Edit: Though the person speaking on the countdown net just said 9 minutes when I expected 19, so maybe 39 minutes past the hour, not 49? Tune in now, anyway, so you don't miss the show!
BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
That's sounding like a scrub for today due to a hydrogen leak onboard one of the two massive boosters that flank the center stage on the Delta IV Heavy.
SpaceX and ULA have technical issues, India and Arianespace perform flawlessly. And the world keeps spinning 'round :P
0
Options
BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
edited December 2018
Per the ULA subreddit, the company has provided itself with the most unfortunate initialism
Because while it does describe the nature of the partnership between Lockheed and Boeing (the "United Launch Alliance"), it can just as easily, especially in situations like we have tonight, stand for "Unable to Launch Again" >_>
Edit: It was also unfortunate timing to refer to your launch vehicle as "the proven super-heavy launch vehicle made in America" (which sounded like a subtle dig at the fact that the Falcon Heavy has only flown once) and then have this mission delayed for a 4th time mere moments later :P
BeNarwhal on
+3
Options
BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
For now just a 24-hour reset, which suggests that they're confident on a solution for the issue:
BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
Overnight, SpaceX announced their intention to attempt their launch this morning ... and then 40 minutes ago, scrubbed due to weather :P For now, presume another launch attempt in ~24 hours!
+2
Options
BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
SpaceX joins ULA in the vaunted "Can't get this darn thing off the ground" club, delaying their launch by 24 hours again due to weather. New date and time is Saturday Dec 22, 5:55am Pacific, 8:55am Eastern, 13:55 UTC.
Meanwhile, ULA's issue is apparently bigger than they thought, as they've now delayed their launch to "No Earlier Than (NET)" December 30th as they try to root out the cause of their hydrogen leak.
Rockets!
0
Options
BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
Remember like a decade ago when we weren't even sure if there was water on mars?
Surface ice on mars, courtesy of images from the ESA's Mars Express spacecraft:
Isn't there that old argument where if you have the capability to construct a Dyson sphere, you don't actually need one anymore?
They address that from the other side in the video? They specifically say the total energy required to disassemble a planet to provide the materials, then to assemble and launch them, is of an order that you’d want a Dyson Spere around if you wanted to do it all at once.
Then they also say you can start small and exploit exponential growth to grow your swarm Fay powering it using the swarm elements already built.
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
For the Dyson Sphere proposed there, I agree that it's an enormously more realistic and achievable design than the classic rigid sphere. A mirror swarm means catastrophic system-wide damage can't happen, and repairs are done to relatively minor components instead of an enormous structure. On top of that, we could probably build reflectors to do that job right now; no need for crazy metamaterials or anything like that. We could actually do much of what is proposed there with current tech, the main limitation would be the enormous resource requirements for moving the initial construction materials to Mercury, and even that is addressable once we get our act together for asteroid mining.
The thing I wonder about would be keeping the reflector panels in a stable orbit. The panels need to be as light as possible, but they'll also be subject to their orbit being changed by solar wind. Since they need to operate basically untouched for very long periods of time, I doubt it would be practical to use anything like chemical propulsion; the solar pressure would be constant, and reactive mass means having to refuel or replace them at some point. Maybe something with superconductors, to interact with the solar magnetic field to counteract the solar pressure? Or, depending on the orbital decay, place laser batteries at certain points to fire at the back of the reflectors and nudge them back into place; the orbits should be quick enough that all the satellites going past where a laser can push them would be feasible, I think.
But aside from all that, a giant mirror swarm would also work pretty well as a giant death beam so good luck getting the nations of Earth to agree to that getting built and keeping anybody from misusing it to basically annihilate all life on the planet. There's enough energy output in a few square meters of sunlight to melt steel, never mind what hundreds or thousands of square kilometers of redirected sunlight could do.
A Falcon 9 carrying a GPS III satellite launch was scrubbed at 30s due to high altitude winds, backup window is tomorrow at 8:51 est. As they say the Nth time is a the charm for these things.
+5
Options
Mr_Rose83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered Userregular
I should say, a giant mirror swarm might make a decent ray gun, but you have to get the power back from solar orbit somehow; is a purpose-built giant microwave cannon better or worse?
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
Just building and launching a single square kilometer reflector in today's political climate would be a 20 year boondoggle, if you could even get the proposal off the ground in the first place. I think chances are high we go extinct by our own collective stupidity before we ever start work on a dyson sphere.
+3
Options
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
I should say, a giant mirror swarm might make a decent ray gun, but you have to get the power back from solar orbit somehow; is a purpose-built giant microwave cannon better or worse?
If the swarm is at at any point capable of capturing a notable fraction of the power of the sun, I doubt there would be any way to have the energy in a form that is useful and practical without also being potentially hazardous. Even converting the power output to a microwave form, the potential output would still probably be enough to kill Earth if misused. It would also add a ton of inefficiency to the project (converting to and from microwave power), so why bother?
Though one way around it is to make the individual reflectors incapable of focusing the reflected sunlight at Earth. The hardware could be built to make that kind of focus impossible; you could still cook Earth with enough reflectors, but you would need a whole lot more of them to do the job if the light they redirect is very diffuse before hitting Earth.
And in that scenario, maybe the microwave conversion becomes practical. Have a main transciever for the power at Mercury with relays to bounce power around, but the power can only be transmitted in microwave form. The power output is still going to be huge, but I think it would be possible to also engineer the transciever hardware to be incapable of emitting energy at a magnitude and wavelength that could be hazardous to Earth.
If and when the human race is at a point to have a power swarm like that, I think the big thing would be making it impossible to redirect and focus a large amount of sunlight in a format that is quickly hazardous to Earth. If the power output is restricted such that it takes a long time for the Dyson swarm to raise the temp on Earth, then there should be plenty of time to regain control of the reflectors or destroy them outright.
0
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Hurry up, slowpoke! You were launched first, what's your excuse?
Though that's cool news about its plasma sensors still working - I had no idea!
I had to visit two more planets than you did, ya lazy probe.
They're both trying their hardest!
I dunno how I missed the news about Voyager 2, I love those wonderful machines. Kinda wonder what info it can grant us with that set of tools still operating. Trajectory-wise, is it in the same general direction as Voyager 1?
Edit - Holy shit those probes are moving fast, between 35k and 38k MPH each. I was reading that Voyager 2 is on a trajectory toward Sirius (the star) but at its current speed it won't reach it for like 300k years. I mean the battery won't last anywhere near that long but still.
The Voyagers are moving on pretty different paths right now. They both got flung out of the orbital plane after their encounters with Titan and Neptune, respectively, with Titan kicking Voyager 1 pretty sharply 'up.'
They're expected to keep returning scientific data for about another 5-7 years, and NASA's made noises about at least returning engineering data as late as the mid-2030s.
0
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
The Voyagers are moving on pretty different paths right now. They both got flung out of the orbital plane after their encounters with Titan and Neptune, respectively, with Titan kicking Voyager 1 pretty sharply 'up.'
They're expected to keep returning scientific data for about another 5-7 years, and NASA's made noises about at least returning engineering data as late as the mid-2030s.
I didn't realize there was a distinction between "scientific data" and "engineering data." Can you elaborate?
I mean, I could see "these components are still working" is still useful information even if they aren't reporting anything that is sure enough to be used for science
Show us how good we were at building the thing, etc
Information the probes are getting from their environment via the various scientific instruments, versus purely onboard stuff like "I've got this much power available, system uptime of such-and-such a time, would someone please reboot me because of that flipped bit last week," etc.
SpaceX cancelled today's abort and went for a successful launch instead. I clicked the stream at exactly T-0 and didn't realize my phone's volume was all the way up, so I'm watching the rest on the couch.
Hevach on
+8
Options
BeNarwhalThe Work Left UnfinishedRegistered Userregular
SpaceX cancelled today's abort and went for a successful launch instead. I clicked the stream at exactly T-0 and didn't realize my phone's volume was all the way up, so I'm watching the rest on the couch.
Love the phrasing, and you're not wrong! Finally, Falcon 9 got off the pad just 2 days before Christmas to deliver GPS III SV01 to its destination in MEO, and the vehicles (both Falcon 9 and the satellite) performed flawlessly
Per usual, SpaceX has preserved the stream on their Youtube channel, so you can fast-forward to the highlights of the launch at your leisure:
MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
New Horizons has completed its flyby of Ultima Thule, phoned home afterward, and is sending back data as we speak. (Also just learned that I've been mispronouncing 'thule' wrong this entire time.)
Also China's Chang'e 4 lander and rover should be touching down on the far side of the moon in the next day or two. @BeNarwhal will no doubt be keeping us updated over the next few days.
+4
Options
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
Hey space nerds. 2pm ET today there will be a press conference on NASA TV with the latest science data from New Horizons and, most likely, the first high resolution images of Ultima Thule.
Posts
Edit: mobile posting embedded pictures with a link is too difficult.
Edit 2: oh good, totp.
Edit: Though the person speaking on the countdown net just said 9 minutes when I expected 19, so maybe 39 minutes past the hour, not 49? Tune in now, anyway, so you don't miss the show!
SpaceX and ULA have technical issues, India and Arianespace perform flawlessly. And the world keeps spinning 'round :P
Because while it does describe the nature of the partnership between Lockheed and Boeing (the "United Launch Alliance"), it can just as easily, especially in situations like we have tonight, stand for "Unable to Launch Again" >_>
Edit: It was also unfortunate timing to refer to your launch vehicle as "the proven super-heavy launch vehicle made in America" (which sounded like a subtle dig at the fact that the Falcon Heavy has only flown once) and then have this mission delayed for a 4th time mere moments later :P
5:31pm Pacific, that's 8:31pm Eastern, 01:31 UTC
Meanwhile, ULA's issue is apparently bigger than they thought, as they've now delayed their launch to "No Earlier Than (NET)" December 30th as they try to root out the cause of their hydrogen leak.
Rockets!
Surface ice on mars, courtesy of images from the ESA's Mars Express spacecraft:
Nearly a mile thick patch of surface water ice on mars.
NO.
Everyone knows that mile thick patches of ice are sealing in eldritch horrors from outside time and space.
Bad ESA. Stop poking things beyond human ken.
Counterpoint: POKE IT, ESA. POKE IT WITH AN ANGRY STICK!
If humanity cannot summon the will to defeat eldritch horrors, we have no place in the universe.
How cool would it be to get a core sample of that?
32F or cooler!
I thought it was CO2 since it's up at the poles but it's actually water ice.
This will be here until I receive an apology or Weedlordvegeta get any consequences for being a bully
Isn't there that old argument where if you have the capability to construct a Dyson sphere, you don't actually need one anymore?
Sounds like someone watched the video. I liked it, but I have a soft spot for way out there technology and the animation is so charming.
They address that from the other side in the video? They specifically say the total energy required to disassemble a planet to provide the materials, then to assemble and launch them, is of an order that you’d want a Dyson Spere around if you wanted to do it all at once.
Then they also say you can start small and exploit exponential growth to grow your swarm Fay powering it using the swarm elements already built.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
The thing I wonder about would be keeping the reflector panels in a stable orbit. The panels need to be as light as possible, but they'll also be subject to their orbit being changed by solar wind. Since they need to operate basically untouched for very long periods of time, I doubt it would be practical to use anything like chemical propulsion; the solar pressure would be constant, and reactive mass means having to refuel or replace them at some point. Maybe something with superconductors, to interact with the solar magnetic field to counteract the solar pressure? Or, depending on the orbital decay, place laser batteries at certain points to fire at the back of the reflectors and nudge them back into place; the orbits should be quick enough that all the satellites going past where a laser can push them would be feasible, I think.
But aside from all that, a giant mirror swarm would also work pretty well as a giant death beam so good luck getting the nations of Earth to agree to that getting built and keeping anybody from misusing it to basically annihilate all life on the planet. There's enough energy output in a few square meters of sunlight to melt steel, never mind what hundreds or thousands of square kilometers of redirected sunlight could do.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
If the swarm is at at any point capable of capturing a notable fraction of the power of the sun, I doubt there would be any way to have the energy in a form that is useful and practical without also being potentially hazardous. Even converting the power output to a microwave form, the potential output would still probably be enough to kill Earth if misused. It would also add a ton of inefficiency to the project (converting to and from microwave power), so why bother?
Though one way around it is to make the individual reflectors incapable of focusing the reflected sunlight at Earth. The hardware could be built to make that kind of focus impossible; you could still cook Earth with enough reflectors, but you would need a whole lot more of them to do the job if the light they redirect is very diffuse before hitting Earth.
And in that scenario, maybe the microwave conversion becomes practical. Have a main transciever for the power at Mercury with relays to bounce power around, but the power can only be transmitted in microwave form. The power output is still going to be huge, but I think it would be possible to also engineer the transciever hardware to be incapable of emitting energy at a magnitude and wavelength that could be hazardous to Earth.
If and when the human race is at a point to have a power swarm like that, I think the big thing would be making it impossible to redirect and focus a large amount of sunlight in a format that is quickly hazardous to Earth. If the power output is restricted such that it takes a long time for the Dyson swarm to raise the temp on Earth, then there should be plenty of time to regain control of the reflectors or destroy them outright.
Real talk though confirmed frozen water on Mars is exciting as hell.
I dunno how I missed the news about Voyager 2, I love those wonderful machines. Kinda wonder what info it can grant us with that set of tools still operating. Trajectory-wise, is it in the same general direction as Voyager 1?
Edit - Holy shit those probes are moving fast, between 35k and 38k MPH each. I was reading that Voyager 2 is on a trajectory toward Sirius (the star) but at its current speed it won't reach it for like 300k years. I mean the battery won't last anywhere near that long but still.
They're expected to keep returning scientific data for about another 5-7 years, and NASA's made noises about at least returning engineering data as late as the mid-2030s.
Show us how good we were at building the thing, etc
(Flipped bits can be quite annoying.)
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Per usual, SpaceX has preserved the stream on their Youtube channel, so you can fast-forward to the highlights of the launch at your leisure:
Also China's Chang'e 4 lander and rover should be touching down on the far side of the moon in the next day or two. @BeNarwhal will no doubt be keeping us updated over the next few days.
Here's the live stream of NASA TV.
That sounds promising, after the fretting they had the past couple of days over the possibility of misaiming the camera.
And JHU's schedule says they'll have another briefing tomorrow afternoon as more stuff comes in. Should be a fun few days.
It's starting!!!
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]