Space and Science BS Thread

Nothing like being on vacation sardine canned into a 50 year old spacecraft..

https://twitter.com/roscosmos/status/1471454027485532168?s=21

 

At $56M for a seat on Soyuz, vs $55M for a seat on Dragon, I’m curious how much tourism they think they’re going to get. Both of those prices are what NASA is paying, though, so maybe Russia has more room to discount that price.

 

If that's the case, why are they looking at dragon to carry their astronauts?

Reality is people will pay to be sardines in space. And there is probably a lot of red tape for a tourist to go to the ISS, while the only tape for the Russian station would be the tape holding it together.

 

Then I wonder what the improvements to 39-A are for?

 

Two pads are better than one. At least according to the article.

With 2 pads on the Cape, 1 at Boca Chica, and the two floating platforms, Starship will have some options…

 

Don't forget 'inspiration' style missions (4 pax free float) or even commercial destinations. Inspiration was 'under 200m' according to Issacman so I'd say 'less than 50m a seat' for dragon if you're not doing NASA paperwork.

 

I'm assuming that's a seat swap, rather than paying for a seat, and a US astronaut will end up on another upcoming Soyuz flight. Also, why wouldn't you try to get a cosmonaut on Dragon, learn everything you can about it.

 

As of now, I'd pay that extra <0.5% to go to the ISS vs not go to ISS.

But who are we kidding? I don't have that 0.5%!

 

I'm sure, regardless, that SpaceX will have to revamp the pads to hold and launch SH. That longevity study may be moot at that point.

 

Iirc they were looking at more than a seat swap long term. And I wouldn't get a cosmonaut on dragon because it's going to be replaced by something bigger and better making it obsolete soon.

 

Filling up the seats for Crew 6:

https://twitter.com/spacex360/status/1471584820018962433?s=21

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...-assignments-for-nasa-s-spacex-crew-6-mission

 

When I was a kid, we didn’t have any of these newfangled exoplanets ..

https://twitter.com/nasaexoplanets/status/1471589357307850753?s=21

It’s wild about 5,000 have been found.

 

Wait, is this just in our solar system?

 

ex·o·plan·et
/ˈeksōˌplanət/
Learn to pronounce

noun
ASTRONOMY
noun: exoplanet; plural noun: exoplanets

1. a planet that orbits a star outside the solar system.
   "most of the 100 known exoplanets are comparable in mass to Jupiter"

 

Ok....I think.

 

Only planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (Pluto was downgraded to dwarf planet)) are found revolving around the Sun.

The Sun is our Solar System’s star.

The stars you see at night are where the 5,000 exoplanets are being found.
They are exoplanets because they are found revolving around stars that are not the Sun.

Exo is a prefix meaning ‘external’.

Exoplanets are planets external to our Solar System.

Not all 5,000 exoplanets are found around one star. They are spread out among many.

https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

 

Ok. That's what I thought I was thinking.

 

When I was a kid Pluto was a planet...

On the real though, it's crazy what they're doing and the tech they're doing it with. There are only about 2 dozen space telescopes currently functioning, and most of those are 10-20 years old, which means the tech in them is 15-30 years old. I mean looking at the telescope we're all anxiously waiting to launch, the James webb. Started in 1996, supposed to launch in 2007, construction actually completed 2016, still waiting for launch. I'd love to know, if they upgraded the internals as things dragged out or is it still using the electronics it was originally designed with. I mean the Iphone launched in 2007 with a 2 megapixel camera... it will be a huge improvement over Hubble with it's massive 25 mhz cpu, but the last 20 years have seen major tech advancements and it could be so much better.

 

well for laughs, I logged into Amazon and watched the movie "Iron Sky". Wow, whomever wrote this was smoking some good stuff. I have to admit, it had some funny stuff, Germans on the moon with antiquated computers, cell phone power their super space ship. Give credit to the special effects and CGI, it was decent.

 

Don't forget the sequel!!