it over flat and BOOM: instant indestructible landing pad. Thanks, aliens!
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  37.  @somedude4805  I see now. I skip most of his KSP videos because I don't use the program and don't really want to watch other people play games. But yeah, you should see 2001. Some people find it a bit long and boring in some parts, but it's one of those gorgeous visuals films like Lawrence of Arabia where you just settle in and drink up the scenery. It also doesn't dumb anything down and leaves you to figure out what you just saw, which I love.
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  38.  @somedude4805  Douglas Trumbull did the visual effects in that sequence, using a very painstaking slit-scan technique. That was over 50 years ago and he I think he still does fx today. He also did the effects in Blade Runner and a bunch of other films. What I find fascinating about that film is that it was made before anybody had yet walked on the moon, so they were making an educated guess about the lunar surface up close and got it very close to reality. Also, the flat panel displays on the spacecraft were pure fantasy in those days but you're using one right now.
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  39. The range safety officer on the Space Shuttle program must've been an awful job. If the day came when you had to push that damn button you were probably going to kill 7 people, since there was no launch escape system for the orbiter. At least when the RSO blew up Challenger's boosters it was too late for him to worry about hurting the crew; that was an awful day for different reasons.
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  40. The USAF used to routinely catch film payloads the same way using a C-130, so it's a proven technique.
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  41. I can't get used to seeing it fly with the nozzles hidden by the aft fuselage skirt. Look weird. Most rockets you can plainly see the nozzles. Isn't that extra bit of skirt just dead weight that could've been left off for better performance?
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  42. Scott, for a great "path not taken" story you should look up the Chrysler SERV, an alternate idea for a space shuttle that was radically different than the winged spaceplane concept.
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  43. That Super Sabre footage always makes me cringe. It's famous and has been on TV shows for decades. I don't know who the pilot was but I assume he didn't survive and his final moments must've been terrifying.
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  44.  @scottmanley  Found it: the guy's name was 1st Lt. Barty Brooks and he did not survive. January 10th, 1956.
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  45. Oh boy, don't let the hoaxers hear this lol
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  46. So we're allowed to go to Hawaii now?
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  47. I say degrees Kelvin. Screw 'em. Also, Pluto is a (dwarf) planet.
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  48.  @Sherwoody  You wasted yours by washing it down the drain, you're supposed to detonate it!
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  49. That 747 is such a beautiful airplane.
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  50. "China is less courageous than India or Isreal..." lol shots fired, commies!
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