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SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

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Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#731

Post by npunt »

krapp wrote: post #633
narrator wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get a headache watching Star Wars like sci-fi where everything is manually controlled by the pilot. How did sci-fi get so disconnected from the actual future?

>How did sci-fi get so disconnected from the actual future? The original Star Wars was made in 1977, and based heavily on World War 2 combat films (much of the space combat and the trench run on the Death Star was lifted - sometimes shot for shot - from a film called "The Dam Busters.") For reasons of continuity and tone, that mechanical aesthetic can't ever change much throughout the franchise, or else it wouldn't "…

Wow I never looked it up before, but the lifting of the trench run from The Dam Busters is uncanny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNdb03Hw18M

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#732

Post by sah2ed »

BurningFrog wrote: post #632

What's your opinion: Were the two falcons landing at the same moment synchronized to look good for the cameras, or was it just how it happened because they travelled together?

This flight profile clearly shows they were scheduled to travel and land together.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960915618865274880

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#733

Post by visarga »

Stratoscope wrote: post #504
euphoria83 wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it okay to put unnecessary stuff in the orbits around our or other planets? Isn't this space trash that can potentially be problematic for future endeavors? Are we creating problems for ourselves to satisfy our vanity?

It's going into a heliocentric orbit, and people will surely be tracking it. If it gets to be a problem in the future, it will have so much historical value that someone will launch a mission to go fetch the Roadster and bring it home to Mars.

I'm wondering if they could make it work after retrieval.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#734

Post by Intermernet »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #278
TeMPOraL wrote: post #8

I. Am. Just. Speechless. Perfect takeoff, 2 simultaneous landings (still waiting for confirmation on the droneship landing), the car is in orbit. I don't remember being so nervous watching a launch video since... Space Shuttle missions, I think. Great job, SpaceX!

Watching the car orbit and the Earth's reflections in the windshield and paint and Starman's visor is sublime (sometimes goes to cameras of the engine/orbit overview) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M e.g. https://i.imgur.com/Yu6gRar.jpg This is all I'm watching for the rest of the day https://imgur.com/oKWTAQk

I only just noticed the "Don't Panic" on the center console. I presume that's there in case Starman picks up any hitch-hikers.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#735

Post by pferde »

emsy wrote: post #578
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…

What happened to the concept of the most charitable interpretation?

It has met the Internet.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#736

Post by lostlogin »

jacquesm wrote: post #730
chisleu wrote: post #701

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess "amazing science" wasn't strong enough for you. If we were able to look around 360 from the POV of the driver, rather than getting the two feeds, it would be better. It doesn't cost a lot to put a lens on the camera you have, provided it was high enough resolution. Even a 1080 can do 360, but 4-8k is better. I'm not sure what happened that was new here other than the PR of putting a car into solar orbit. They…

Amazing. Do you honestly believe that what you've just witnessed is prioritized in terms of the quality of the video feed rather than everything else that just happened? Do you even begin to appreciate the challenges in getting a 4-8k feed from space to earth? I've been in the video business from '95 to 2015 and there is so much going on behind the scenes from even a simple live stream from a spacecraft to earth that…

To go with this - Apple has struggled to get live footage to work from the middle of the tech world, with good infrastructure and a with a massive budget. It would seem harder to get space tv working.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#737

Post by WillReplyfFood »

take4 wrote: post #500
Svettie wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, there are indeed many scientists/engineers who look/act "nerdy" or don't have the suaveness of people we typically see on TV. I think what GP is saying is that typically companies will put forward people who are good-looking and charismatic for PR, so it's nice to see someone different and unpolished be center-stage in the public eye.

Why exactly is “good looking and charismatic” a bad thing? To be a good host you need to (should) be charismatic, that’s literally the job.

Because if you are good looking and charismatic, you dont need to spend your time on a tech job. And if you spend all your time on a tech job, you usually have no time to groom yourself to a mirror shine or be socially ept-get.

Sorry, yes there are consultant mercenarys out there- who look good and have a idea of what they do- but those are not nerds. They will not spend time on projects at home, they will not have strange hobbys, which more remind other people of work. Those people are on stage every day on theire life and they grow into it- but they are not nerds.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#738

Post by Yetanfou »

natch wrote: post #609
Yetanfou wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing how a harmless comment on a man 'look[ing] like an engineer, a rocket scientist´ leads to yet another long thread about 'bias' and similar concept is worrisome. The more speech is stifled, the more people have to weigh every word, every expression before they dare to utter it for fear of being accused of violating something, somewhere, making someone feel 'harmed', the less open and welcoming society will be.…

I doubt anyone here is saying people aren’t free to speak. It’s just that speech has consequences. You yourself are being quite hypersensitive about someone having the temerity to raise the issue of harmful stereotyping, and you’re appearing to attempt to stifle the speech of those who would do that. The irony meter is pegged off the scale. I believe the comment that kicked off the long discussion was pretty measured…

I did not "have the temerity to..." nor do I "attempt to stifle..." anything. By all means you're free to make these claims as long as it is clear that we both realise they're not based on truth. In fact you are as free to make them as the original commenter who launched this thread was to say that the person "looked like an engineer". That is the whole point of freedom of expression, after all. Just don't act as if anyone who does not agree with your standpoints violates a moral high ground and please drop the expletives, it makes for a much more civilised discussion climate.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#739

Post by WillReplyfFood »

stouset wrote: post #341
ColanR wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They just happen to be younger, or women, or of color. Maybe parent was referring to their mannerisms, rather than their appearance. It's not fair to jump to the assumption that parent was showing a bias against any of those variations in the human species.

I upvoted you, but I think it’s important to recognize that unconscious biases often manifest in exactly that way. White men have made up the majority of the scientists and engineers we’ve been exposed to in the past, so we associate the mannerisms of white men with them. Women and POC haven’t, so we don’t associate traits common to them with the persona we expect of those professions.

We also conspired to stop people of colour and woman from forming theire own companys and research facilities. We are evil incarnated.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#740

Post by mikejb »

meatbags wrote: post #502
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...

Thanks for the closure - I've been refreshing twitter all morning. I've seen the much-touted $90M price-tag for the FH launch, but does that take into account loss of the core or boosters?

The damage to the ASDS might be more of a problem. Depending on how badly it was damaged, it might not be available to catch other cores that could have landed otherwise
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