Category: Fun & Curios

Fun & Curios

Why Space-Alien Invaders May Not Be a Big Threat

DougM

Imagine you’re an alien ship captain about to invade Earth,
and you detect all this near-Earth satellite traffic.
Would you chance it or assume that this is a planetary defense system?

https://twitter.com/fasc1nate/status/1627047472773345285

I wonder if the astronomers looking for extra-terrestrial planets
hosting advanced, intelligent life are looking for a dense sphere of
satellites surrounding those planets. Seems like that would be a phase
of development that advanced technical civilizations must pass through.

(What? Well, yeah, satellites as we know ’em would be too small to detect from here,
but the thought still applies)

Fun & Curios

Stuff That’s Hard to Do (Starship Booster Static Fire Test)

DougM

¡¡ UPDATE !!

Big Day for Mankind’s Ambitions
Records for most engines and for most thrust (2 of the 33 shut down)
UPDATE: engines ran at half-throttle

[uncovers eyes]
Hey! It didn’t blow up or fall over! It didn’t blow up or fall over!
[dances around in glee, trips over cane, wipes up sloshed coffee and cigar ashes]
Locker room pats on the ass for Elon Musk, Gwynne Shotwell, and their SpaceX team

Note: the flames after shutdown are normal.
I’m guessin’ fuel (methane) vents through the engines after the Ox valves close
to avoid a super-hot lean-mixture situation in the combustion chamber & throat.
(Operative word: guessin’, i.e. too lazy to look it up)
UPDATE: Just occurred to me that the fuel used to cool the engine bells has to vent after shutdown.

¡¡ UPDATE !!