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

  1. As if hundreds of microsats isn't bad enough, we have people throwing needles into high orbit creating a long lived debris hazard. Wouldn't want to be in a spacecraft or worse, a spacesuit, when one of those needle projectiles hits you at several km/s.
    4
  2. It will land on Gilligan's Island. The ground controllers will see the castaways dressed in feathers and think they're looking at aliens on Venus.
    4
  3. Insurance or not, they'll never get back the time they spent on a project they tried so hard on only to watch it utterly fail. If it's a one-shot program like a Mars probe or something you could spend years working on it only to lose it due to one small missed detail.
    4
  4. Jose Jimenez, he no like to drink so much when he fly.
    4
  5. Read Mike Mullane's book, he was an astronaut at the time and was one of the people who did the math and recommended using the OMS during the main engine burn, long before the ISS. One reason was to give them an extra push for transatlantic abort scenarios.
    4
  6.  @kedrednael  No
    4
  7.  @manyhammers5944  Do a search on "radioactive boy scout". Some kid in the 90s tried to make a nuclear reactor in his mom's garden shed. He got thorium by collecting lantern mantels and grinding them up and processing them to separate the thorium if I recall correctly. Lots of other dumb things, too. He died about a year ago I think; a few years back he was arrested for stealing smoke detectors to get the americium, and in his mug shot he had weird sores all over his face.
    4
  8. Allow my voice to join in the chorus of premier hatred.
    4
  9. The importance of New Jersey to tech history. Radio astronomy, Thomas Edison, Princeton physics, Bell Labs, RCA corporation. Lots of cool history buried under those turnpike jokes.
    4
  10.  @danieljensen2626  Also, ULA is a customer for Blue Origin engines, so throwing them some Vulcan payloads may be good for business.
    4
  11. Not this again....
    4
  12. I want to see three craters named Alex, Geddy, and Neil.
    4
  13.  @christopherpardell4418  LOL SpaceX go brrr!
    4
  14. The Horta: "NO KILL I"
    4
  15.  @DUKE_of_RAMBLE  Not the one I've heard of, NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to develop a nuclear thermal rocket engine demonstrator. No explosions or weapons involved. An NTR is a solid core reactor through which you pump a propellant fluid, usually liquid hydrogen, which is heated and squirts out the nozzle producing thrust.
    4
  16. It's like the movie Last Starfighter: the game was a test by a secret agency that protects the planet from asteroids, and the best gamers were chosen to do it for real.
    4
  17. Quality Polaroid photos from 2019?
    4
  18. Something big enough to change the moon's orbit in a big way, or worse, obliterate it, would probably be a Very Bad Day for Earth. But for those wondering why the moon is useful, life on earth is pretty highly affected by the tides, the earth's crust even moves a tiny bit due to tidal forces. Also, in the long term the moon's gravitational effects are important for damping the nutation and precession of the earth's spin axis. Even moonlight has an effect on life.
    4
  19.  @NemoConsequentae  Except they'll call it the "Xeagle" because Masten.
    4
  20. Sulu figuring out that flying a Huey is harder than a starship.
    4
  21. Metric is inconsistent too? Hush child!
    4
  22.  @paulschulte1064  So what was the answer? Is there lift being generated?
    4
  23. We are farther removed from the Columbia accident today (20 years) than Columbia was from the Challenger accident (17 years).
    4
  24. @ Payload Specialists came in two varieties: those who had something to do with the payload, and those who were politicians/celebrities/PR Stuntmen.
    4
  25. Obi Wan: "So wait, you made the run in less than 12 parallax seconds?" Han Solo: "Uh, yeah, sure. That's what I meant. I think." Han looks at Chewie, "What are you laughing at? Shut up and give me another beer. I'm trying to drum up business here."
    4
  26.  @thiesenf  A metric shit ton of feathers is even more deadly.
    4
  27.  @davidkottman3440  His eyesight on the other hand...
    4
  28. I get emotional but then I put it in perspective. Airplane accidents are no less horrific, and neither are train or highway accidents. Astronauts seem special to us because we project our dreams onto them and because they're public figures, but getting killed in an accident sucks no matter who you are and can happen to anyone.
    4
  29. ​ @scottmanley It's in Stanley Kubrick's old studio 😉
    4
  30.  @221b-l3t  I think Spaceship 1 had a control issue that didn't get worked out, there being only two flights before it was retired. I do remember the awesome footage of Mike Melville dumping M&Ms through the cockpit while he was in zero-G.
    4
  31. They should put Buzz Aldrin back in the cockpit and make him mission commander. The ultimate chad space navigator can find his way back with handheld instruments and a wristwatch if all else fails.
    4
  32. It depends on how many test articles are left when the program ends. Nobody builds flight hardware just to donate it to museums; if they can earn revenue with it they'll expend it.
    4
  33. The fact that NASA needs to worry about pansies getting emotionally bent out of shape over a survival gun makes me shake my head.
    4
  34.  @ThePrisoner881  No, it's kind of scary. It IS a bomb, that's the whole point of it. If the propellant tank is damaged by accident, you can get not only a criticality accident which kills the crew and wrecks the ship, but you also will probably get a Chernobyl-like excursion that blows the ship open and sprays the fuel and fission products all over the general area. In deep space, you just lose the crew and vehicle. Close to the surface of a planet or moon you get a bigger mess. Also, in the more enriched fuel version of this system, a damaged propellant tank might actually bring on a nuclear explosion. The US Navy's nuclear power program is an example of a well run and disciplined program, but the Soviet navy has a much spottier record with nuclear power. I agree with you that nuclear energy is the only realistic option for aggressive space exploration, but building something like a NSWR is not something to be taken lightly. There's a lot of ways to f*** this stuff up.
    4
  35. Lockheed Martin is also working on fusion power. With the advanced technology of both companies, we may be closer to an Epstein Drive.
    4
  36. Also, SpaceX's launchers are far from perfect. They have, in fact, blown up rockets. Atlas V has a better record.
    4
  37.  @karolakkolo123  True, even better: stand on your roof and look down at night, eclipse with extreme closeup.
    4
  38.  @PanduPoluan  Of course I know that, and nothing you said has anything to do with what I said.
    4
  39. I'd really like to hear more detail about the passive magnetic damper system. Gravity gradient I understand well but that mag system and how it kept the yaw angle steady is new to me.
    4
  40.  @NullHand  You don't schedule rocket launches around regular weekly windows, that's not how orbit dynamics works.
    4
  41.  @kiwidiesel  Geese are sketch.
    4
  42. Oi rockhoppa!
    4
  43. Exactly. Belters would never waste that useful scrap mass.
    4
  44.  @ASalishFalcon  Cool. I can taste the battery metallic flavor in the air from here lol.
    4
  45.  @million_heir5298  LOL or they hear snake jazz.
    4
  46. I'M THE REAL CAPTAIN KIRK!!!!!
    4
  47. If you have a picture, they will tell you it's photoshopped. Basically, what you need is not just hard evidence, but lots of scientists to see and be able to collect that hard evidence for themselves. Something like alien life or cold fusion or UFOs isn't just science; it's fraught with all sorts of expectations by the public due to decades of exposure to science fiction writings and movies. It's a bit different than saying, "I discovered a cheaper way to make plastic" or the like, which hardly makes headlines and doesn't immediately make people think you are a fraud or an overeager science n00b.
    4
  48. It's in Orbiter, has been for at least 10 years.
    4
  49. When the test plane rolls out of the factory for the first time there, is no checklist. The engineers and test pilots have to write it.
    4
  50. Stares in Gary Seven
    4