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DDE

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Everything posted by DDE

  1. DDE
    Not before a bit almost struck the damned camera. The part of the plug closest to the surface was the most valuable.
  2. DDE
    Darn it, he's lost two samples before breaking the scissors...
  3. DDE
    Also an obligatory "To the right... other right!" gag.
  4. DDE
    The original Roscosmos stream is fly-covered bovine excrements. Buffers so badly I can't even hear the words. "A series of cutting tools and a knife"
  5. DDE
    Apparently they'll just slap a spare thermal blanket on it.
  6. DDE
    Apparently it’s the first EVA for Orlan-MKS suits.
  7. DDE
    @tater, it’s likely they’ve had a few PR shuffles, and they’re using every chance they get. https://www.rt.com/news/446041-roscosmos-rescue-iron-man/ Sounds not dissimilar to MoD changes after the trainwreck of the MH17 shootdown briefing; they got a little bit slicker but it’s the volume of publicity that changed manifold. Very noticeable with regards to the operation in Syria starting late 2015.
  8. DDE
    From swords to very sharp ploughshares. In unrelated news, the construction company for the Angara pad in Vostochnyi, likely selected due to being heavily embedded with the government of Tatarstan (spreading the pork is evidently not a problem for Russia’s largest majority-Muslim republic), is on the verge of a forced bankruptcy, creating risk of a contractor change. https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3826862
  9. DDE
    Conventional weapons are entirely legal - not to mention the distinct expectation of further arms control breaches. Or "weapons based on new physical principles". *winks in droplet radiator*
  10. DDE
    Depends on how you look at it. For the guys at Novosti Kosmonavtiki it's a purely military launcher with the lunar upper stage as a sideshow.
  11. DDE
    Today on "Complete Coincidences, We Swear":
  12. DDE
    Coilguns seem easier. I’m also surprised this poor sod didn’t make an appearance.
  13. DDE
    Well, the username sure checks out now.
  14. DDE
    Whoa whoa whoa, besides Hyugens, the GROZA microphones on Venera 13 and 14 technically recorded... something. Attempted reconstruction:
  15. DDE
    “Not invented here” is the greatest killer of spaceflight programs.
  16. DDE
    Unauthorized sandwiches aren't comparable to attempted murder, don't you think?
  17. DDE
    Actually the concern was even more extensive - both sides denied having spysats in the first place, and any evidence to the contrary was politically sensitive. Plus, quite interestingly the roughly comparable capabilities in film-scanning probes did not translate into comparable spy-sats - the Soviets actually went on with the man-tended photo station (Agat camera seen below), and the last film return capsules reentered in 2015.
  18. DDE
    One word: expansion stress of the underlying vehicle structure. That silica material is fragile as all heck, too, so it needs to be easily replaceable, which a unipiece solution isn't. A similar situation basically buried the Su-27KM project and its high-rigidity carbon fiber wing - zero reparability.
  19. DDE
    Ah, yes, space imagery archeology, that new and undervalued field that involves chasing the actual data tapes or negatives rather than scanned copies of whatever was published in glossy journals at the time. Which is how you go from that to that
  20. DDE
    The Dynasor used Rene 41 and molybdenum. The original Spiral plan VN5AP, namely Si2Mo-coated niobium; BOR-2 tried a single panel, and it burnt right through. By BOR-4 the TPS was a Buran replica (RCC, silica tiles), minus the evaporation-cooled movable wings, too thin for the tiles. I strongly suspect the Shuttle transitioning from Rene 41 to RCC+silica tiles was not an accident either.
  21. DDE
    Did you just assume their humanity!?
  22. DDE
    Doubtful. When ACTUAL spy tech was involved, NRO torpedoed the design: NASA wanted to strap KH-7 camera gear in place of an LM (and have the photos retrieved by a hand stuck through the airlock), and even had four recon modules partially built, but they were badly short on Saturn Vs. https://falsesteps.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/ Similarly, Soviet deep-space cameras had little in common with the contemporary Zenits - Zenits were much heavier, and could return the reels.
  23. DDE
    Mission Specialist, @razark. I had to check if those even got astronaut wings, and apparently NASA gives them some sort of a derpier version. “Engineer in a spacesuit”, to quote the not-Dzhanibekov from Salyut 7. Thing is, this is going to become more and more common if, or rather as, the number of space fliers increases. With the Shuttle’s crew of seven, NASA went well outside the original all-military recruitment pool (and Gene Cernan), and something like this was going to happen sooner or later - or at least much sooner were the recruitment pool limited to fast jet pilots. Hell, in case of the Soviets, excrements, or rather, vomit hit the fan the very first time they changed their recruitment pool - if even half of the gossip about Tereshkova is true, she botched the flight, from lost pencils and fabricated flight logs, to eating unauthorized food before the medics got their hands on her, to actually leaking info about the Vostok ejection sequence that would invalidate the first space flight claim under ICAO definition. So we may actually end up with the thoroughly unprofessional civilian astronauts of sci-fi.
  24. DDE
    Not likely. Two utterly distinct forms of corrosion involved; hot seawater adds the potential for such things as galvanic corrosion between the steel outer wall and the copper inner wall of the engine bell. It can get pretty bad: https://www.wired.com/2011/06/shipbuilder-blames-navy-as-brand-new-warship-disintegrates/
  25. DDE
    Seeing as the 10% of the station are about one half of the propulsion module, yeah.
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