JoeSchmuckatelli

These are terrible things to consider. I know people who've won TVs and cars on game shows - and they sure as heck had to pay taxes on those. So... the other thing to think about is that the very, very rich have other avenues they can explore with the IRS and categorize things however they see fit. i.e. 'value' a seat on the trip as 'nothing', or characterize the winners as employees with no cash value. Or assign them a value of the award and a cost to participate that is exactly equal to result in a no income finding. I've had some tax law - but this is way beyond the scope of anything I know the answer to... and I assign @mikegarrison the title of "Today's Evil Jenius" (spelling intentional) for being evil enough to think about that.

Why aluminum or volfram and not steel? or just cast iron (cheap)? I assume there is some advantage to one or both that outweighs the simple kinetic engergy?

Fun fact - I know where one of the Betty's lives.

Isn't that pretty much what SX designed as their 'launch suits' - just a tad more stylish than was the norm back then?

For all you particle physicists out there: 1st sign of elusive 'triangle singularity' shows particles swapping identities in mid-flight (msn.com) --- --- --- @mikegarrison 'They are the same thing' --- This is one of those things that's hard to grasp. I've googled around and found I'm still a bit confused. Take Messier 90 (Hubble Spies Curious Galaxy Moving a Little Closer | NASA) It's part of the Virgo Cluster, approximately 60 million light years away. Much of the cluster is moving away from us (redshifted) but Messier 90 is blueshifted. If expansion is the rule, then I would assume that all galaxies in the cluster are moving away - but that there might be some distinction between relative motion within the cluster. I just don't read the article that way... it seems like they are saying that Messier 90 is actually moving toward us. Is this just bad writing, or is it possible that Messier 90 is fast enough to overcome the expansion and is literally approaching the Milky Way?

Nice to hear you say that - I'm (somewhat) leery of the Inspiration 4 thing as being anything but a joyride... but have to admit that they've done a lot to allay those concerns. Learning that the donation and publicity to St. Jude's is real and appreciated is significant. Not that I'm particularly against joyrides: I actually support the idea of Space Tourism - especially if they can get the costs down. (Cannot tell you how envious I am of Dr. Proctor as she and I are about the same age.) Sadly, even if they do get costs down I'm likely 'overqualified' in terms of height. The 7 requirements to be an astronaut | Space (sbs.com.au) (I'm 3 inches too tall)

My C-130 pilot friend certainly tells me that I'm not a pilot because I rode in and jumped out of his plane a few times. And yet we both have wings. (Personally, I think mine are cooler -but he calls me a knuckledragger who doesn't know any better)

Oh - and let me add: the Netflix show(s) on the 'mission' are a master class on 'how to take the sting out of a vanity project accusation'. You have the high flying billionaire guy who has done some of the stuff and looks the part of a person who qualified to be an astronaut (unironically sitting next to a 20 year Airforce vet who's now employed by SX and is NOT going), the St. Jude tie-in who cannot be beaten for being up-beat, the actually a good guy schmoe who won a contest - and one qualified (almost) former astronaut candidate with a professional degree - who's 51 and pretty much awesome. Bezos and Branson have got to be furious. (And should be trying to hire the PR genius behind this)

Lolz! Would look pretty snazzy on this, too

They will have orbited - I think the question comes down to whether they did any work, or were just tourists Edit - remember, the tradition comes from the ability to wear the unique insignia of the astronaut on your military uniform. Given that most early astronauts (kosmonauts) were military officers - that makes sense. A pair of astronaut wings above your flight wings? Yeah everyone else in the O-Club is jelly. Some of those folks are kind of particular about who qualifies for the title. Given that they had to go through a rigorous and highly exclusionary process to even qualify, much less get off the planet - there is a bit of quiet pushback against letting Bezos type tourists call themselves astronauts. Also, wearing military stuff like badges and medals looks kind of silly in civilian attire. Not looking sideways at you, Russia (much)

I have to agree with you - but that did not stop me from confirming that it was 8 days between SN-15's static fire and flight.

Booster static fire... hopefully next week Woot!

This is one of the disconnects I'm having... Because so is the sun. JWST needs power. Most satellites rely on solar and get lots of sunlight during earth orbit. But JWST is going to solar orbit at L2, which is in at least partial shadow. With the elaborate sun shade protection, I figured it would be in the light - but apparently not. Edit: okay I think I found the answer: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lissajous_orbit With this, it should get regular sunlight

How'd you like to be the guy who has to write the manual for what connects to what, using that image or even just from personal experience? Although, to be fair, that looks like the electric panel in my basement did when I bought the house. It's better now

There has to be some kind of adhesive... Fairly certain the vibration of the engines is a wee-bit stronger than that guy's hand-hammering.

So... I just reassured myself that the solar panels on the JWST won't be completely useless (the umbra from the Earth at L2 = not complete shadow). However, the panels still won't get full, direct sunlight (which is one reason for using L2). Any idea why they did not use a Percy-style radioisotope power system?

That's a nice feature. When I lived in Phoenix I drove a 1975 Chevy Blazer with 2-65 AC. One hot day, the water inside my canteen got hot enough to burn me. Since then I've been cautious about the solar oven thing - but I guess technology has solved the problem.

Panoramic sunroof in South Texas is a bad idea. First time I've seen the top down on them. No likey

Yeah - they don't look like any I've seen. Odd shape... But so likely to be a Tesla

What are the white cars with black roofs? (upper left) - there's a whole bunch of them.

Good article Color me unsurprised - but at least it's December... (I'm not going to say any more)

Zoom in to the bottom of the picture - and tell me that's not R2-D2 hanging out with the crane!

Is there a way to distinguish redshift of a galaxy due to expansion from redshift due to the relative motion? i.e. If there were two galaxies in the Coma Cluster, one moving 500 km/s toward the Milky Way and another moving 500 km/s away - could we know if they were passing each other and equidistant from us (if imaged at the right time)?

We hope. I'd hate to see a bunch shake off during the launch ... of course the steel might just be good enough to make it if its only in a few spots.