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CatastrophicFailure

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Posts posted by CatastrophicFailure

    What funny/interesting thing happened in your life today?

    in The Lounge

    Posted

    52 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

    I finally bought a bump cap for work, because I was tired of occasionally and painfully bumping my head. I never wore a hat at work before, so some people were doing a double-take. One person pointed out that I still had the plastic tag-holder strand thingamabob poking up from my cap, and that it looked kind of like an antenna. I replied that I had to keep in touch with the mothership, lol.

    Even funnier in the context of my username here; not that he knew that.

    You should cover it in tinfoil. 

    Y'know, complete the look... <_<

    Russian Launch and Mission Thread

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted

    2 hours ago, sh1pman said:

    The tests of the robot to ensure the anti-terrorist security of the Vostochny cosmodrome will take place in the near future, said Dmitry Rogozin, general director of Roscosmos.

    Sooooo… how long til Russia gives control of their nuclear missiles to a highly advanced AI which begins learning at a geometric rate? Asking for a friend… by the name of Ivan Connorski… :wacko:

    What funny/interesting thing happened in your life today?

    in The Lounge

    Posted

    Took the puppy on his longest adventure yet today.

    First he went to the pet store where he was instantly fawned over by mobs of random strangers. Which he loves. I mean, c’mon, just look at that face…

    lFoCnTf.jpg

    [file photo… silly amount of new ones following…]
     

    Spoiler

    Then we headed off along the North Cascades highway. He met another puppy in a parking lot who was, to everyone’s surprise, three times his size and ten times his excitement level. He was somewhat less ok with this… he’s not used to being on the receiving end of limitless energy and unbounded enthusiasm. 

    Along the way, found the local high school. Which apparently is also the entry to the local airport..? 

    zpQ6Z7o.jpg
    :wacko: odd land agreement there…

    Then it was miles and miles of forest-canopied roads like this:

    RqIagxN.jpg

    most were actually better than this… took a while to remember I had a camera. 

    Also picturesque river scenes:

    Xb0YayU.jpg


    Here’s a view of a tree you don’t often see:

    fodnOa7.jpg

    the bottom… as in, under the roots…

    Lots of wooly bear caterpillars around… looks like it’s gonna be a bear of a winter…

    xmMBvum.jpg
     

    Also lots of dead salmon…  but you don’t need to see that.  Circle of life and whatnot. Instead here’s a pretty forest trail.

    g9891Uv.jpg

    You cannot convince me a fairy or something does not live here:

    EQPyj25.jpg

    We treaded carefully.

    Puppy discovered water that he can’t possibly splash the entirety onto the floor, he was most confused.

    GvncBkx.jpg


    And then there was driving… and driving… and more driving…

    which he took entirely in stride.

    Gaa7Ym3.jpg
    or… in sleep….

     

    Ask the Mods questions about the Forums!

    in Kerbal Network

    Posted

    9 hours ago, Deddly said:

    A few years ago, the word we don't allow on this forum for the German army in WWII was automatically changed to "bad person". The word filter was later changed to "pedant". Moderators can edit their own posts without the edit being visible, though I usually tick the box to make the edit visible. In this case, I forgot about the change to "pedant" when I typed my joke and made a quick edit within seconds and figured nobody had had a chance to read it yet so no need to tick the box. Oh well. :)

    Not even moderators can escape the all-seeing Eye of Sauron Google… :ph34r:

    SpaceX Discussion Thread

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted

    5 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

    I am sometimes amused by the almost touching faith that people have in "rocket scientists".

    I am not at all assuming that SpaceX has "done all sorts of simulations of exactly that". That's really the whole point of "move fast and break things" -- to not spend time simulating everything in great detail when you could actually just build and test it.

    I still remember how floored I was by SN8's flight. The descent, using a control method never before used, especially at that scale, was absolutely rock solid. No oscillating, no wobbling, it was under complete control the entire way up and down, to the point of engine ignition. That kind of control can only come from extensive and exhaustive simulation. The ultimate failure was a hardware issue, of the sort of thing that's extremely difficult to properly simulate and only rears its head in actual testing. 

    SpaceX Discussion Thread

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted

    45 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

    The only pure ballistic re-entry vehicles (i.e., no lift) that humans have ridden are the Soyuz capsules

    Er... Vostok/Voshkod? Pure spheres...

    27 minutes ago, Lisias said:

    But such L/D on subsonic speeds will not hold, and the thing would fall as a rock.

    Not quite a rock, they've already demonstrated pure aerodynamic control during terminal descent: close enough to the pad for the engines to get it the rest of the way. F9 also has a 1:1 LD ratio as just a cylinder with fins. 

    Russian Launch and Mission Thread

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted

    28 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

    Wearing the airlock on your back is both stylish and comfortable. 

    Especially while ice climbing on Europa 

    It’s a really cool concept if you’re unfamiliar, basically the back of that suit “docks” to the hab/rover/crashed lander etc. Ivan climbs in, hatches close, then goes around slaughtering his enemies like Death incarnate with that scythe (FITTING HOW RUSSIAN ONLY HAS CAPITAL LETTERS, Death grinned), docks again, climbs out, then goes on to celebrating and/or pondering his own impending demise without tracking the blood of his foes that tricky regolith all over the nice clean space carpet. 

    -_-

    SpaceX Discussion Thread

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted

    44 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

    While hexes are simple and break up the flow of plasma effectively - scale structures could improve or reduce drag and provide similar plasma protection 

    Air drag gets a lot of conversational real estate in this thread, but keep in mind, it’s a bit of a lesser concern vs airplanes. After the first couple of minutes of flight it ceases to be a concern at all, really. A rocket only needs to be aerodynamic enough, obsessing over minimizing every tiny bit of drag loss quickly becomes a diminishing return. If you’ve ever seen a closeup of the shuttle ET, or even an Atlas V, the surface is extremely rough from the insulation. Making it less so just isn’t worth it in the grand scheme since it’s a trivial loss vs the mass penalty (among other things) of making the skin perfectly smooth. I reckon it’s a similar deal with Starship, the tiles are aerodynamically good enough. At least for now. 
     

    13 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

    The word you want to search on is "riblets",

    Mmmmmmm, riblets…

    simpsons-dreamy.gif

    SpaceX Discussion Thread

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted

    54 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

    the BFR pulls an "Astra" and flies off in the 'wrong' sideways orientation... a whole lot of stuff can go buh-bye in a hurry.

     

    BFR is much more tolerant of losing a single engine than Astra is. :D

    Also, SpaceX has to work with that they've got, they don't have nearly the real estate down there that KSC does. Hopefully they've already had enough on the pad Oopsies to retire that risk as much as possible. 

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