RCgothic

The Troll A platform weighs over a million tonnes with ballast and was mobile prior to installation, so stability with a mere 5000 is not necessarily an insurmountable issue (admittedly that's for a sea floor supported structure). I use it as an example as I was part of its expat community when I was younger.

Both Superheavy and Starship individually could theoretically SSTO, we think, with the right tank and engine configurations. So could F9 stage 1. But the exact payload depends very heavily on the dry mass which isn't precisely known outside SpaceX at this point in development. If superheavy masses 160t, then it's payload SSTO with all sea level engines could be somewhere 5-40t range. No rocket can SSTO and be recovered though, which is what makes it kind of pointless. It will almost always be cheaper to recover the 1st stage and expend a smaller 2nd stage, even for the same payload. Then consider that by expending a 2nd stage you can either massively reduce the size of the first stage needed for the same payload, or loft much more mass at once, and the economics of SSTO are very poor indeed.

I'd have expected 100% throttle. Less just invites gravity losses.

So do they need to do another test? 31 engines is not a full 33.

FIRE! It's still standing

Engine chill vent exhaust manifold is frosty!

Tanks are loading. Methane tank is frostier than I was expecting.

Even if unsuccessful! >.<

Today's Starlink was the heaviest ever:

It actually looks really small. My sense of perspective had been getting warped I guess!

Correct, the gain in potentially energy would need to be paid for somehow. Most likely it would be as difficult to step through that wormhole as to climb the VAB in a few steps.

Sigh. I want to burn this whole system with fire.

A pint is strictly 568ml, but even in the UK you get a large number of bottles/pint glasses sold as "ISO Standard Pints" (AKA 500ml), and pretty much nobody complains about the missing 68ml.

42 digits calculates the circumference of the observable universe from it's diameter to a calculation precision of about a proton's width. This is especially hilarious because the *first* digit of the diameter of the observable universe isn't precisely known, so there's no conceivable reason to calculate the circumference to its 42nd digit. Garbage in, garbage out. NASA/JPL use 15 digits for their most precise navigational calcs.

A tonne of antimatter divided a billion ways could power a billion candle-like heat outputs (80W) for around two billion seconds (~ 64 years). But it would be far more likely to deliver a billion instantaneous explosions each equal to about 40kg of TNT, or approximately 4 Javelin anti-tank missiles per person. There's no kill like overkill.

I can't conceive any system that could safely contain a ton of antimatter on earth. Even a perfectly functional system would be a time bomb with a destructive energy in excess of 40 gigatons. The level of destruction from an accident would be continental in scale. Plus in order to be magnetically containable it would need to be an antimatter *plasma*, and even the best confinement techniques we have for matter plasma leak. And if antimatter and matter come into contact they'll dump all their energy into the confinement system, which then rapidly disassembles. Any anti-matter using civilisation would surely ban its planetary use.

The new LEO earth observation constellations will soon mean there isn't any part of earth that isn't under continuous observation in clear sky conditions.

Starlink is LOS so basically unjammable and hard to detect compared to conventional phone signals. That's why it's prized by front line units that operate cell phone discipline. Some militaries are disciplined enough to understand that using cell-phones paints their location for strikes. Those that aren't get defeated in their objectives.

Hard to overstate how BAD for a reactor - any conceivable reactor - this would be. Reactors need cooling and protection from oxidising environments. Oxygen-carrying proteins don't like high temperatures or high radiation environments. The blood proteins would immediately denature and become useless, defeating the purpose of using blood in the first place. So it'd be useless at best. Blood also contains lots of things that would stick to or oxidise fuel, degrading the fuel performance. Not the least of these being oxygen. These impurities would also get highly activated by the neutron flux and the blood coolant would become extremely radioactive, and make maintenance and access to machinery extremely problematic. This is a very bad idea.

After the detonation event, the raptor vents were flex-hosed to the launch mount through the open aerocover panels. Both booster and launch mount need modifications for an alternative routing for launch, and then the booster needs its aerocovers reinstalling. I wouldn't write B7 off yet.

Expected 20s, more like 12-14s. Early shutdown? Also number of engines unknown at present, awaiting confirmation. A full tank would only need low autogenous pressurisation, so wouldn't need that many engines.

晴天になりますように (seitenninarimasuyouni) いい天気になりますように (iitenkininarimasuyouni) For those who can't read kanji/kana.

It'd not be like "zap, you're dead" either. Even if completely unexpected, elevated radiation levels are tolerable for *short* periods. Drop everything and bunker down immediately and the astronauts would still have a decent chance.

Tatooine was a verdant world laid waste by the Infinite Empire of the Rakata around 25200 BBY.