The Astronomy Thread

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meStevo

meStevo

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Stratolaunch reportedly ceasing operations. It's long term future was in doubt when Paul Allen passed away.

209780
 
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meStevo

meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Live feed of a raptor engine being mounted to one of the starship hoppers.

 
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Mudcrush Durtfeet

Mudcrush Durtfeet

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MusicForFish said:
Hopefully they solved the explosion part of the ride.
Click to expand...

They don't actually know, hence the whole testing thing. It's been a lot of launches since one of their rockets blew up in flight though (and I don't think a Raptor engine has blown up since they started with the testing this year).
 
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Tuco

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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arstechnica.com

SpaceX beginning to tackle some of the big challenges for a Mars journey

To survive on Mars, and return, SpaceX would gladly allow others to assist.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

I haven't really been following what SpaceX's goals are for a first man-on-mars mission, but I'm surprised to hear them talking about people staying on mars for 500 days. I kind of assumed that the first manned mission would be a 1 day trip and they'd get the fuck out.
 
khorum

khorum

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Tuco said:
arstechnica.com

SpaceX beginning to tackle some of the big challenges for a Mars journey

To survive on Mars, and return, SpaceX would gladly allow others to assist.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

I haven't really been following what SpaceX's goals are for a first man-on-mars mission, but I'm surprised to hear them talking about people staying on mars for 500 days. I kind of assumed that the first manned mission would be a 1 day trip and they'd get the fuck out.
Click to expand...

Well if it's anything like my Surviving Mars playthroughs, the first twenty trips or so will be full of nothing but polymers, lithium, ceramics and a shitton of replacement construction drones.

Also a fun and relatively meaty comparison of contemporary rocket engine types and their fuel strategies and why those Raptor engines on the BFR are gonna be running on METHANE instead of kerolox---and also why its full-flow design is revolutionary:

 
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Tuco

Tuco

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khorum said:
Well if it's anything like my Surviving Mars playthroughs, the first twenty trips or so will be full of nothing but polymers, lithium, ceramics and a shitton of replacement construction drones.

Also a fun and relatively meaty comparison of contemporary rocket engine types and their fuel strategies and why those Raptor engines on the BFR are gonna be running on METHANE instead of kerolox---and also why its full-flow design is revolutionary:

Click to expand...

Never heard of Surviving Mars. Can you recommend it for someone who kind of likes city building / strategy / survival games, and really likes early-space travel fiction (Ex: expanse series) and space science?
 
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khorum

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Tuco said:
Never heard of Surviving Mars. Can you recommend it for someone who kind of likes city building / strategy / survival games, and really likes early-space travel fiction (Ex: expanse series) and space science?
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LOL I haven't really played it much, was joking. Although from what I've seen in a few Let's Plays they memed the fact that biggest mistakes you could make are in the early game where most the trips were to deliver and support unmanned construction.
 
Cybsled

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Tuco said:
arstechnica.com

SpaceX beginning to tackle some of the big challenges for a Mars journey

To survive on Mars, and return, SpaceX would gladly allow others to assist.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

I haven't really been following what SpaceX's goals are for a first man-on-mars mission, but I'm surprised to hear them talking about people staying on mars for 500 days. I kind of assumed that the first manned mission would be a 1 day trip and they'd get the fuck out.
Click to expand...

Part of the reason people need to stay there a bit has to do with positioning of the planets in their orbits. From Earth to Mars and Mars to Earth, you want to launch at a point that reduces the transit time to the absolute minimum. By the time you arrive on Mars from Earth, you've already missed that Mars->Earth ideal window. You'd have to hang out on the planet and wait for the next ideal window.
 
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Tuco

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I got Tuco'd!
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Cybsled said:
Part of the reason people need to stay there a bit has to do with positioning of the planets in their orbits. From Earth to Mars and Mars to Earth, you want to launch at a point that reduces the transit time to the absolute minimum. By the time you arrive on Mars from Earth, you've already missed that Mars->Earth ideal window. You'd have to hang out on the planet and wait for the next ideal window.
Click to expand...
That's a good point I hadn't thought of.
 
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Ukerric

Ukerric

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Tuco said:
Never heard of Surviving Mars. Can you recommend it for someone who kind of likes city building / strategy / survival games, and really likes early-space travel fiction (Ex: expanse series) and space science?
Click to expand...
It's ok. Paradox makes good simulation games usually.

It also features among the sponsors you can pick (for starting advantages) a private company based in Hawthorne, California.
 
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