StrandedonEarth

Well, a little googling on the aforementioned Kitimat smelter gives me two link: https://www.northernsentinel.com/local-business/rio-tintos-kitimat-smelter-returns-to-full-capacity-6834462 which gives a capacity of 432 kilotons a year. Wiki gives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemano_Generating_Station#:~:text=The smelter at Kitimat consumes,sold to BC Hydro's Powerex. which says: So figure the smelter consumes up to 760MW to produce 432kt per year. But that still won't give the number I want. Try again: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1116216/aluminum-smelting-energy-intensity/#:~:text=In 2021%2C globally averaged%2C primary,one metric ton of aluminum. 14 MWh for one ton. Yeah, ouch.

Steel is an iron-carbon alloy, so it requires a source of carbon and energy to reduce the iron ore; coal works nicely that way but electric arc furnaces and direct hydrogen reduction is gaining steam. If ‘green’ hydrogen is available then it’s a carbon-neutral process Aluminum smelting is an electrolytic process, requiring only electricity. Lots of electricity, hence the nickname “frozen electricity”. To run a smelter on solar/wind, simply overbuild the renewables and store the excess with pumped hydro for nighttime. Another instance of placing a smelter in a remote area near abundant hydropower is Kitimat in northwestern BC. It required boring the penstocks through a mountain range…

Another comedy legend has passed. RIP Bob. Who will train the bus drivers now? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5TTA4f7Q3E

“All these worlds are yours except Europa “

If you force the magnets into mechanical restraint (I.e. steel frame) no energy is required to keep them there, although the steel frame would be under some strain. What you have done is store the energy required to bring the like magnetic poles together like that, deforming their magnetic fields.

Richard Simmons, I had heard about. Shannon Doherty, at only 53 (my age!)?? Ouch! That link also seems to have died...

I'm sure many of us remember Dr. Ruth. RIP. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/13/arts/television/ruth-westheimer-dead.html

My overriding concern is how long this will ground the mighty Falcon 9, considering that it was a second stage issue, which is new every time.

Delta II used up to nine SRBs, three of them airlit…

So say we all!

Monkey Space Program. Measurement units are in bananas, smoots, and grey whales.

Our kid just bought a 2002 CRV (with our help) to get him around. I replaced the leaky oil pressure switch but it wouldn’t stop leaking. At first I didn't tighten it much, and when it kep leaking I tightened it more and more, until the leak got much worse. Uh-oh. I took it out and took a close look by lowering my phone down behind the engine while recording video. This is what I saw... . I dunno if the previous owner over tightened or if I did trying to get it to stop leaking. I'm going to try to JBWeld it to kingdom come tomorrow, after blasting it with brake cleaner...

Considering that the Inuit have a dozen or so base words for snow and ice, which can be affixed to form 50 or so, including general words that include snow... https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/inuktitut-words-for-snow-and-ice

Well, depends how many Superdracos, at what throttle setting. A low throttle for the majority of the burn, with a final full-blast kick at the end (when it's in the re-entry corridor) to break it up, since that is the general idea...

A trunkful of SuperDracos and hydrazine, I’d wager…

Yeah, bingo. Didn’t catch that thx

Gotta keep doing something new or even SSSH flights will be in danger of becoming routine. Amazing that they’ve already launched four times and the fifth won’t be too far in the future…

I like it. With non-essential systems shut down there would be plenty of power for ion drives. I wonder how much dV they could get by carefully venting life support gasses in the proper direction. Not much, I’m sure, but something. Or it could be used for RCS if there’s enough vents. E: And then I read Steve’s post, hmm. Bear in mind , I’m not thinking to raise ot to use it, just until the tech arrives that can recycle that mass on orbit. Or more likely it becomes a museum, since by the time we could recycle it we probably wouldn’t need to. Well, hello I enjoy the smell of rubber in my hair. How high does it need to be so that orbital decay becomes negligible? Hmm, and how much would it cost, with what return when? Yeah, probably a technically do-able but pointless exercise… EDIT 2: Omg, lol. I’m going to leave that non-sequitur in there, because that struck me as hilarious. I guess the last iPhone update included a “tap to insert dictation here” feature that I accidentally tapped while I talked to the cat who was sniffing my hair. I didn’t notice it until after I posted the edit

Yeah, well it seems on my end that them having to figure out the bad gateway that everyone (including myself) was getting, finally fixed the issue a few of us were having. Everything is working for me again (after refreshing the white screen for a few minutes, on PC too (all browsers), all subforums including KSP1 which never worked during those rare times S&SF were working. Did they finally reboot the server? Found an update to apply? I dunno, but the forums are finally fully operational for me. It's like the warp core is back online. Full ahead, Mr. Sulu, maximum warp! Give it a few days, and the dilithium crystals will burn out again...

Yeah, I’m sure it’s still a lot cheaper than any other bids they had. Still seems a bit high, but WDIK. I don’t even know how much props it would take to do a controlled, targeted reentry. One thing for sure, they better mount a few starlink transceivers and a zillion cameras on it for the grand finale… Meanwhile, another FH launch goes off and I barely noticed, if I hadn’t read this thread. Even that beast is getting routinely common

(Doc Brown voice) $843 million! The pork must flow…

Oh. My. Gawd! The bad gateway mayhem lately was reminding me of the issues some ppl have been having with the S&SF subforum. While it worked occasionally, I would still get the same issue with KSP1 Discussion even as S&SF was working, so I knew the problem wasn’t actually fixed. But now, after trying a few times to get to the forum main page and getting the white screen, and then the page finally loads, I find that all the subs are working, S&SF AND the KSP1 Discussion sub. Dare I hope that this old, intermittent problem that only affected some people has finally been fixed? I’m still on my phone and have yet to try a PC… @JoeSchmuckatelli, are things working on your end?

It’s the challenge of getting air (only 20% oxygen, remember) into the engine at hypersonic speeds, still flowing smoothly and without melting things. At least a rocket can get above the soup, to where things won’t melt from Mach heating.

They really need to move to more spacecraft-agnostic launch/landing suits, so in an emergency they can just grab their suit (if needed) and get in the nearest capsule. Because seriously, what if an emergency forces the ISS to be evacuated, and one capsule is not accessible or is damaged. Then what?

Somehow ironic that a professional lifeguard and surfer, who has appeared in "The Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, gets killed by a shark... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shark-attack-tamayo-perry-legendary-surfer-killed-oahu-hawaii/