SOXBLOX

That sounds reasonable. And scary. Although, I thought rare earths occurred at roughly the same levels everywhere, and that only slightly higher grade ore plus *ahem* low-cost mining practices made China the sole supplier. I remember there was a mine in California that produced these, but I guess it closed... Atomic Rockets suggested "espatier", to be consistent with French-derived military terminology. Personally, I think they'd just be called marines.

Right there with all those lost disposable ballpoint pens. *cough* Adams *cough*

Whaaa....? Where's Star Wars?!? "I find your lack of Star Wars disturbing..." I used to like the Avengers and Marvel, but now... Eh. I hate Mary Sues. And no, I won't name names.

My mother hated it when I left mine on the floor. Nice, smooth, round Lego bricks... Like a foot massage. Gosh, that was a while ago. I still have all the starships (not SpX) I built, though.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmament#/media/File%3AFlammarion.jpg

Of course. That was from the top of my head 30 minutes after I woke up. Relevant fact: Just a little while ago, I thought someone was staring at me, when it was just their face angled slightly towards mine. So peripheral vision definitely plays a role. I know (from Brain Games, actually) that PV has pretty bad resolution, so I guess it just picks up on areas of different color. The more of a face you can see, the closer they are to looking at you. As for sensing things in proximity, as in the OP, definitely yes. You can walk as quietly as possible towards someone, or even float magically in midair, and they will still have a chance of knowing you're there, even with their eyes shut and back turned. You change the acoustics and perhaps the air currents. We can pick up on both.

So, what is the magnitude of that shear force? Did you calculate it? I'll bet SpaceX did. And they probably know a lot about how they plan to build their own rocket. You're correct. It doesn't "prove" anything. Neither does your criticism, for the exact same reason. So, given the choice between a roomful of qualified engineers and, no offense, some guy on the Internet, I'll take the engineers.

I've always wondered that. If we do, I would guess that it's a combination of sight and hearing. You see who's in what position, and then you turn away. After that, you can hear any changes in their position by changes to acoustics in the room. IDK. That's just my guess. To test for it, I suppose we'd get a couple of groups of people and sit them down, as in your own experiment. One would be stared at, and the other wouldn't. Finding out exactly what is going on might be harder. Testing on another group, we should not let them know they're being watched, and not permit them to see the watchers, and again, compare them to a control group. If they still have the sensation, then something besides sight is involved. To test the auditory hypothesis, maybe we'd use an anechoic chamber or something?

Well, they also don't contain brittle nuclear fuel rods.

Ahsoka in all but a dogfight. Star Wars fighters are about as aerodynamic as bricks in atmosphere.

Maybe if there are a bunch of incompetent idiots running around, but a handful of highly trained high-attention-to-detail folks? Not a chance.

So, for this mission, Starship will reenter itself, with the crew on board? And also, does it have enough ∆v to insert into LEO after returning from the Moon?

How many tests are they planning!? Two years worth? Or is it because the rocket takes two years to build?

[snip] Anyway, ignoring that, The War Zone has filed numerous FOIA requests, and gotten answers. Many, if not most, of these sightings occur in the USA's oceanic test ranges, the blocks of (supposedly) sanitized airspace over the Pacific and Atlantic, where things like Aegis are tested. Most of these sightings, including the "tic-tac" incident, occurred when new, advanced radars were deployed and first operationally tested in these ranges. From the data, they conclude that an adversary (hi, China) is using balloons and drones to get away with an enormous intelligence heist. One of the UFO's descriptions, from an encounter over the Atlantic, I believe, matches the design of an aerial radar reflector from 1945 perfectly. In addition, the US itself notably used balloons and other contraptions to stimulate Cuban (Soviet-made) air defenses, to evaluate how effective the SR-71 would be. Actually, the entire system they used, called PALLADIUM, has morphed and evolved over time, and still exists today. Of course, details are classified. Part of its effect was to make the Cuban systems think huge numbers of US aircraft were approaching, and pulling crazy maneuvers, some perhaps not physically possible. Sound familiar? So, give it a read. They link other articles on this topic, too. I don't think I agree entirely with their assessment, but it seems reasonable. I would suggest that perhaps the US itself has been testing Aegis against PALLADIUM, and vice-versa. It sounds like something which would benefit both systems. Oh, and I don't believe in aliens. Just thought I'd say that.

IDK if it's been tested, but it really doesn't need to be. Just heat some metal and dunk it in cold water. If you have it even fairly hot, you'll get stress fractures. That, plus neutron embrittlement, plus the chemical action of steam, would make sure the rod casings are destroyed sooner rather than later. Then again, I could have a totally skewed perspective, and be wrong.

You want to run water over ... a nuclear reactor? Pretty sure fluorine is only slightly worse than superheated steam. I will watch your reactor disintegrate from my fortified observatory here on Earth, thank you.

I would like to see a few cities. I know it's probably a pipe dream, though. Maybe use Cities: Skylines?

That looks ambitious. Hopefully it happens.

I'll petition the government to send up a space-adapted Phalanx CIWS next launch! IDK how it would do this. It would have to enter the atmosphere, and then return to orbit. I think...

A) Do you have any justification for that doubt? and B) Yes, the strakes provide a bit of lift, for extra cross-range capability. As far as I can see, it's because *exaggerated Bezos voice* "It'S aNtiCoMPetiTivE!! Oh, and cHiNa!!" Which is to say, it's complete bovine waste.

LOL, whatever. Like the X-37 can do inclination changes at will to hit [insert random Russian city here]. Has that guy even played KSP?

I just heard a story from a guy who was in the Army in the 50s. He was flying to White Sands with his platoon, some others, and a chaplain. During the (turbulent) descent, one of them, who hated flying, was saying, "Pray foh' me, fatha! Pray foh' me!" Poor fellow.

Dr. What's-his-face may have meant very low enriched uranium. I could believe almost natural-grade material filling with poisons after a day, and using LEU was discussed on that page... But one day for a Virginia-class's reactor? Ehm, no. I agree.

That thing just needed to fly around over enemy territory. No warhead required.

Because obviously everything SpaceX does is terrible and stupid, and BO will do much better, simply because they are not SpaceX. But seriously, is there any time when SpaceX's barge failed?