Space and Science BS Thread

Fuel off-loading begins Thursday as Lockheed has been removing the heat shield v carefully so it can be studied. Here is Orion as she lay a few weeks back when we started our preps...

 

What primarily fills the void between the pressure vessel and the skin? Insulation & electrical?

 

Thought you all would appreciate this short vid of my site visit of the kennedy space center.

https://youtube.com/shorts/1mpAHRK08Q4?feature=share

 

I dont pretend to know every thing about the capsule but from what I see its electrical, tubing from tanks to thrusters and insulation yes.

 

https://twitter.com/trevormahlmann/status/1630895368270409729?s=46&t=Kw5WKLK_Ur2JLkF4hHsfEQ
https://twitter.com/trevormahlmann/status/1630895628338249729?s=46&t=Kw5WKLK_Ur2JLkF4hHsfEQ
https://twitter.com/alexsvanart/status/1630896377176702977?s=46&t=Kw5WKLK_Ur2JLkF4hHsfEQ

 

https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/1630903058287800322?s=46&t=Kw5WKLK_Ur2JLkF4hHsfEQ

 

https://twitter.com/sciguyspace/status/1630974915674243082?s=46&t=Kw5WKLK_Ur2JLkF4hHsfEQ

 

Makes sense. A lot of usable/valuable space there.

 

Crew 6 is on their way

 

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1631166308288172032?s=46&t=iPkyPiGbNZsPrRqQNcFHxA

It’s amazing how steady the footage is now that Starlink has been built up.
https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1631168662383259651?s=46&t=iPkyPiGbNZsPrRqQNcFHxA
https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1631169621696086016?s=46&t=iPkyPiGbNZsPrRqQNcFHxA

 

Sounds silly but….
https://twitter.com/starstryder/status/1631168680003239936?s=46&t=iPkyPiGbNZsPrRqQNcFHxA

 

With weight costing so much to go to space, I wonder if they're pulling a vacuum instead of stuffing it with insulation.

 

https://youtu.be/BAuET8rA7NA

 

How do you sell an alliance?

 

At the highest price you can get

 

I assume it covers existing hardware, industrial developement tech & contracts but would the military still feel bound to contracts with a different hydra head? This smacks of “this isn’t working as well as we thought it would”, maybe some grumbling about how differently delays affect the constituent companies. “Sell” might be less accurate than “buyout” which would probably preserve the military contracts.

 

Deservicing Orion has begun, it's a slow moving process that will last at least 3 weeks around the clock 7 days a week.
This command center used to meet the shuttle on the runway. Today it's being used as a support center for the technicians doing the deservicing.

 

SpaceX launch scheduled for 10:38 this morning from Vandenberg

 

I was curious about artificial photosynthesis and looked briefly into it. It naturally occurs at STP but only at very low efficiency, meaning the notion of just growing plants to recycle CO2 for habitats or ships isn’t a viable option without VAST space available for enough to deal with even small crews. An artificial energy/heat using experiment MOXIE was recently tested on Mars and in a 1% scale model was able in one hour to produce enough O2 for one person to breath for 10 minutes.
https://www.businessinsider.com/nas...their own oxygen to breathe and fuel rockets.
This sounds good but my take away was that since the byproducts were O2 and CO it didn’t fully convert the gas meaning it’s fine for Mars but isn’t suitable for a habitat that has a limited supply to work with. For that we either need a fully closed cycle conversion machine or artificial photosynthesis that works magnitudes of order more efficiently than plants(algae, see weed, forests, etc.). It’s an area of study that’s being investigated but it seems the best candidates so far generally require both exotic materials and conditions outside normal temperatures and pressures. I’m actually looking forward to seeing what kinds of experiments are conducted in space where extreme conditions are the norm and don’t have to be artificially created.