StrandedonEarth

Solar hot water is fairly easy, as long as you have something black and watertight. Wind generation requires less tech than solar PV, although concentrated solar thermal would be similar to wind, aside from steam handling. This assumes the sun is still shining, not blocked out by clouds. AFAIK, military industrial would be primary targets, with population centres being collateral damage. So most useful industry (not including useless consumer goods) would be wiped out.

From what I saw from pork chop plots, there are some times where the dV cost doubles or triples or more…

Okay, so a booster airframe has made 20 flights. Does it still have any of its original Merlins? What is the most flights for a Merlin engine?

Geez, it might have been back in the 80s or 90s (maybe later, but don’t think so) that I came across an article suggesting that the blocks that built the Pyramids were poured, based on inclusions like hair. But apparently the theory never gained traction at the time…

The Battlestar Galactica reboot was pretty good, and they took a more realistic approach to space battles, although it still seemed to somewhat degenerate into point-blank brawls…

You know, this is certainly a huge advertising/sponsorship opportunity for a business like that, preferably one with deeeeeep pockets

Would it not be simpler to just build a solid rocket motor into the base of the penetrator, to be ignited at the best point in the trajectory?

Yeah, the imgur community has not been kind about this. IMO he's not worthy of making the thread title.

Every cat's name is the sound of the cat food can being opened.

They certainly don't need camera software any more...

The biggest issue would be having the necessary resources, mainly fuels and ores, in economic reach. Can’t do much without iron ore and the coal (or oil?) to smelt it. Perhaps the most civilizing advancement would be electric light, but that would probably be too close to witchcraft…

You could add SpaceShipTwo to that first list. There are also the Dragon capsules to consider. I wonder how Dragon turnaround compares to Shuttle turnaround…

Congrats. That's certainly one way to make it memorable

I think we were supposed to get something like 23% here. But I was inside working, clouds and rain outside, so, meh. But anyways, happy to hear that for some of you…

May the clouds be ever in your favor...

Let me think about that for a second... Um, no. Do you want to try standing while pulling 6 gees, and still control the aircraft? I don.t, not even if it's fly-by-brainwaves.

I’m assuming to get the blue flame with kerolox (although that tweet doesn’t specify lox), they must be running lean (oxy-rich). I believe the usual glowy orange of kerolox exhaust is from glowing soot (unburnt carbon) particles

Obligatory Tintin tax...

It's workiiiing! Well, after not working for a month, as of a few minutes ago I can properly access the S&SF subforum on mobile again. This, after I thought I was running into a new bug: "Hey, where'd the "Next Unread Topic" button go? I was just getting ready to post about it before I realized I had run out of unread topics; I must have hit the "mark all as read" button sometime in 2022... I even went so far as trying to convince Dall-E to create something like a kraken wielding a banhammer....

Well, I won't be catching this one. I'll have to head for Alberta in 2044. Alaska in 2033 is a possibility. I don't think I have until 2099...

"The right push at the right time" can be applied to so many things, from sales to psychology to space travel...

Good opinion piece. True stuff. Things Used to Work in This Country — The New Atlantis Sorry, no actual question here, figured this thread was a good enough place...

For Aiur! Hopefully they can at least clear the wreckage soon, and can modify an existing bridge design to have a plan ready ASAP. Cable-stayed seems to be the favorite these days.

Yeah, I saw that. About time, really, that someone found a way to recover all the low-grade waste heat getting dumped into the environment. Although I admit, I was waterskiing near a thermal power plant and finding the warm water plume was quite nice, compared to the rest of the inlet. But I digress.... A while back I was wondering if this sort of tech could be used to concentrate the waste heat going to radiators in space vessels, like the ISS. Radiators can shed heat faster the hotter they are; while it would take some power to run the heat pumps, it would allow more heat to be dumped per unit area. Perhaps the waste heat could even be pumped up enough to generate some electricity. Not enough to run the pumps, I know, but at least recover some energy...