JoeSchmuckatelli

For spin launch

I'm inclined to believe that the magnetosphere is a critical element. I say this unaware of any detailed studies about hypomagnetic environments - but a lot of reading about the importance of the magnetosphere. I think there's a difference between 'native' and 'outpost' that is critical to understand. Absent a magnetosphere, the likelihood of any place maintaining native life is low (based on reading mentioned above) - but we could likely maintain outposts. Not colonies - or at least not easily. I think terraforming Mars is never going to happen. But we could possibly develop outposts on Mars that are dependent on Earth in an analog (but much more dangerous / less survivable way) to the research stations on Antarctica.

Isolated population living in the Sahara when it was wet and savanna like discovered. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/sahara-desert-once-lush-green-was-home-mysterious-human-lineage-2025-04-04/ "... the Green Sahara people carried only trace amounts of Neanderthal DNA, illustrating that they had scant contact with outside populations. Although the Takarkori population itself disappeared around 5,000 years ago when the African Humid Period ended and the desert returned, traces of their ancestry persist among various North African groups today... "

Side question: I know most mono cultures smile far less than Americans do - including in photos... Would Russians see the above photo as 'the man seems angry' or 'this is normal photo face'? https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/why-americans-smile-so-much/524967/

Doesn't Starship need to survive the launch to practice reentry? (I don't think the TPS tiles are the current problem)

Good for them!

More 'dark energy' weirdness. Expansion rate not constant. Um. Lambda? "... data from the powerful Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) add more evidence that the universe’s expansion accelerated faster in the past than it is doing now. DESI’s picture of “dynamical dark energy” will both delight and confound theorists, who have despaired at the lack of clues to dark energy’s physical cause but were not expecting what DESI is now seeing." https://www.science.org/content/article/mystery-force-behind-universe-s-accelerating-expansion-may-not-be-so-constant-after-all

I've seen that guy at the klurb

Ofc - I could be glaringly wrong abt this!

I think that would be true for a point light source. However, given that the sun is much larger (and despite the distance) we almost have to assume that the penumbra might actually lightly shade inside the actual diameter

Is the shadow of the moon on earth during an eclipse smaller in diameter than the moon itself? I'm thinking it would have to be, given that the sun isn't a point light source.

So cool that people can and will do stuff like that! ... I'm aware that the "move fast and break stuff / best part is no part / only put stuff back on when it no longer works" ideology incorporates events like the last two failures, and that from failure can come success. So I'm hoping we hear from SX or some of the deeper diving watchers about what the likely problem is and how they will overcome the engineering challenges. That's the interesting stuff. The only question in my mind is whether the fast pace of construction has 'baked in' problems. From a public relations standpoint it would be better for SX to figure out this aft-fire-RUD thing before flying again. However from a sunk cost / get info from what you have standpoint - it might actually be better for SX to fly a faulty-but-already-built ship to scrap in the ocean rather than send it to the yard for disassembly.

Big rocket, maybe? After looking at that ship and thinking about rockets that occasionally tip over... This one looks like it would be cheaper to repair in the case of an impromptu structural overhaul

The extremes of both sides are idiots. Also - I might remind folks, that while history doesn't always repeat it does quite often rhyme. We've been through this kind of thing before. We will muddle through again. [snip]

I'm Gen X and I teach Gen Z. The kids are alright. The screaming polarization of Millennials and Boomers (both within the individual groups and between the polar opposites of each group with the other) is annoying. It's like being a guest at dinner when a family fued breaks out. Each participant in the fued wants to cozy up to us while pointing out their opponents are insane.

This was a wet dress rehearsal

I get that - but... ...at least in that video I'm not seeing much in the way of "pretending there's a tower". I do see a neat, controlled landing on the water.

I've said this before - but I remain impressed that they are practice landing that close to a prepositioned camera. Indicating that the reentry is pretty much on target. That said - there is not much lateral transition. Basically if you just go off the above video and imagine a tower - they'd pretty much have to scrape by it. Suggests that when they go for the tower catch things could get interesting.

I thought the same. Also - if the thing is supposed to be sekret - why publish a photo that says 'here I was!'

Wow Thanks! So - is there a time frame for 'coming up' when we can look for an update on whether the Bennu-Tea has the six 'missing' amino acids? Great panel discussion, btw! I'm also curious about the similarities to the JAXA samples - was that expected or surprising? Did they get a similar wet environment signal or did Bennu have a different history?

No kidding On my maps it's "The Gulf of Joe"

That Edited Image - cannot catch both Booster and Ship without dismounting Booster... (Sez they guy who thinks the tower isn't tall enough for that!) Interestingly - starting at 1:52 of that video - where Booster is just about to light the landing burn - you can see they're already venting gas from the place we got all concerned about venting burning gas. It of course ignites. Seems to me to be part of the plan - as it's coming from a vent.

I'm expecting that if they're going for a catch - even if they don't do a full orbit - they'd have to effectively be in orbit to make it all the way around, plus account for rotation and then do a burn for descent. So to catch at Boca Chica, the burn has to start somewhere west (and likely north of Texas) and the descent will be over land for a period - it's just I don't have enough KSP time to guestimate what the in-atmosphere descent profile would look like as a line drawn over a map of the United States. Is it fast enough that it's only in the atmosphere over Texas... or might they enter over Oregon?

You can light it on fire and heat up canned food. You shouldn't hit it with a hammer.