Scotius

Closer to the trough. Politics. Politics never change.

Bodes well for landing attempts!

They still did better job that Hubble builders. At least JWST didn't require prescription glasses to see clearly

Speaking about elephant trunks, they are the closest thing to "tentacles as hands" we can observe. And they work just fine for elephants and tapirs. Several genera of extinct animals apparently had trunks too. However! Trunks do need a robust support from the skull, improved by structures developed specifically to provide better support. Apparently it's not as easy as "slap a bunch of tentacles together and call it an alien".

And an elephant can be trained to play piano with his trunk. It doesn't mean he would be able to build it first. I sincerely doubt soft bodied creature could make a flint axe, and use this tool to cut down a tree and build a shack. It's hard, exhausting work for humans, even with our muscles supported by strong and fairly rigid skeleton.

I always doubted Puppeteers lips would work as manipulators. Any of you ever tried to unscrew a bottle using only lips? Great thing about our hands is skeletal support when we need to apply significant force. Or need a strong, stable grip. The same might be held against tentacles. When octopus needs to open a clam, it has to use its own body for leverage - human (or otter) just needs two rocks to crack the shell. Another thing against Puppeteers would be the location of their eyes - just next to the end of manipulating "limbs". Good for precise work, much less good if you need bigger field of view. Also, unsafe to the delicate eyes.

Hydrogen. Slippery as ever. I'm not even mad - Houdini-esque tendencies of H2 are well known.

I wonder what's the next goal? 20 flights? And how much money SpaceX saved, by not having to build 12 rockets to do the same job this one booster did?

Also, low Earth orbit is not a safest place to put nuclear reactor in. A lot of trash there. Either put good shielding on it, or place the rig in a higher, emptier orbit. It will save you a lot of headaches.

Is there any spacewalk planned after docking? Would love to see if there's any difference between Tiangong and ISS spacewalks.

Yup. Mrija's gone. Total construction loss probably.

"Very poor contractor performance"... Ouch. Harsh. Seems almost like proper lambasting.

And now, there is one less of those majestic giants in existence: An - 225 Mrija was destroyed on Antonov Airfield in Hostomel. Barely a year ago, one of them brought a full cargo of medical equipment and supplies to fight COVID pandemic in my country. RIP and thank you for your service.

I would be very unhappy if some butter-fingered sołdat triggered The Second Event, and turned parts of Ukraine and Belarus into The Zone. War is raging too close as it is - I don't want to additionally worry about blowouts, occasional mutants and deranged, heavily armed Stalkers.

Oh no, obviously colonists\explorers would have to live inside those floaters. Nice, stable temperature and humidity, plenty of algae to eat - perfect environment

*Raises finger* Ah! A airship-like floating organisms, with organs storing oxygen for metabolic use. Working in a closed-cycle to minimize losses of precious and scarce gas. They might resemble some transparent jellyfish living in symbiosis with algae, following local star to keep them photosynthetizing.

How do you wreck of exploit an automated factory? I'm not talking about rows and rows of human-like androids slaving day and night for human benefit. It's sci-fi setting - this factory is probably one, giant robot. Automatic haulers stuff raw materials in one end, then finished products come out of the other end. There would be little space accessible to humans inside. Why would anyone even want to do something so pointless, when in a post-scarcity society you have absolute freedom to use your time however you want? Travel, socialize, make art, laze all day on the beach or raise guinea pigs. And if you want something, you can have it for no cost - because who will you pay? Mindless machines? No, I expect in such setting real value would not lie in physical worth of an item as we perceive it - because when you have free access to entire Solar System, what value gold, silver or diamonds could have? I suspect a handmade piece of art, a woven basket or a puppy would be more valuable to a recipient than a solid gold throne. Anyway, Iain Banks described such society in his "Culture" series of books. I recommend you read them.

Sheesh. They're so gradatim, it seem BO hardly moves at all.

Fortunately for potential targets, zigzagging is a thing. It will be easy enough with torch drive. And made even more effective by 3d environment. TL;DR: Enemy commander needs to order small course change in a random direction every couple of minutes. Considering the size of space, amount of pellets that would be needed would be prohibitively large.

Aww. So most probably not enough endurance for anything meaningful (which can easily take several hours). Too bad

Holy hydrazine!!! Dragon with an airlock... If it works... Can Dragon be used to service Hubble, Kepler and other high-orbit space observatories?

It's always small things that get your rocket. Someone forgets a decimal point somewhere. Someone installs altimeter upside down. Your carbon fiber tank develops a tiny crack. And so on, and so on. Hopefully we'll learn what happened to this rocket soon, and the company will have a chance to learn from this failure.

Obligatory Scott Manley video commenting on this mishap: And yes, apparently fairing failed to open. Consequently second stage had to force its way out - which ended badly.

You paint a bleak picture, friend - but it is very true. Still, it is a measure of independence if the country in question can provide itself with fuel it will need - after all, water is everywhere.

I don't know about it. Many countries relying heavily on import of oil and gas would love to shrug off this dependency. Especially if majority of imported fuel comes from... bigger countries that have been known to use fuel supply and prices as a leash tool in international politics. Many countries would invest heavily into fusion energy just to be able to show middle finger next time they hear "Do this, or else oil you need will cost you twice as much when winter comes."