DDE

I think the worry is what can be attempted with thousands of tons of upmass per year. The ability to return finicky prototype tech back home for maintenance is just a bonus.

Suddenly, no. And at some point your own propaganda gets to you, especially when you don't consider yourself a propagandist. But what most people probably aren't stupid enough to do is propose a strategy of containment as a long-term solution... except that's exactly what we're seeing attempted here, along with, woth regards to Russia, an assertion of already being in decline. However, in many cases these can lead to a foreign policy U-turn, which is exactly why such upheavals are often viewed through the prism of being supported by this or that foreign power. As to not destroying states... civil wars as well as long-term, top-down change of a country's culture are some of the possible consequences. There's a discussion to be had, surely, but it would veer off into what makes or destroys a country. The actions of the US are presently shaped by its experience with the Soviet Union, where a... series of events with wildly different interpretations resulted in loss of much of the imperial periphery, destruction of industry, and devastating demographic effects that seemingly made it a political non-entity for well over a decade. Not only are the 1990s, the "unipolar moment", now percieved as the status quo - hence the term "revisionist powers" - but the fall of the Soviet Union, by what is perceived to be failure to keep up with US brinkmanship, also provides a basis for the US's theory of geopolitical victory. To turn around a popular belligerent Russian slogan referencing 1945, "We can do it again!" People follow in the wake of the elites (it's generally known as "fashion") and so it's quite possible to drive cultural change by upending a country's leadership. A partial upending of a country's leadership is a prerequisite for a coup anyway.

The first option is unlikely to work. One of the big problems of the current geopolitical situation is that the major actors don't expect the other side to even be around in 20-50 years. Why mind your manners towards a side you think is utterly evil - and, better yet, towards a side you think is doomed to go away, to decline and collapse in the foreseeable future anyway? There have been annual predictions of irreversible collapse of Russia since the mid-2000s, and China since maybe a few years later (this year's talking point is going to be China's population beginning to decline); the US have recently been giving plenty of fodder for similar predictions. This was not the case for the Soviet Union, where, outside of the nuclear first strike lobby, most perceived it as the status quo, discouraging the burning of bridges. Why co-exist when you think total victory is within grasp?

Scrub. lOx unloading; not clear if they'll take her back to the MIK. https://ria.ru/20210527/raketa-1734492955.html

@ARS's gamma ray weapon is smaller than Shklovskyi's graser. Hold on, I have a call on Skype.

So that's why Khuzdûl is similar to Hebrew.

Not really.

Off-topic

This raises the question of what comes first: the boogieman or the scaremonger? Certainly there's not much need for true spaceflight successes to drum up a threat.

Broke: McAuto Woke: McDonalds DIY

It's a great mystery who owns the MIK where it is. Last year Rogozin implied it's owned by an unidentified Kazakh company or individual, thus legally preventing Roscosmos from doing anything

I estimated mine to be about one cubic metre. Still have the original Mindstorms set collecting dust.

Now you know why they rant about SpaceX technology still being unproven.

Welp... it's hapenned. Looks like Yakutia is going to start fining companies that don't suspend employees who refuse to vaccinate. The official statement is garbled, but it's being widely interpreted as the beginning of a compulsory vaccination program. https://www.sakha.gov.ru/news/front/view/id/3274402

OK, you're gonna hate me

Coming back to the topic, remembring @MatterBeam's blogpost, and completely disregarding the bottomless puns, how would ethanol compare as a 'drop-in' (in relative terms) pipeline-based energy transport mechanism? Same flammability issues and, IIRC, annoyingly hygroscopic, but density should be quite sane. One problem I forsee is that the current pipeline is ultimately designed for gas and not liquid, and water hammers are... fun.

The arc of history is long, but inevitably it bends towards Wh40k.

And those who have given it are the government themselves. Does that not you make you even the slightest bit suspicious? Assuming our assessments of their size/distance to them are correct, and those are all too often difficult to verify in a narrow-angle shot. Indeed, I'm not egotistical enough to assume an advanced race would stick around to study us, while repeatedly getting caught - as opposed to making open contact, or eradicating us like roaches. Which is consistent with reflector balloons, one of the countless suggestions you've apparently dismissed. I can assure you skunk works egineers have done that and then some. [snip] I'm phoning home.

You have some safety in numbers. https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/ufos-arent-real I don't think there's much more to add to that, other than slightly more on how they likely began as a mixture of genuine sightings and coverups. e.g. Area 51 does have secret excrements going on in it, and that's just one step removed from "anomalous" and "alien".

Amy Shira Teitel argues that the entire BLUE BOOK was a U-2 coverup effort.

Relevant to our discussion. X-37B is labelled as "Low-orbit and inter-media spacecraft".

Well, not if it's attempting a single-orbit mission, which is very likely under wartime conditions. But since low orbit is in the exosphere, some (admittedly low-quality) slurces mentioned appreciable inclination effects from the Shuttle's wings even up there. Of course, all of you are missing the bigger picture. Do you remember what the previous CEO of Almaz-Antei is at? https://asgardia.space/en/

One word: Vandenberg. Also, from what I've heard the Shuttle could use its wings for aerodynamic plane change maneuvers. Anyway, the people behind the study that justified Buran never recanted their opinion that the Shuttle was a bomber. https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3855/1 https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3873/1 https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3876/1 This contributes to certain... "alternative facts" circulating in the Russian defence community.

Most NERVA scenarios are classic, Apollo-style, non-reusable trailblaser missions assembled from parts launched using, again, non-reusable Saturn V derivatives.

AFAIK the doctrine is to ensure it's autonomously steered away from the pad. Everything else is secondary.