Technology, Science and the Environment.

[leicsmac]

2 hours ago, yorkie1999 said:

Just watched the Apollo 11 docu. Still think it is the greatest technological achievement ever. I visited nasa this year and to say that the Apollo rocket they have there is impressive is the understatement of the year. 400000 engineers working together to build something that could fly 250000 miles away, land on the moon and return is just mind boggling. The flight navigation computer was 10m diameter yet only  had 74k rom and 4 k of ram in a time before transistors and silicone chips which meant each bit (on or off) was an actual wired circuit which took years to manufacture.

It truly was a monumental achievement given the resources available at the time.

 

It's amazing that they got from J.F. Kennedy's speech in 1961 where no American had even gotten into suborbital flight to landing on the Moon in 1969. A rather darker example is going from merely knowing about nuclear fission in 1938 and starting work in 1940/41 to a fully functional nuclear weapon in 1945.

 

Just goes to show that given the right application of will and resources, remarkable things are possible - even in a relatively short time. Perhaps we should consider that more when looking at problems today that seem insurmountable or "not our problem".

 

 

[leicsmac]

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-prepares-second-space-rocket-attempt-2022-06-21/

 

And South Korea joins the space launch club. Good stuff!

[urban.spaceman]

 

[SpacedX]

13 hours ago, yorkie1999 said:

Just watched the Apollo 11 docu. Still think it is the greatest technological achievement ever. I visited nasa this year and to say that the Apollo rocket they have there is impressive is the understatement of the year. 

 The five Rocketdyne F-1 engines of the SI-C (first stage) produced 7.5 million lbs of thrust and burnt more fuel in one second than Lindbergh used to cross the Atlantic in the Spirit of St Louis. Each engine had a gas generator, providing 55,000 brake horsepower - (so that's 55 of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes AMG F1 cars) pump 258 gallons of RP-1 and 414 gallons of liquid oxygen per second into the combustion chamber. The turbopumps that fed each engine produced at 1.5 million pound-force of thrust (at sea level), the Saturn V’s five F1s had enough power to lift the 36 story moon rocket and deliver 300,000 pounds into orbit which is almost five times the capacity of the Space Shuttle.

 

And here's the main man responsible (his history at Peenemünde was covered up as part of Operation Paperclip)...

 

 

But let's not forget the three brave men that were perched on top of this behemoth at each launch. The guidance computer 'flew' the Saturn V into orbit, by which time all that remained was the third stage which would subsequently be re-lit for trans lunar injection. Apollo 17's Commander, Eugene Cernan said that he had trained so thoroughly and so many times to manually fly it into orbit that upon launch (the only nighttime launch of the Apollo programme), he was daring it to fail, so that he could assume control at the stick. 

 

Listen to the turbopumps spooling up @10 seconds in:

 

 

 

 

 

[yorkie1999]

1 hour ago, Line-X said:

 The five Rocketdyne F-1 engines of the SI-C (first stage) produced 7.5 million lbs of thrust and burnt more fuel in one second than Lindbergh used to cross the Atlantic in the Spirit of St Louis. Each engine had a gas generator, providing 55,000 brake horsepower - (so that's 55 of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes AMG F1 cars) pump 258 gallons of RP-1 and 414 gallons of liquid oxygen per second into the combustion chamber. The turbopumps that fed each engine produced at 1.5 million pound-force of thrust (at sea level), the Saturn V’s five F1s had enough power to lift the 36 story moon rocket and deliver 300,000 pounds into orbit which is almost five times the capacity of the Space Shuttle.

 

And here's the main man responsible (his history at Peenemünde was covered up as part of Operation Paperclip)...

 

 

But let's not forget the three brave men that were perched on top of this behemoth at each launch. The guidance computer 'flew' the Saturn V into orbit, by which time all that remained was the third stage which would subsequently be re-lit for trans lunar injection. Apollo 17's Commander, Eugene Cernan said that he had trained so thoroughly and so many times to manually fly it into orbit that upon launch (the only nighttime launch of the Apollo programme), he was daring it to fail, so that he could assume control at the stick. 

 

Listen to the turbopumps spooling up @10 seconds in:

 

 

 

 

 

Here's some of the photos i took. Don't do it justice though.

 

[leicsmac]

It's a mark of great shame that we haven't even revisited the Moon in over 50 years, let alone gone further.

[SpacedX]

33 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

Here's some of the photos i took. Don't do it justice though.

 

Great pictures and thanks for saving.

 

It's actually a cannibalisation of disparate unused parts, not a complete rocket that was assembled for a single designated launch. I believe that...

 

the first stage was a ground test fire stage that used to test the integrity of the SI-C with all five engines running. It was christened the “T-Bird” and didn't have the same paint scheme as the first stages that were actually launched, so prior to being placed on display it was repainted accordingly.

 

The second stage was originally part of the Saturn V that would have been used to launch either Apollo 18 or 19 had the programme not been cancelled. A lack of documentary evidence makes this hard to verify.

 

The third stage is interesting, because I think it was originally built to fly on a Saturn IB, the smaller cousin of the Saturn V which was used for ground, sub-orbital and orbital tests, Apollo 7 block II of the Command module and and Skylab 2 - 5. It was later modified to have the capability to fly as a Saturn V third stage, and was subsequently used for testing. 

 

The Command and Service Module was designated as the Skylab rescue spacecraft and it then became the backup spacecraft for the Apollo-Soyuz Project (1975). It was never needed for either  purpose, so was added to the display.

 

I may be confusing this slightly from memory, because there are also two more Saturn V rockets on display, one at the Marshall Spaceflight Centre at Huntsville, Alabama and perhaps the best exhibit, at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston which is entirely made up of parts destined for space flight. I'll check the accuracy of my post. 

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61908988

 

Well, it's not like the current UK government isn't used to breaking promises/missing targets.

[leicsmac]

https://phys.org/news/2022-06-bacteria-species-glacial-ice-pose.html

 

Yep, definitely The Talos Principle.

[moore_94]

…

 

 

[leicsmac]

15 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

…

 

 

Putting the environmental future of the country and the planet in the hands of elected officials who are pretty much specifically designed to not look at the long game because they may well be out of power in four (or six) years.

 

Great.

[Dahnsouff]

Presuming aliens have their equivalent of HBO/Sky Atlantic, I would imagine their new true life docu series, "Stupid Apes" about some self important species in a back water in the Milky Way would be quite a hit. 

[Dahnsouff]

These lot are normally quite good

 

 

Economic warfare

[leicsmac]

2 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

Presuming aliens have their equivalent of HBO/Sky Atlantic, I would imagine their new true life docu series, "Stupid Apes" about some self important species in a back water in the Milky Way would be quite a hit. 

Oi, stop nicking my material

[SpacedX]

On 01/07/2022 at 11:15, Dahnsouff said:

Presuming aliens have their equivalent of HBO/Sky Atlantic

I bet the subscription fee would also be astronomical. 

[Dahnsouff]

1 hour ago, Line-X said:

I bet the subscription fee would also be astronomical. 

Included in flight on Virgin Galactic I imagine

[foxes21]

On 30/06/2022 at 15:33, leicsmac said:

Putting the environmental future of the country and the planet in the hands of elected officials who are pretty much specifically designed to not look at the long game because they may well be out of power in four (or six) years.

 

Great.

We have politicians trying to be scientific and scientists trying to be political.

 

We saw so many terrible govt decisions during covid which went against current data at the time.

 

I've just listened to Maria Van Kerkhove at the WHO saying we need more govt surveillance as if the snoopers charter wasn't bad enough . 

 

Quite the shit show.

[leicsmac]

2 hours ago, foxes21 said:

We have politicians trying to be scientific and scientists trying to be political.

 

We saw so many terrible govt decisions during covid which went against current data at the time.

 

I've just listened to Maria Van Kerkhove at the WHO saying we need more govt surveillance as if the snoopers charter wasn't bad enough . 

 

Quite the shit show.

Before I respond to this further, may I ask what exactly it is that you're getting at here?

[SpacedX]

Getting closer...

 

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/07/sls-rolled-back-final-launch-preps/

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, Line-X said:

Getting closer...

 

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/07/sls-rolled-back-final-launch-preps/

It's about time.

 

I wonder if Artemis 1 or Starship will fly first?

[SpacedX]

4 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

It's about time.

 

I wonder if Artemis 1 or Starship will fly first?

Starship was supposed to complete an orbital test this summer wasn't it? I'm sure it was originally scheduled for May. Perhaps sidetracked by closing the Twitter deal? 

[leicsmac]

4 minutes ago, Line-X said:

Starship was supposed to complete an orbital test this summer wasn't it? I'm sure it was originally scheduled for May. Perhaps sidetracked by closing the Twitter deal? 

The bureaucracy caused by the environmental review of the local Boca Chica area is the main reason for the delay, from what I can tell.

 

First countdown is slated for next month, perhaps that means actual launch will be a few weeks after....?

 

They will both be close to each other in the end, I reckon.

[SpacedX]

26 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

The bureaucracy caused by the environmental review of the local Boca Chica area is the main reason for the delay, from what I can tell.

 

First countdown is slated for next month, perhaps that means actual launch will be a few weeks after....?

 

They will both be close to each other in the end, I reckon.

I don't know a huge amount about Boca Chica, but I'm puzzled as to how high inclination orbits will be achieved from the launch site which would necessitate a launch corridor over the south eastern lower 48. I would imagine that for that reason Falcon 9/Dragon flights to the ISS can only be and will continue to be launched from the Cape? 

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, Line-X said:

I don't know a huge amount about Boca Chica, but I'm puzzled as to how high inclination orbits will be achieved from the launch site which would necessitate a launch corridor over the south eastern lower 48. I would imagine that for that reason Falcon 9/Dragon flights to the ISS can only be and will continue to be launched from the Cape? 

SpaceX are also building a facility for launches at the Cape - tbh I think it's possible that most future Starship launches may well be from there.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-62027248

 

Awful stuff. But unfortunately expect such events to become more prevalent.