Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

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Suliso Latvia
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#166

Post by Suliso »

ponchi101 wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 5:00 pm I was thinking about some the stats you posted a few days ago. SpaceX's Starship, as you said, is expected to be able to carry 100 passengers, at about $5MM per launch. That is $50,000 per person, which is not excessively over one of those DUBAI-LONDON flights from Emirates if you book their extra-luxury cabins.
There will be a market for that, almost instantly.
Absolutely, although I think it will take some time before they're ready to take any people let alone 100. The first few years it will be freight only. We'll see if they really get down to this aspirational cost.

Also there is another company which has a plan for a private space station. That would provide some destination to go to. Full 100 people in that ship will be cramped.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#167

Post by Suliso »

I'm probably boring you with this subject by now... But still beyond the rockets themselves I'm super impressed with how fast is the progress on the build site. I've never seen private industry or government for that matter build anything so fast. Construction ongoing non stop 24/7 in four shifts and now flying in extra employees with a private jet. It's like a private Manhattan project and it's not even clear why so much haste. As JazzNu said either genius or mad. :)

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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#168

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#169

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#170

Post by Suliso »

The largest rocket ever to be made was briefly stacked this morning before being destacked for further work.

Image

The total height is ca 36 floor building + another 8 floors for the launch pad. The actual first orbital launch is still 2-3 months away I think. The launch site is not finished and there is no FAA authorization. Still getting close with fit checks, likely to be followed by cryogenic tests and static fires. The lower stage of the rocket has 29 engines, the upper has six.

Image
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#171

Post by Suliso »

Better pictures of the same event.

Image

Image

The black surface is a cover of heat resistance tiles to survive reentry at 28,000 km/h

Image

Heat resistant tiles are only needed on one side, the one facing atmosphere upon reentry.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#172

Post by ponchi101 »

How does the top part land? Airplane style, or does it parachute? That thing is pretty big to maneuver, with such tiny wings.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#173

Post by Suliso »

ponchi101 wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 9:56 pm How does the top part land? Airplane style, or does it parachute? That thing is pretty big to maneuver, with such tiny wings.
The top part has six engines (3 for sea level and 3 for vacuum only). Once it has aerobraked from 28,000 km/h to something more like a 1,000 km/h by falling horizontally (black face forward) it will switch on these 3 engines, reorient itself to a vertical position and land propulsively on legs. The actual landing similar to how the current Falcon 9 first stage lands. This has so far been demonstrated successfully only once and from 10 km not orbit.

The bigger first stage will also land using its engines, but since it will have no legs it will be caught out of the air by the tower you see in pictures. Will require great precision and has not been tried yet.

Spacex is not afraid to take risks, that's for sure. One has to to accomplish something no one has before.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#174

Post by Suliso »

This post and next contains a tour of Spacex Texas launch complex with Elon Musk as a guide. Lots of technical rocket talk for those interested, but I'd like to point out something else what I think is a key for their success. That is freedom to fail creatively. That is fail not because you made a stupid mistake, but because you perhaps pushed the boundaries of technology too far. I'm working in R&D myself and now how important is the ability to just try and not be judged for failure. Large old companies often find it very difficult to do (see Boeing) and company making advanced rockets can't be a small company anymore.

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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#175

Post by Suliso »

Part 3 to be posted at a later date

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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#176

Post by ponchi101 »

Suliso wrote: Sat Aug 07, 2021 6:27 pm This post and next contains a tour of Spacex Texas launch complex with Elon Musk as a guide. Lots of technical rocket talk for those interested, but I'd like to point out something else what I think is a key for their success. That is freedom to fail creatively. That is fail not because you made a stupid mistake, but because you perhaps pushed the boundaries of technology too far. I'm working in R&D myself and now how important is the ability to just try and not be judged for failure. Large old companies often find it very difficult to do (see Boeing) and company making advanced rockets can't be a small company anymore.

Wawrinka's "Fail better". :clap: :clap:
Great video, not only from the technical part of view, but also a very good managerial tutorial. If only I could get the people in my industry understand the concept of "failing creatively"; we operate under a culture that any mistake has to be analyzed to the point of execution by the person that did it.
"You can't tell your professor 'your question is dumb' ". I did that once. Got fired (it was not school anymore) soon after that.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#177

Post by Suliso »

I'm a chemist, so we can't afford to blow up things on a large scale. Our ability to fail creatively at R&D level is really department dependent. In the small group I'm working at we're pretty good at this hence also one of the few departments which actually innovates regularly.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#178

Post by Suliso »

Let's put aside engineering brilliance for a moment and delve into stupidity of people.

"HOLD MY BEER, COVID SKEPTICS" —
Deep dive into stupid: Meet the growing group that rejects germ theory
Germ theory denialist Facebook group went from 147 members in April 2020 to 18.4K now.

Listen up, sheeple: COVID-19 doesn't exist. Viruses don't cause disease, and they aren't contagious. Those doctors and health experts who say otherwise don't know what they're talking about; the real experts are on Facebook. And they're saying it loud and clear: The pandemic is caused by your own deplorable life choices, like eating meat or pasta. Any "COVID" symptoms you might experience are actually the result of toxic lifestyle exposures—and you have only yourself to blame.

As utterly idiotic and abhorrent as all of the above is, it's not an exaggeration of the messages being spread by a growing group of Darwin-award finalists on the Internet—that is, germ theory denialists. Yes, you read that correctly: Germ theory denialists—also known as people who don't believe that pathogenic viruses and bacteria can cause disease.

As an extension of their rejection of basic scientific and clinical data collected over centuries, they deny the existence of the devastating pandemic that has sickened upwards of 200 million people worldwide, killing more than 4 million.

Continuation here: https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08 ... comments=1

And you thought your garden variety antivaxxers is the rock bottom? :lol:
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#179

Post by ti-amie »

They remind me of flat earthers.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#180

Post by ponchi101 »

Round them up. Give them a small spoonful of anthrax. Watch them pass away.
How hard is to deal with this sort of people.
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