The Astronomy Thread

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Captain Suave

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"Landed". Legs didn't deploy properly and it bent the body, currently on fire.

Thankfully, my cousin's part worked! (flight aerodynamics)
 
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Big Phoenix

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Starship successfully landed
iu
 
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meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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He's not wrong, he wasn't addressing the second unplanned liftoff.



1614814495145.png
 
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meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Probably shitty legs, too much shock on landing or landed harder than intended. One thing led to another and then methane explosion.
 

Ukerric

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Probably shitty legs, too much shock on landing or landed harder than intended. One thing led to another and then methane explosion.
Don't they plan to catch it with the upper flaps instead of letting it land on legs?
 

Void

BAU BAU
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He's not wrong, he wasn't addressing the second unplanned liftoff.



View attachment 339396

Whomever was doing those graphics was pretty fucking funny. Across the bottom it said something along the lines of "lands successfully, then burns off excess fuel rapidly".

The "Or Not" killed me.

The flight and landing was truly amazing to watch too, and the guys on that channel announcing it sounded just like little kids, they were so excited, which is probably exactly how I sounded while it was happening. I think the thing that made this one extra amazing was that it was short, dramatic, and (mostly) fucking perfect.
 
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Captain Suave

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As we were admiring the aftermath of the explosion, my 9 year old asked me, "Why don't they just make the rocket stronger?" It's a pretty interesting set of fundamental tradeoffs against gravity, fuel exhaust velocity, and the fraction of the rocket available for useful payloads. If chemistry were slightly different or Earth more massive, it might be actually impossible to get to orbit as we have.

 
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LachiusTZ

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As we were admiring the aftermath of the explosion, my 9 year old asked me, "Why don't they just make the rocket stronger?" It's a pretty interesting set of fundamental tradeoffs against gravity, fuel exhaust velocity, and the fraction of the rocket available for useful payloads. If chemistry were slightly different or Earth more massive, it might be actually impossible to get to orbit as we have.


What?

These things are tests with 3 engines...
 

Captain Suave

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
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What?

These things are tests with 3 engines...

The point isn't directly applicable to the SN10 test, just a general thought about rocketry and acknowledging another way in which the universe is convenient for us. It's never as simple as "just make it stronger" like my kid suggested, because adding structural mass can easily displace payload to the point where you can't actually get anything to orbit except the rocket itself. And if the Earth were some fraction more massive or for whatever reason we couldn't get or use the high-thrust fuels, it might actually be impossible to get to orbit. For example, if Earth's gravity were 5% stronger solid fuel rockets just wouldn't work.
 

Ukerric

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In other news, NASA decided to "increase its prices" by ending all subsidies. Like from $3000 to $20,000 for 1kg of cargo. Hope that crew who has 4 seats to visit the ISS got the old prices...


(to be fair, 3k per kilogram did not reflect the cost of the launch at all, even at Falcon9 price)
 

Big Phoenix

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As we were admiring the aftermath of the explosion, my 9 year old asked me, "Why don't they just make the rocket stronger?" It's a pretty interesting set of fundamental tradeoffs against gravity, fuel exhaust velocity, and the fraction of the rocket available for useful payloads. If chemistry were slightly different or Earth more massive, it might be actually impossible to get to orbit as we have.

Earth's size is about perfect. Big enough to grab onto and retain a significant atmosphere but not too big that gravity requires too much work to overcome or becomes deadly very fast.

Scott Manley had a good video on this. Iirc at 2g you basically need a Saturn V sized rocket to put even a small payload into orbit.
 
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jooka

marco esquandolas
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I'd seen this awhile back but it popped up in my youtube feed again and now with starlink and assuming others to follow this has to be becoming a more pressing issue. Wonder if there any sort of plans to deal with it without something drastic happening
 
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LachiusTZ

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I'd seen this awhile back but it popped up in my youtube feed again and now with starlink and assuming others to follow this has to be becoming a more pressing issue. Wonder if there any sort of plans to deal with it without something drastic happening


I think starlink is so low its not an issue.

Those things degrade at like 3 years? 5 years?

Real issue is countries blowing shit up to test space weaposn, since its creates a giant spray of shit.