Posts by Spherical Cow

SpaceX Falcon 9 grounded again after second stage hits wrong part of ocean

Re: Too fast?

But we weren't taking about a random tumble, there's no suggestion that happened. The scenario in question is just not getting full thrust before capsule separation, as did happen after capsule separation.

Re: Too fast?

But we weren't taking about a RUD, that didn't happen. The scenario in question is just not getting full thrust before capsule separation, as did happen after capsule separation.

Re: Too fast?

"had it underperformed earlier in the flight we could be looking at a very suboptimal outcome."

What's the worst that could happen? Unless I'm missing something, the Dragon can separate and come down for an early splash-down. It has some thrust capability itself, hopefully enough so it can choose to come down over water instead of on dry land. Then they just bob about waiting to be picked up, like 007 and Amasova at the end of The Spy Who Loved Me.

Scientists demonstrate X-rays as a way to zap asteroids out of Earth's path

Re: 12-millimeter-wide dummy asteroids

My guess - larger than 12mm.

A huge week for satnav as both China and Europe make generational launches

Re: At least that won't hog LEO

A collision there would scatter a lot of non-clumping litter. Paws for thought.

ESA and Neuraspace ink 2-year deal for Space Traffic wrangling

Re: Who moves first?

I think the launchers of new satellites have a responsibility to avoid what's already up there. So a simple rule would be newest moves first.

The Europa Clipper stretches its wings as launch nears

Re: Mirowave oven efficiency

If the magnetron is only 60% efficient it must get pretty hot. I wonder if that heat could be used to warm up something??

NASA engineers play space surgeon in bid to unclog Voyager 1's arteries

Re: Stunning engineering....

"Can you imagine anything built today still working in 2071???"

I planted some olive tree seedlings (which I grew from seed) the other day. I know that's not really "built" but it is starting something. They could still be there in the year 7024. And yes I picked a location which should be undisturbed for at least 100 years, by which time they will be very established.

Japan to put a small red Swedish house on the Moon

Most of the test mass *was* a lump of concrete, and you are right that hardly anyone remarked on it. It just happened to have a car stuck to it, and everyone talked about the car.

SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission completes first commercial spacewalk

Re: Depends on how deep

Those atmospheric diving suits suggest a similar concept for space suits would probably work. Rigid sections with rotating joints. The rigid sections can be much less bulky and heavy in a space suit because the pressure difference is much less. The joint seals would be "inside out". Weight could be an issue though.

Re: Left unmentioned

They were human enough for Captain James T. Kirk on many occasions.

Boeing's Calamity Capsule returns to Earth without a crew

Re: Which bright spark named it "Calamity"

I've been calling it the Star-linger, although I might have to change that now it's no longer lingering at the ISS.

NASA confirms who is flying and who is not on SpaceX Crew Dragon

If a tree falls in space, does it make a sound?

Rocket Factory Augsburg breaks down the SaxaVord blowout

Re: Don't understand

I'm not sure any suppression system could handle that much high pressure oxygen being forced into a fire.

Re: SpaceX just had a bad day

I won't be surprised if that decision was a mandatory initial reaction to any failure, and can be reversed quickly after a very brief review (Does this put anyone in danger? No. Good, carry on then).

Dr Helen Fisher, MRI maven who showed just how love works, dies at 79

Re: Love is a learned emotion.

We see love in animals, even those who grew up alone. Love is definitely not a learned emotion.

India delays planned space station and moon base by five years

comma comment

"The minister said over Rs 1,000 crore ($120.5 million)"

I thought India puts the comma before every second digit rather than every third, hence the word crore which is one hundred hundreds: 1,00,00 (equal to 10,000 in UK/US terminology). If that's the case, shouldn't it say "10,00 crore" (ten hundred crore) instead?

Genuine question, hopefully someone with local knowledge can clarify.

Rocket Factory Augsburg engine test ends in explosion at SaxaVord spaceport

More a fire than an explosion. Not particularly rapid, and after a while it just fell over.

Nvidia's latest AI climate model takes aim at severe weather

Re: Stormy Daniels

Can you select all images which contain fire hydrants?

ESA's Juice probe dances with Earth and Moon before shooting off to Jupiter

Re: Well done boffins!

As far as I'm concerned boffin is still the preferred term for very clever scientists dedicated to their work. It is high praise.

InSight data suggests plentiful water lies beneath Mars' surface

Re: The American Way...

Don't forget that guy who nuked a natural rock wall just before a big battle. The hole in the wall allowed sandworms through, which helped him win the battle, control the spice, and become ruler of the known universe.

SpaceX tries to wash away Texas pollution allegations

Re: "forced to add a water deluge system"

"...somewhat surprised the first Starship launch went as well as it did..."

You mean the first launch of Starship Super Heavy, with the massive booster added.

"Starship is supposed to take off from unprepared sites (moon, Mars)."

Starship HLS will hopefully do that, but without the massive booster: it won't be Starship Super Heavy taking off from Moon/Mars.

Before we put half a million broadband satellites in orbit, anyone want to consider environmental effects?

Re: Comparison to cars

Four by my count (all of them EVs). Three were even driven!

Chinese satellite broadband launch rocket breaks up into space junk

Re: Let's hopes those Everest drones really work

We can build a drone which flies on Mars, Everest summit should be a piece of cake by comparison.

Report slams Boeing and NASA over shoddy quality that's delayed SLS blastoff

"The first three Block 1 SLS systems will put US crews on the Moon for the first time in half a century"

At first I misread that. Then after working out what it actually meant, I thought nah it works both ways: half a century from now seems plausible the way things are going.

NASA mulls using SpaceX in 2025 to rescue Starliner pilots stuck on space station

Could this idea work?

Here is the problem. Of the six docking ports on the ISS, only two fit the Starliner and Dragon capsules. Both ports are currently occupied, with one of each capsule type. So we can't send another Dragon up to bring back Butch and Suni because there's nowhere for it to dock.

Here is a possible solution, maybe? The Dragon currently docked has a grappling point for Canadarm2, so we could undock the empty Dragon and hold it out of the way with the arm while a second Dragon (with one or two pilots) makes a brief visit to collect Butch and Suni. No need to wait for many months, they can return as soon as SpaceX can get a Crew Dragon ready to go. (IANARS)

Boeing's Starliner proves better at torching cash than reaching orbit

Re: FartLiner

Right now it's the Star-linger.

Re: Boing boing

Send up two SpaceX SuitsX ? There has to be a way to make it work.

NASA gives Falcon 9 thumbs-up to launch Crew-9

"The overall sequence is to undock and bring Butch [Wilmore] and Suni [Williams] home on Starliner..."

Does this mean management are fully confident Starliner can get back down safely while using dodgy thrusters? I wouldn't blame Butch and Suni if they requested an extra Crew Dragon / Soyuz be sent to give them a lift home.

Boeing Starliner crew get their ISS sleepover extended

They went ahead with a crewed test flight without ever completing a successful uncrewed test. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the the problem with that (although apparently certain managers can't see it).

AI models face collapse if they overdose on their own output

Let's not forget the legacy of The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog with its nasty big pointy teeth.

Tim Peake joins Axiom Space as an astronaut advisor

His career has yet to reach its Peake.

SpaceX Falcon 9 set for comeback after upper-stage failure

Re: Sigh

Yeah they could be inspecting all the other lines and clips after this event, and they could consider a redesign of the clips so they can't come loose.

Re: F.T.A.

Could it be a left-over from the early days of Falcon 9 development, when they wanted as much telemetry as possible? Now they know how the rocket behaves they might not need so many sensors. (IANARS)

Chinese researchers create four-gram drone that might fly forever

XUSD: Innovation or band-wagon?

There are already lots of USD-pegged stablecoins available, including some long-established and well respected ones. Is there anything special about XUSD that I've missed? Genuine question, I'm not trying to diss it.

Boeing's Starliner set for extended stay at the ISS as engineers on Earth try to recreate thruster issues

Re: "Starliner could be used in the event of an emergency"

"I can't find anything on any NASA publication that considers there is any risk that deorbit wouldn't be possible."

It's in LEO. It *will* deorbit, eventually. The big question is whether we are still able to control when and where?

SpaceX hit by inflight Falcon 9 failure

That's a big leak.

Here's the footage. https://youtu.be/I2klvDvmtFc

I think there's a slow leak from the start of the second stage burn because the insulating foil is gradually inflating, and after a short while you can see a lump of "ice" sliding on the top of the nozzle bell.

Then at 1:35 the insulating foil suddenly pops out to fully inflated as if something inside burst. From then on the leak becomes very obvious as crystals and chunks build up rapidly, with liquid droplets also streaming out. It's fascinating to watch chunks fall off and then disintegrate in the exhaust plume.

Europe blasts back into the heavy launch biz with first Ariane 6 flight

Will Ariane 9 be German? No!

EV world in serious trouble if China cuts off rare earth materials

I don't see what the problem is.

"One such design, a spoke-ferrite magnet motor, ends up about 30 percent heavier than comparable REE motors."

The motor of a Tesla 3 is about 2% of the car's total weight. Switching to a motor that is 30% heavier increases the car's total weight by only 0.6%. So what! Nobody would notice the difference.

Starliner to remain docked to the ISS into July – with no new departure date

If it's Boeing I ain't going coming back.

Japan's space agency helps to target advertising with satellite photos of crops

If you can't control supply...

...then you control the demand. Makes sense to me.

Gates-backed nuclear plant breaks ground without guarantee it'll have fuel

Re: Begins to make sense...

The reason China is busily value-adding to raw materials is cheap labour. Try hiring a tradie in Australia to find out why it's not feasible down under. Australia will continue to export coal and iron ore to China, and will continue to import washing machines and fridges from China.

Molten lunar regolith heats up space colonization dreams

Re: Not the full bottle on logistics either

Your bloody big gun in space is going to have issues with recoil. At least it will work once.

Re: Is that a type I see?

From the Moderatrix, presumably.

Can AI models trained on human speech help us understand dogs?

Re: bird language

There's a lot more to birdsong than that. Chickens communicate using multiple different vocalisations for different situations. Kookaburras and Australian Magpies both have (different) complex family bonding songs, and other vocalisations with other meanings. Parrots are capable of a wide range of different sounds. Even at a basic level, many species of bird have an alarm call separate from a mating call. And then there's the mystery that is the Lyrebird!

High-flying drones on a leash could blow traditional wind turbines away

repeatedly pull

You'd want more than one. If you had two, one could be going up while the other is coming down, then they swap roles, so you've always got power. They could even be on the same cable, one at each end with a pulley-cum-generator on the ground.

Boeing's Starliner makes it into orbit at long last – with human crew aboard

Re: But will it fly twice?

The retirement of Atlas V does highlight the huge difference between the achievements of Boeing and SpaceX: Boeing only has a capsule, SpaceX has a capsule AND reusable rockets.

Just to clarify: testes are gonads, and ovaries are also gonads. Therefore, both men and women have gonads. HTH

NASA and ESA take a close look at Europe's International Habitation Module

Re: Bet this never flies.

Except this will be in lunar orbit, not LEO. And it's way too small to do much science: look at the size of the habitat part compared to the Orion Capsule, it's tiny. This is not a replacement for ISS.

FCC boss wants tighter rules to prevent devastating satellite explosions in orbit

0.001 is a lot

2,664 objects were launched into space in 2023. Is he saying it's acceptable to have a couple of explosions every year?