Space and Science BS Thread

I honestly didn't know it used rockets. Everything I read only mentioned the chutes and how big they are. Though to be fair I didn't even know it existed until the other day.

 

Yeah, I was a bit harsh with the criticism....Apologies .

Facts are good, knowledge is the goal

 

It's all good. I honestly thought, and still do, that NASA over complicated it. It's like a bunch of engineers got together and said "you know what would be cool?" And then just kept adding things like it wasn't their money they were spending. They've been making some good changes at NASA the last few years though, so I won't complain. Plus in reality it is cool.

 

Also, the "competition" is already trying to hurt starlink. I think it's scared.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...ell-fcc-that-starlink-will-be-too-slow/?amp=1

 

That ‘astrobio’ link I posted above gives a good explanation on how the sky crane came about.

 

I still prefer the airbags jks. Funny story is that system batted 100 for delivering payloads safely. I wouldn't be surprised to see it used on heavy cargo loads in the future. AFAIK it's the only drop method that can land more than 1 tonne on Mars in simulation.

 

Agreed, they were successful but there’s a limit to the amount of weight they can handle. From the link above:

But airbags were ruled out for Curiosity, formally known as MSL, or Mars Science Laboratory. “She’s too big,” said Adam Steltzner of JPL. “Here on Earth we don’t make material, that we’ve been able to find, that’s strong enough” to make airbags that wouldn’t shred on impact. Steltzner is the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) Lead for the MSL mission.

Hence the sky crane.

 

Rocket porn

 

I made hundreds of those launch thruster cones, aka engine bells for Spacex. Out of the thousands of rocket, missile, jet, satellite , and jump rope handle parts that I've made, I'm most proud of those. Probably because they're one of the few parts that I know what they do.

 

Idk y'all. (mildly) aerodynamic Mars EDL followed by a powered decent seems pretty good.

 

I’m jealous of my 7yo’s birthday present. The one big downfall to it was that when I bought it I didn’t know it was set up for UK 240v. Looks like I’m off to get an adapter tomorrow!


In case anyone is interested in their own:
https://firebox.com/products/nasa-retro-galaxy-lamp

 

If anyone is like me, wants to know more about the details of Perseverance's 7 minutes of terror that happening in 4 days and how it will compare to Curiosity's, this is a very informative video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI4RyZ1QMrc

 

Don't forget about Ingenuity hitching a ride with Perseverance, which will be an amazing achievement if Ingenuity has the honor of being the first aircraft to complete a controlled flight on another planet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwdfdE6ruMw

 

It’s been a while since SpaceX lost a booster. but no roasted seagulls!


Chris B - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) Tweeted:
They've lost the booster. Note: They did expect to lose a small percentage of boosters for drone ship landings. We've just got so used to them coming back all the time.

Also, several seagulls get to live another day. https://t.co/CCjrhgwPp6

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1361528247427751941?s=20

 

I wonder where the miscommunication was?

 

The telemetry cut out at 21km up, not sure if that is a separate feed for the broadcasts or piggybacked off the actual signals from the booster. Could've had a loss of signal long enough to make the precision adjustments for landing impossible. SpaceX got their money out of it though since this was the sixth launch of the booster.

 

Yeah I was watching and wondering if we were going to see some extra crispy birds. I was half expecting them to cut the feed because of it.

 

Thanks, I didn't watch the launch, I was sleepin.

It will be so cool once they can get 10+ uses from a single booster.

 

I'll start spreading a rumor that SpaceX aborted the landing to save the seagulls. Turns out they were an endangered species and the fine for frying a few of them is more than the cost of a new booster.

 

Smh