Bill Phil

I know Shuttle did it at least once... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Space_shuttles_Atlantis_(STS-125)_and_Endeavour_(STS-400)_on_launch_pads.jpg

That was only due to poor landing site surveys. The technology of the time prevented accurate surveys like we can perform now. Even then, the computer could perform the landing provided the chosen site was suitable. We would probably need more resolution for any manned effort to Mars, but that can be achieved.

Wow. Looks like Homeworld.

Funny you should say that.... Minecraft is often considered to be a copy cat...

New Horizons probably helped in that regard. Flybys can actually provide a lot of data. Even better would be observations of the Pluto-Charon system before and after the flyby, observing their movements and the like.

Even if they could escape the system (possible with gravity assists, I supposs), there's still the chance that they could return and be recaptured by the planet, continuing the risk to the Moons.

Well, there's also the Space Launcher System... it never flew, but as of now, neither has SLS. So there are two SLS rocket families...

I'm glad that they're properly addressing clustering. At least, that's one thing I took out from it.

I just thought up a music video concept for Pink Floyd's Echoes... It'd be about an ocean under the surface of Europa. There's a lot of ocean themes in the song... I know this doesn't sound that cool, but I would enjoy it a whole lot. It'd be 24 minutes long, though. Check out the lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pinkfloyd/echoes.html So, what if there's an opening that's similar to the "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" sequence, although only really the Jupiter part, with a spacecraft called the "Albatross" in orbit of Europa... Or we could relate the oceans of Earth to the possible ocean of Europa. The opening would be Earth's oceans and then, through a space scene, we get to Europa's oceans, or something like that. Artistic license will be needed, though.

At this point I would just give it to Moon Express. They've got everything lined up pretty well. In all honesty, time limitsfor space related prizes don't make much sense, due to how long these things can take.

Tom Baker, all the way.

I like Ender's Shadow more.

There are two Rama series, or, well, there's Rama and then there's a separate series that's similar, but definitely different.

Why not?

I really can't remember my dreams. At all. Not even right after I wake up. I did remember some dreams when I was a kid, but none anymore.

They're already going to run out of them before the end of the program, since they plan on flying more than 4 times. I'd say get the old engines out of the way ASAP, and replace them with a new variant.

Specific impulse is impulse per unit mass. In some definitions, exhaust velocity is specific impulse. But, you can specify impulse per unit weight, which gives you a unit of seconds. Thus, we have to use the value for g because we used weight, not mass.

Those SSMEs are quite finicky. Really, the only problem is that they're not using 5 of them on the core. According to some guys at Marshall, that would alleviate a lot of issues.

Don't they have oxygen candles as well?

NASA has 16 Shuttle SSMEs that are going to be reused on SLS, 4 at a time.

X-15 had TPS (somewhat more heat resistant material than other vehicles) and RCS.

Not really. There's not enough evidence to suggest that he even said that during the flight, let alone while in space. Some have attributed him of saying something similar after his flight, but not during it. Really, there's not much of a reliable way to tell what the first words in space were... Still, a brave man. Now, to be somewhat on-topic... The drag equation and the lift equation are nearly identical, the main difference being that the area used in the calculation is different (reference area vs. wing area) and the coefficients are different (drag vs. lift). Of course, these are the simple drag and lift equations, in reality, it gets much more complex then that.

Well, presumably LRBs would've been safer. And in all honesty, 1 launch failure in 135 launches is not a bad record. That's a 99.26% launch success rate, and considering the sheer complexity of the vehicle... that's a big accomplishment. Of course, there was also a reentry failure that was caused during launch, but the launch successfully inserted the payload into orbit. As a launch vehicle, the Shuttle stack was not bad at all. It's a shame that LRBs, 5 segment SRBs, and the cargo only variant were never developed. In any case, let's all be thankful that the "death star" payloads were never launched...

It snowed. In Alabama.

What's worse is false positives in the error detection. Imagine a vert expensive mission wasted for no reason...