Technology, Science and the Environment.

[SpacedX]

Brilliant, inspired and bold. A real eye opener...

 

 

[leicsmac]

https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-fourth-test-flight-static-fire-move-photos

 

SpaceX is still analyzing data from last week's flight, but it's also looking ahead to mission number four. Indeed, the company has moved the coming flight's Ship out to the launch pad at Starbase "for upcoming static fires," SpaceX said in a post on X on Friday afternoon (March 22).

 

Static fires are coming prelaunch tests, in which engines are fired briefly while a vehicle is anchored to the launch pad. If the impending static fires and other trials go well — and if the Federal Aviation Administration grants a launch license in time — Starship could fly again as soon as early May, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said earlier this week.

 

Definitely reducing the turnaround time, another sign of the continual improvement. If they do get a half dozen more tests between now and the end of the year, I'm going to bet at least the last two or three will be pretty much entirely successful in terms of recovering both Super Heavy and Starship. Bodes well for the Artemis program too because that needs to get moving without much more schedule slip.

Edited 24 March by leicsmac

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68636451

 

Climate change threatens to "call time" on the great British pint.  But scientists are working with the brewing industry to help save it. 

 

Hops give bitter its taste but the plant doesn't like the hotter, drier conditions we've experienced in recent decades and production has plummeted. 

 

Researchers in Kent are isolating hop genes in the hope of producing more climate-change resilient varieties.  They also want to produce more intense flavours that are now becoming popular.

 

The wonders of modern genetic engineering.

[SpacedX]

On 24/03/2024 at 11:52, leicsmac said:

https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-fourth-test-flight-static-fire-move-photos

 

SpaceX is still analyzing data from last week's flight, but it's also looking ahead to mission number four. Indeed, the company has moved the coming flight's Ship out to the launch pad at Starbase "for upcoming static fires," SpaceX said in a post on X on Friday afternoon (March 22).

 

Static fires are coming prelaunch tests, in which engines are fired briefly while a vehicle is anchored to the launch pad. If the impending static fires and other trials go well — and if the Federal Aviation Administration grants a launch license in time — Starship could fly again as soon as early May, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said earlier this week.

 

Definitely reducing the turnaround time, another sign of the continual improvement. If they do get a half dozen more tests between now and the end of the year, I'm going to bet at least the last two or three will be pretty much entirely successful in terms of recovering both Super Heavy and Starship. Bodes well for the Artemis program too because that needs to get moving without much more schedule slip.

If you have time, watch the excellent presentation from 'Smarter Everyday' (Huntsville PhD student Destin Sandlin) to the American Aeronautical Association. He basically confronts the elephant in the room regarding the fact that Orion doesn't have the delta V to reach LLO, the resultant flaws of NRHO, the excessive reliance on starship launches (29:00) and the lessons that are unheeded from Apollo. It's very hard to conceive of Artemis 3 happening this decade - and it it does, all the evidence suggests that it will be a re-designated mission.  

[leicsmac]

6 minutes ago, SpacedX said:

If you have time, watch the excellent presentation from 'Smarter Everyday' (Huntsville PhD student Destin Sandlin) to the American Aeronautical Association. He basically confronts the elephant in the room regarding the fact that Orion doesn't have the delta V to reach LLO, the resultant flaws of NRHO, the excessive reliance on starship launches (29:00) and the lessons that are unheeded from Apollo. It's very hard to conceive of Artemis 3 happening this decade - and it it does, all the evidence suggests that it will be a re-designated mission.  

I'll have a look ASAP, that does sound rather dispiriting.

 

It's all taking too long, far too long.

[SpacedX]

Just now, leicsmac said:

I'll have a look ASAP, that does sound rather dispiriting.

 

It's all taking too long, far too long.

His comparison with the planning process of Apollo and in particular, the redundancies that were engineered into the programme is spot on. More concerningly, the implications of the near rectilinear halo orbit and the actual reasons for doing so are an eye opener. If it's true that each mission may require fifteen starship launches, then this is utter insanity. 

 

My own misgivings concerned the HLS itself, particularly given the recent toppling over of IMs unmanned Odyssey lander. That said, in spite of its relative conical shape alongside the rather squat LM, I'm guessing that the COG is a lot lower than its taller appearance suggests. 

[leicsmac]

On 27/03/2024 at 13:18, SpacedX said:

His comparison with the planning process of Apollo and in particular, the redundancies that were engineered into the programme is spot on. More concerningly, the implications of the near rectilinear halo orbit and the actual reasons for doing so are an eye opener. If it's true that each mission may require fifteen starship launches, then this is utter insanity. 

 

My own misgivings concerned the HLS itself, particularly given the recent toppling over of IMs unmanned Odyssey lander. That said, in spite of its relative conical shape alongside the rather squat LM, I'm guessing that the COG is a lot lower than its taller appearance suggests. 

Surely that isn't true and they didn't get someone important to sign off on it.

 

For goodness sake, I know we're going to be (hopefully) putting a space station out there but Apollo really didn't seem to have nearly as much mess as this and that was sixty damn years ago.

[SpacedX]

56 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Surely that isn't true and they didn't get someone important to sign off on it.

 

For goodness sake, I know we're going to be (hopefully) putting a space station out there but Apollo really didn't seem to have nearly as much mess as this and that was sixty damn years ago.

Dare I say that NASA seem to still be afflicted by some of the organisational and operational maladies that doomed Challenger and Columbia. Also, Project Artemis appears to be way too complex. Regarding the HLS, there don't even appear to be plans for a simulator along the lines of the LLRV/LLTV which was crucial in the success of the landing. 

 

Don't know if you've had a chance to watch it yet, but one of the things that Sandlin points to in his presentation was simplicity and focus, in addition to referring to the "Apollo playbook" -'What made Apollo a Success?' Go from 44 minutes. It's impossible to challenge what he's saying. 

[davieG]

Engineering Explained  · Follow
  · 
Structural behavior of cantilever beams
🤜Famous photograph by Benjamin Baker, in which through a living model the cantilever structural principle on which the solution to the Firth Bridge over the Forth🤛 was based was depicted.
👉"To illustrate the structural theory of a cantilever beam (Gerber), a human demonstration was carried out. The loads were represented by the person sitting in the middle of the span of the suspended span. The arms of the persons seated on both sides represented the traction at the joints; the wooden bars, the compression at the lower elements, and the bricks, the anchor points located at the pylons. The chairs represent the granite piles. Imagine the chairs 500 m apart and the men's heads as high as St. Paul's cross (London church, 104 m) their arms represented by steel beams and the canes by 3.5 m diameter tubes at the base you get a good notion of the structure."
👉Heinrich Gerber applied in 1866 a theory that consisted in subdividing the continuous beam through ball-and-socket joints "which define a point of zero bending moment". This type of beam with intermediate joints is what is now known as a Gerber beam. The position where these hinges are located allows influencing the behavior of the beam; therefore, it is not only used directly in some structures, but in some projects a real beam can be idealized by assimilating it to a Gerber beam, whose isostatism allows a simple approximate calculation.

[The Bear]

On 09/03/2024 at 20:47, The Bear said:

Personally I think dark energy is just microscopic inflation as new space-time emerges on the boundaries of the expanding universe. If it's an inherent and emergent property that new space inflates, then that would explain both the early and current inflation. Early one inflated vastly because of the amount of space packed into the tiny baby universe, and when that is smeared out over the edges of this huge universe it's just fast enough to accelerate the expansion. 

 

All pie in the sky but there you go. I think once we get a proper quantised gravitational theory then inflation/dark energy will pop out of the equations as a quantized inflational field that interacts with space, much like relativity and space-time did for Einstein, and the Higgs field did for Peter Higgs. 

They've now measured with precise accuracy that the expansion of the universe is definitely getting faster over time. 

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/04/biggest-ever-3d-map-universe-dark-energy-data-scientists

 

This points (IMO) to Dark Energy being an insltrinsic and cumulative property of space-time. More space = faster acceleration. 

Edited 5 April by The Bear

[jgtuk]

looks interesting 

 

https://news-sky-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/quest-to-power-homes-with-solar-panels-in-space-passes-a-critical-milestone-13107285?amp_js_v=0.1&amp_gsa=1#webview=1&cap=swipe 
 

[Wymsey]

Greta is detained, again.

 

 

[ozleicester]

3 hours ago, Wymsey said:

Greta is detained, again.

 

 

time they arrest Attenborough... trouble maker!
 

 

[The Bear]

Her being detained is a nothing story if you read the associated article. It's happened several times before and each time they just release protesters once they've cleared them out of the way. 

 

She was completely unconcerned when asked about being arrested "Why should I be?" was the direct quote. 

 

 

[leicsmac]

 

 

Carl Sagan was iconic, and this speech has more and more value as time goes by.

[SpacedX]

Very saddened by the passing of Sir Peter Higgs. Despite the fact as a modest and introverted individual, he nonetheless felt a calling and obligation to use the public profile his achievements brought him for the good of science, and he did so on multiple occasions. The particle that bears his name is one of the most overwhelming example of how ostensibly theoretical abstract mathematics can make predictions which turn out to have the most profound physical consequences since Einstein. 

[ajthefox]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68814016

Coral bleaching - Fourth global mass stress underway. Worrying stuff.

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, ajthefox said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68814016

Coral bleaching - Fourth global mass stress underway. Worrying stuff.

 

 

It's not like there hasn't been multiple warnings about this and other consequences of current courses of action, is it? (Pardon the cynicism.)

[davieG]

Justin Vanparys  · 

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Arthur Hugo Cecil Gibson submitted a patent application for a “self-propelled vehicle” on July 26th, 1913, which would later be renamed the Autoped. The Autoped was powered by an air-cooled, 4-stroke, 155 cc engine positioned over the front wheel. It came equipped with a headlamp, tail lamp, Klaxon horn, and a toolbox. The New York Postal Service experimented with scooters for mail delivery in 1916. They were produced from 1915 to 1922.

[Free Falling Foxes]

On 21/04/2024 at 09:06, davieG said:

Justin Vanparys  · 

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Arthur Hugo Cecil Gibson submitted a patent application for a “self-propelled vehicle” on July 26th, 1913, which would later be renamed the Autoped. The Autoped was powered by an air-cooled, 4-stroke, 155 cc engine positioned over the front wheel. It came equipped with a headlamp, tail lamp, Klaxon horn, and a toolbox. The New York Postal Service experimented with scooters for mail delivery in 1916. They were produced from 1915 to 1922.

Give it 110 years and I reckon they might catch on.

[SpacedX]

On 21/04/2024 at 09:06, davieG said:

Justin Vanparys  · 

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Arthur Hugo Cecil Gibson submitted a patent application for a “self-propelled vehicle” on July 26th, 1913, which would later be renamed the Autoped. The Autoped was powered by an air-cooled, 4-stroke, 155 cc engine positioned over the front wheel. It came equipped with a headlamp, tail lamp, Klaxon horn, and a toolbox. The New York Postal Service experimented with scooters for mail delivery in 1916. They were produced from 1915 to 1922.

Delivery?

 

And today, subsequent iterations of the Autoped come complete with a black balaclava accessory, an XXXL uber eats insulated back pack and a minimum wage to boot.