Space and Science BS Thread

https://twitter.com/astro_sabot/status/1437827415032614917?s=21

 

https://twitter.com/spcplcyonline/status/1437851118734823430?s=21

 

And then some girls cried, and all the dilithium in the universe exploded, including the crystals that poor guy had on him...

 

So "amatuer" astronomers are getting pictures close to the quality of hubble, with more than 7 feet less aperture, from Earth's surface... Imagine what we could get if we put today's top tech into an orbiting telescope...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QcJaD9klDc

 

Can anyone calculate the maximum speed of reentry from a 357 mile orbit?

If reentry from the ISS (approx 250-260 miles) is Mach 25 and STS-125 from the Hubble (approx 337) was Mach 26, could the extra 20 miles kick it up to Mach 27?

 

Doing some bar napkin calculations to see if they'll be the fastest reentry since Apollo?

 

I’m really imagining a starship modified for this purpose - figure you could fit an 8+m mirror, and that’s before you start going crazy with folding mirrors, can do on-orbit refueling, hell if something goes haywire on the instruments just bring it back to earth, fix it, and launch it again.

 

I'm waiting for someone to come out with graphics card based AI adaptive optics. DARPA worked on it for the Boeing Laser 747 and supposedly made a break through. Could give ground based home astronomy pretty awesome boost.

 

Any idea what the "correct mixture" is?

 

Wouldn't max reentry speed be limited by an object's mass, friction coefficient of the object resulting in its terminal velocity?

 

Sort of? I mean I remember from university for optimal fusion supposedly you want a mix of mostly deuterium, a small "catalyst" of tritium, and a dash of Lithium-3 as a starter. As the reaction goes on you want no Lithium, the Beryllium formed needs to be removed, and the Helium-4 needs to be removed as well. A lot of this stuff is theory. There's even some who suggest using a CNO (carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen) catalyst and even higher operating temperatures since that's what the fastest burning stars do but no ones really sure what's possibly long term yet. I think the goal is to sustain a reaction for several weeks first and then mess with the mixture later. Similar to the Chicago pile where Fermi (and others) added and removed Uranium bricks of know concentration until they found the optimal ratio and configurations.

The first reaction I mentioned is basically how our sun started and runs, except of course the Helium just keeps building up until about 5 billion years from now and the sun has already "burned up" all it's Lithium to Beryllium. The CNO cycle is how a star like Sirius makes it's energy and why it burns so much hotter and faster.

 

https://twitter.com/spaceflightnow/status/1438150045497503745?s=21

 

An I4 Tweet album up to launch:
https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1438236070534025218?s=21

https://twitter.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1438243310242615296?s=21

https://twitter.com/spaceflightnow/status/1438244164668362766?s=21

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1438237821190430723?s=21

https://twitter.com/jennyhphoto/status/1438238021854302216?s=21

https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1438239411955769344?s=21

https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1438240589418569731?s=21

https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1438241234754093057?s=21

https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1438242568870023170?s=21

https://twitter.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1438244604260851714?s=21

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1438246732652032008?s=21

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1438247957300719620?s=21

https://twitter.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1438248076343488518?s=21
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1438248482477903874?s=21
This one’s pretty funny

https://twitter.com/mirikramer/status/1438249882805063685?s=21

https://twitter.com/djsnm/status/1438251361292800000?s=21

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1438252048265449472?s=21

https://twitter.com/geoffdbarrett/status/1438237710326632452?s=21

https://twitter.com/jackiewattles/status/1438256319539122176?s=21

https://twitter.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1438256836478738436?s=21

https://twitter.com/sldelta45/status/1438265221966094337?s=21

https://twitter.com/spacex360/status/1438277000863551488?s=21

https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1438282104664645634?s=21

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1438282179293769728?s=21

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1438285724407644161?s=21

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1438292412820979712?s=21

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1438294284067749889?s=21

https://twitter.com/drchriscombs/status/1438302399014244358?s=21

https://twitter.com/sldelta45/status/1438307294358429704?s=21

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1438304334211477506?s=21

 

Post Launch:

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1438305676430921732?s=21

https://twitter.com/launchphoto/status/1438318972932341760?s=21

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1438336379830915072?s=21

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1438359359898066944?s=21

 

Now that’s just greedy.

 

Not a bad flight. Too bad no views out the cupola.

 

3 Dragons in orbit at the same time, 1 Crew Dragon, 1 Cargo Dragon at the ISS, this one way out there

 

https://twitter.com/alexsvanart/status/1438402101772750849?s=21

 

I was thinking there’d be all sorts of I4 crew pics this morning….Nada.

Made me think of:
“Space motion sickness is experienced by 60% to 80% of space travelers during their first 2 to 3 days in microgravity and by a similar proportion during their first few days after return to Earth.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16935570/


I hope that’s not the case.

If it is, it’s gonna be a long 3 days…

 

Hadn't thought about the space sickness aspect but wouldn't be surprised if they go through a large portion of their bag supply. Feel for them if that's the case--once in a lifetime experience and you're nauseous & feel like you have a massive head cold. Though, if you're experiencing those symptoms I'd just assume be experiencing them with the view they have.

All that said, their schedule is unlike any other previous astronaut's and much more lenient/forgiving.