The Astronomy Thread
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Kalaar kururuc
Grumpy old man
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Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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What's funny about the flat earth society is that it's a collective troll-job. There are some very well-educated people that support it and make the kind of arguments you could only make if you knew a lot about physics, ephemeris, space etc. And there are a lot of less-educated people who read those arguments and poorly repeat them.
I didn't listen to that 'debate' long enough to know where on the spectrum the flat-earther fell, but I do know that seriously contending with a flat earther makes you the biggest ass in the room.
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Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Nah. This is a great corollary to SJW anti-science. Everyone thought "oh cute, bunch of dumb women making their own department at the school, isn't that adorable... doesn't affect me because I'm a real scientist!" Look at you now, patriarch.
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Pops
Avatar of War Slayer
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Mudcrush Durtfeet
Hungry Ogre
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The relevant portion:
"White and his team couldn't rule out all sources of experimental error, for example".
Extraordinary claims requires exraordinary proof, which obviously has not (and most likely will not) occurred.
Something that seems to break the laws of physics, when tested, needs to rule out all sources of experimental error, else I'm betting on the laws of physics here.
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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About every review of the paper I've seen says the same thing:
- They appear not to do a thorough set of tests that check various aspects of the system
- They don't provide critical details on how they account for measurement errors
The reason they haven't a launch date or anything for their spaceborne experiment is that, given the paper quality so far, they have like 0.02% chance of persuading a funding committee.
The best illustration for the EM Drive:
(the discussion on how this illustration came to be on Ars Technica... is ROFL worthy)
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LachiusTZ
Rogue Deathwalker Box
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Your parachute is that way ----> Next to the pile of shit that you left in the floor.
Also, +1 for you knowing all of the laws of physics. Not like new discoveries have ever been made in physics. (Learn the word "known" to avoid this confusion in the future)
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Mudcrush Durtfeet
Hungry Ogre
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meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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A single miscalculation sent ESA’s Mars lander crashing into the Red Planet
...the craft’s Inertia Measurement Unit — which is designed to measure how fast the vehicle is rotating — conducted its measurement for one second longer than it should have. This single piece of miscalculated data essentially ruined the whole party.
When Schiaparelli’s navigation system began using the incorrect figure to gauge the craft’s altitude, it generated a negative value, meaning that the vehicle thought it was actually below ground level.
So, thinking that it had already landed, Schiaparelli tossed its parachute and protective shell, and began deploying its ground systems, despite the fact that it was still tumbling towards the rocky surface of the planet in a total free fall. You can imagine the result.
Color shell, parachute and crash site here if you hit play:When Schiaparelli’s navigation system began using the incorrect figure to gauge the craft’s altitude, it generated a negative value, meaning that the vehicle thought it was actually below ground level.
So, thinking that it had already landed, Schiaparelli tossed its parachute and protective shell, and began deploying its ground systems, despite the fact that it was still tumbling towards the rocky surface of the planet in a total free fall. You can imagine the result.
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Abefroman
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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You are being redirected...
Water ice makes up half or more of an underground layer in a large region of Mars about halfway from the equator to the planet’s north pole, scientists say. The amount of water in this deposit is about as much as in Lake Superior, which holds 10 percent of Earth’s surface fresh water and by volume is Earth’s third-largest lake, behind Lake Baikal in Siberia and Lake Tanganyika in eastern Africa. A radar aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter assessed the amount of water present. The research was published September 26, 2016 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters
Water ice makes up half or more of an underground layer in a large region of Mars about halfway from the equator to the planet’s north pole, scientists say. The amount of water in this deposit is about as much as in Lake Superior, which holds 10 percent of Earth’s surface fresh water and by volume is Earth’s third-largest lake, behind Lake Baikal in Siberia and Lake Tanganyika in eastern Africa. A radar aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter assessed the amount of water present. The research was published September 26, 2016 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters
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BrotherWu
MAGA
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iannis
Musty Nester
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It probably was. And it probably passed.
That is a very finely tuned piece of engineering. One second made the difference. You're literally talking about a fluke. You can't plan for that, you can't even create redundant systems for that. Redundant systems would cost you time and you have no time to spend.
That is a very finely tuned piece of engineering. One second made the difference. You're literally talking about a fluke. You can't plan for that, you can't even create redundant systems for that. Redundant systems would cost you time and you have no time to spend.
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pharmakos
soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
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that failed ESA landing really put into perspective for me how amazing our space exploration successes really are. one second can make the difference between your multiBILLION dollar machine doing what its supposed to or blowing up. and despite that, we have a satellite orbiting pluto and we landed a robot on a freaking COMET. just wow.
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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Fixed point arithmetic overflow.
It's not the first time such stuff did bite astronautics. Another well documented case of overflow was the first Ariane 5 booster launch. The original software had worked well for the Ariane 4, so it was kept. Unfortunately, the more powerful boosters gave higher speed for the early launch phase, which led to an arithmetic overflow, which was "impossible" (it was, for Ariane 4), and caused computer shutdown (and the booster flying eratically, so they used self-destruct).
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meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Looks like Russia had an anomaly in the 3rd stage of a Soyuz launch this morning and lost the Progress capsule. Just supplies, not astronauts, thankfully.
Doesn't create any issues w/ the station, as there's a JAXA launch 12/9.
Doesn't create any issues w/ the station, as there's a JAXA launch 12/9.
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meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Cassini began its new mission phase, called its Ring-Grazing Orbits, on Nov. 30. Each of these weeklong orbits -- 20 in all -- carries the spacecraft high above Saturn's northern hemisphere before sending it skimming past the outer edges of the planet's main rings.
Cassini’s imaging cameras acquired these latest views on Dec. 2 and 3, about two days before the first ring-grazing approach to the planet. Future passes will include images from near closest approach, including some of the closest-ever views of the outer rings and small moons that orbit there.
"This is it, the beginning of the end of our historic exploration of Saturn. Let these images -- and those to come -- remind you that we’ve lived a bold and daring adventure around the solar system’s most magnificent planet," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado.
The next pass by the rings' outer edges is planned for Dec. 11. The ring-grazing orbits will continue until April 22, when the last close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan will once again reshape Cassini's flight path. With that encounter, Cassini will begin its Grand Finale, leaping over the rings and making the first of 22 plunges through the 1,500-mile-wide (2,400-kilometer) gap between Saturn and its innermost ring on April 26.
On Sept. 15, the mission's planned conclusion will be a final dive into Saturn's atmosphere. During its plunge, Cassini will transmit data about the atmosphere's composition until its signal is lost.
Cassini’s imaging cameras acquired these latest views on Dec. 2 and 3, about two days before the first ring-grazing approach to the planet. Future passes will include images from near closest approach, including some of the closest-ever views of the outer rings and small moons that orbit there.
"This is it, the beginning of the end of our historic exploration of Saturn. Let these images -- and those to come -- remind you that we’ve lived a bold and daring adventure around the solar system’s most magnificent planet," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado.
The next pass by the rings' outer edges is planned for Dec. 11. The ring-grazing orbits will continue until April 22, when the last close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan will once again reshape Cassini's flight path. With that encounter, Cassini will begin its Grand Finale, leaping over the rings and making the first of 22 plunges through the 1,500-mile-wide (2,400-kilometer) gap between Saturn and its innermost ring on April 26.
On Sept. 15, the mission's planned conclusion will be a final dive into Saturn's atmosphere. During its plunge, Cassini will transmit data about the atmosphere's composition until its signal is lost.
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