The Astronomy Thread
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Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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khorum
Murder Apologist
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To be fair ULA was mostly a caretaker organization meant to sustain the Atlas-V and Boeing Delta-IV's that they've been selling to the market for FIVE FUCKING DECADES. They didn't have the mandate nor the resources to actually create new rockets or anything.
Before even SpaceX showed up they were losing business to Airbus' Ariane-5 booster. Yeah. Fucking Airbus.
Before even SpaceX showed up they were losing business to Airbus' Ariane-5 booster. Yeah. Fucking Airbus.
Abefroman
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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khorum
Murder Apologist
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That's prolly the best way to experience it yeah. It's impossible to get the scope and scale of the thing from the aerial views.
The reusable portion of the booster is over 160 feet tall---but you don't get the scope of seeing a fucking 14-story building riding on a 100-foot column of fire and land so smoothly it can't bounce more than a few inches.
The reusable portion of the booster is over 160 feet tall---but you don't get the scope of seeing a fucking 14-story building riding on a 100-foot column of fire and land so smoothly it can't bounce more than a few inches.
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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khorum
Murder Apologist
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Nah. They must've just designed it with a deep enough draft and ballasting to be stable enough for that load and those seas. During the landing video for CRS-8 they said they were looking at 8-foot chop but it was well within their designed parameters.
If you look at the video at high res you can see how the waves were chopping way higher on the barge's bow than in the previous attempted barge landing in 2015.
Apparently they designed the barges to shrug off exploding rockets too, since the barge that CRS-7 blew up on is slated for to be up for the next launch:
Most ppl only saw the barge-camera view of the explosion, but that drone aerial view is pretty cool since you can see the thrusters vectoring heavily to correct the pitch of the rocket before landing. SpaceX said that it wasn't the momentum of the rocket's overcorrection that tipped it over---it was actually a faulty lock on one of the four landing legs that made the rocket fall, so they should've actually stuck that landing back in June of last year.
If you look at the video at high res you can see how the waves were chopping way higher on the barge's bow than in the previous attempted barge landing in 2015.
Apparently they designed the barges to shrug off exploding rockets too, since the barge that CRS-7 blew up on is slated for to be up for the next launch:
Most ppl only saw the barge-camera view of the explosion, but that drone aerial view is pretty cool since you can see the thrusters vectoring heavily to correct the pitch of the rocket before landing. SpaceX said that it wasn't the momentum of the rocket's overcorrection that tipped it over---it was actually a faulty lock on one of the four landing legs that made the rocket fall, so they should've actually stuck that landing back in June of last year.
Kiroy
Marine Biologist
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Dandain
Trakanon Raider
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Khalan
Trakanon Raider
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Once the rocket has landed and defused, they fully Weld on these special feet over the landing struts for it's journey back to dry land.
Khalan
Trakanon Raider
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Dandain
Trakanon Raider
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Promising Worlds Found Around Nearby Ultra-cool Dwarf Star | NASA
Rad little story. Mostly the fact that Kepler will be observing this system and its close enough that the JWST should be pointed that way assuming it works like it should. 40 Light years isn't that far in a galactic sense. Just a suburb.
Rad little story. Mostly the fact that Kepler will be observing this system and its close enough that the JWST should be pointed that way assuming it works like it should. 40 Light years isn't that far in a galactic sense. Just a suburb.
Cad
scientia potentia est
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Its still so far that it doesn't matter unless we develop very radical propulsion tech. 40 light years might as well be another universe with our tech.
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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The two inner worlds, depending on atmosphere and ground surface will be from above boiling point to over tropical. The outer one has so much unknown that it could be barely habitable to frozen ball.
But the main point is that red dwarf stars are the most abundant in the galaxy, long lived, and since they seem to be able to form "nice" planets, they'd be the best candidates for life due to sheer amount of planets.