Space and Science BS Thread

98% of Americans have zero clue about the specifics of how their independence came to be.

Liquor, smokes and bottle rockets.

 

Might want to check those dates in the morning

 

Is this better?

 

Oops I’ll fix it.

 

The day we said “no more” was July 4. The rest is the crown choking down the reality. We were independent on that day since from that day forward we took the actions and accepted the consequences that were necessary.

 

Funny... they created one of the biggest conspiracy theory fodder with this modification.

 

https://twitter.com/airandspace/status/1412081348563673090?s=21

 

The mind boggles that they actually pulled it off in those days of hard wired, hand calculated(a slide rule is still a mechanical hand tool), no simulated testing, no computer modeling, let’s do the Wright Bros spaceman style. It’s no wonder it’s taking so long to repeat the achievement.

 

Honestly, while space is hard, it's not as hard as it's made out to be. There are a few reasons that it's not been repeated, but the difficulty isn't the main one. The first big one is, regulations. Rockets are classified as weapons, and so they require special permission to build. The second one is cost. The cost to access space has always been super high. The only attempt of reusability before private companies were allowed to make rockets was still staggering, at 1.4 Billion a launch. That put it out of reach of most countries, as the majorities of the countries in the world today have a smaller economy than California (5th largest in the world).

This is why I love Spacex. Starship is looking at 10 Billion in R&D, and Elon said recently 2 Million per launch. That puts it in a range that a lot more governments could manage themselves, or invite private companies to make their rockets in their countries. I think a lot of them are just holding off to wait and see if he can actually pull it off, before pulling the trigger themselves. Its cheaper and easier to let someone else do the work and then just scalp their experienced employees, than to pioneer themselves. Makes me wonder if Spacex has non-compete contracts. Even if it doesn't draw new countries into being launch providers, the ones that already are will have no choice but to adapt or die. The next couple of decades could be very exciting.

 

Then why not China or Russia? If it were that “not difficult” then it would have been done and piffle the regulations. It may not be as hard as it was then but “then” was 54 years ago. Don’t sell those people short. And yes I too look forward to the what comes next, and what it will mean dirt side.

 

I think, for the reasons you listed, space is hard. Hard is hard. No gradients when it comes to space especially with human lives at stake.

Related, here’s another take on the phrase:
https://www.theverge.com/2015/6/29/8863121/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-explosion-excuses

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...y-unveils-rendering-of-a-starship-look-alike/

Everyone was happily going on their way using expendable rockets until SpaceX, amongst significant (and ongoing) resistance, showed otherwise.

It takes a disruptor to shake things up. Elon’s the Henry Ford of rockets.

 

I'm not selling them short. It was an amazing accomplishment. As for why not Russia, after the USSR fell, we scalped most of their rocket scientists so they wouldn't make missiles for our enemies. This has left them still using a rocket developed in the 60's. As for China, they're still a young agency. Formed in 1993, they've since sent 12 people into space, and several satellites, robots, and a space station, all on an 11 billion dollar annual budget. They've made some great advancements, but they've been more along the lines of matching what's already been done by others.

They're right. Most of our big transportation accomplishments have been hard. Trains, planes, automobiles. And all 3 of them have had major advancements since their inception and now they're at the point where we expect them to work more than they don't.

 

It would be neat to see SpaceX move the F9's to suborbital shipping. Or use Starship without the boosters for that. Could have multiple spaceports in other countries and continents...

 

USSR dissolved in 1991, almost 30 years after Kennedy declared our intent to go to the moon. If we took their best we didn’t do much with them. Probably similar to Detroit and good ideas, dog in the manger approach to competition. Back then, every industry that was involved was in its infancy and every one of them had to get it right with none of the high tech advantages we take for granted. The ballistics may be straight forward but that bit of paper scratching is the last and only easy part. Building something light enough to get there and strong enough to still hold air and function properly despite the g-forces and shaken baby syndrome of liftoff posed serious contradictory obstacles. The LEM and the command module were as unalike as could be and the capsule also had to survive reentry. Solving those problems and doing it well before the end of the decade still amazes to this day. It shows what can be accomplished when you combine industrial might with a budget and the will to move earth to the heavens. No, not cheap and not easy. Not then, not now. It’s taking longer now than it did then.

 

Space takes only two ingredients. Both the race of the 60s and the current environment have taught us that.

1. Money
2. Commitment

Without either of those, everything else is speculations on a white board.

 

This is the game winning difference:

Due to the weightlessness of space, the common ball point pen doesn't work. So... our engineers and scientists spend boatloads of time and money to solve this annoying problem.

USSR just used a pencil.

We went the extra mile to solve a seemingly redundant problem... they just took the easy road. That is why we won.

 

Well there is the whole FOD & microgravity issue with pencils.

 

Pencil graphite particles get loose and into electrical connections, which can cause those connections to short out and fail. The Russians learned this...and stole our pen technology literally by buying the pens from the Kennedy and Johnson gift shops.

Fun little fact you get on the Johnson Space Center tour.

 

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/bitcoin-power-plant-is-turning-a-12000-year-old-glacial-lake-into-a-hot-tub/

Guess this is what the hubbub was about…

 

On the one hand, yay!

On the other, will the JW be dropped from the JWST?

https://spacenews.com/jwst-passes-launch-review/