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SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

techcrunch.com

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Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#651

Post by [deleted] »

komali2 wrote: post #178
nafizh wrote: post #14

Anybody saw the 'Don't panic' thing on the Tesla? Made me chuckle, they sure have a sense of humor.

I absolutely love that Musk is putting a car into Mars orbit. Assuming mankind doesn't have an extinction event (or dark ages event), it is extremely likely we'll populate the solar system over the next millenia. In 200 years, Martian children can look up in the sky and know that one of the quickly moving visible satellites is a hilarious, old-Earth car. Depending on how accessible orbit is from planets over the next…

[deleted]

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#652

Post by manicdee »

mrfusion wrote: post #627
latj wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did anyone else notice that the bottom two windows are not different cameras on different boosters? The guy even told us, "I know they look similar but they're different". Nope, they are the same. Watch how you can see two pads and they both land on the pad on the right. And you can see the second booster burning in the same orientation. The roads leading to the pads also make it easy to notice.

I think the cameras were just on opposite sides so the different pads looked to be on the same side, no?

Nah, the two feeds were identical including a portion of the other booster’s rocket plume in the top left. The two pads are different colours, both feeds showed the rocket landing on the lighter pad.

Hopefully we will get a corrected version for the official movie!

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#653

Post by jacquesm »

Retra wrote: post #613
lmm wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like they're trying to keep it driveable? I would guess they'll have drained any fluids but I don't expect it to be fully operational after the van allen belts, for example.

How would the Van Allen belts disable a car?

Non radiation hardened electronics will likely die.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#654

Post by imglorp »

runesoerensen wrote: post #496

"That core booster approached the platform as planned, but it unfortunately hit the water going 300 MPH and was lost, because some of its return engines failed to light" https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/06/spacex-landed-two-of-its-t...

I'm kind of glad they had something fail. That means maybe they learned something new to improve the next shot.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#655

Post by colordrops »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #617
CydeWeys wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not harmless though, even if no harm was intended. My girlfriend is an engineer like me yet her experience in tech has been radically different than mine. She is constantly subjected to similar kinds of comments that imply that people like her don't fit in or belong, and it takes a real toll. It's a part of the reason why there's so few women in tech. I would never want to censor anyone. I'm just asking people t…

If you think unconsciously treating people of a different social group differently is harmful, then you need to take a good hard look at your life and understand that there really isn't much strife in your life. I see where you're coming from, but it's such a minor behavioral difference that acting like it's a big deal really seems like a gross exaggeration to me.

Not every decision on how you wish to act is life or death.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#656

Post by JBlue42 »

JshWright wrote: post #645
giarc wrote: post #625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read somewhere that the drone ship was damaged.

Elon mentioned in the press conference that two of the engines on the droneship (it has four, one on each corner) were damaged.

Do they send another ship to fix the drone ship?

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#658

Post by dylan604 »

grondilu wrote: post #210
fokinsean wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup that was amazing. Slightly related, I'm already nervous for the James Webb Telescope launch. Maybe Spacex should launch it :)

The main argument for Falcon Heavy over Ariane 5 is cost, not reliability. Ariane 5 remains the most reliable heavy launcher, so that's the launcher you want for JWST.

On average, that's true. however, the most recent Ariane 5 launch did not go as expected. I can only imagine all of the people involved with JWST just got a little more anxious than they wanted to be this close to launch.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#659

Post by apaprocki »

niftich wrote: post #630
apaprocki wrote: post #610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who needs a tether? Ubiquiti makes gear capable of slinging 400+ Mbps over 25km in a straight line. For about $1500 they should be able to shove the "last mile" to a ship outside of the exclusion zone and put the sat uplink on the ship. https://www.ubnt.com/airmax/powerbeam-ac-iso/

If you're losing connection due to a shaking radio dish, as in the original case, a different shaking radio dish is hardly a compelling solution.

They have grid antennas with a slightly wider beam, or maybe a sector style with 20-30 degrees could be used. I just think it's easier to engineer a workable ship-to-ship stabilized radio solution rather than deal with the ship-to-sat dish which probably has much tighter tolerances.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#660

Post by wavefunction »

chrissnell wrote: post #607
CydeWeys wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're showing your biases here. The other people on the livestream are also rocket scientists. They aren't PR people. They just happen to be younger, or women, or of color. So you might want to re-evaluate what you think a rocket scientist "looks like", because your notion is outdated. Sorry to call you out like this, but these kinds of prejudices about who is the "correct" kind of person for tech jobs are harmful a…

I felt the same way as the commenter above and it had nothing to do with their looks or color. Rather, it had everything to do with their speech patterns and tone. They sounded like they had been coached and were reading off cue cards. As I watched them, I joked with a friend that these people had been sent by the PR department to act as engineers and read a script. They didn't sound genuine in the least. If they are…

They seemed fine to me.

They served their purpose admirably, engineers or not.

In fact, engineers could stand to learn quite a bit from the rest of the people on the planet.

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