Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up thirty feet above asteroid • Hacker News Board

Re: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up thirty feet above asteroid

#41

Post by cryptonector » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 2:48 PM UTC

ahoka wrote: post #33

melling wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't use the imperial system for space, but the American readers do. https://www.space.com/3332-nasa-finally-metric.html I'm just as guilty as the next person when I post numbers. Occasionally, I'll also show metric. However, as an old(er) dog, my first instinct is to use feet, miles, etc. Perhaps we should agree to use only the metric system on HN?

It's a mistake that sometimes even Americans do, but the USA uses the US customary units system, which is closely related, but slightly different to the British imperial system.

Imperial pints are bigger than customary pints, for example.

Re: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up thirty feet above asteroid

#42

Post by GordonS » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 2:49 PM UTC

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #40

magduf wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who's "we"? This article is about Japan. The Japanese do not ever use "feet" as a unit of measurement. It's only Americans who still use feet and other imperial units, which is why they lost a Mars probe.

You mean the British-built one? I think us Brits are the worst of the worst when it comes to mixing units. Fuel is sold in litres but consumption measured in miles per gallon. Milk is sold in 1 pint or 2/4/6 litre bottles. Road signs to towns are in miles but in roadworks are in metres. And so on.

To add to the mix, some signs are in yards - who even knows what one of those equals these days?!

Re: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up thirty feet above asteroid

#43

Post by siffland » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 2:49 PM UTC

Bjartr wrote: post #36

ravroid wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up 9.6652e-16 light-years above asteroid

Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft grabs close-ups 30.5 light-nanoseconds above asteroid

Wonder how many stones the Hayabusa spacecraft weighs? Perhaps i will have the answer within a fortnight.

Re: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up thirty feet above asteroid

#44

Post by SmellyGeekBoy » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 2:51 PM UTC

melling wrote: post #22

vvvv wrote: post #10

It bothers me (too much) that we are going to space and still using 'feet' as a unit of measurement.

We don't use the imperial system for space, but the American readers do. https://www.space.com/3332-nasa-finally-metric.html I'm just as guilty as the next person when I post numbers. Occasionally, I'll also show metric. However, as an old(er) dog, my first instinct is to use feet, miles, etc. Perhaps we should agree to use only the metric system on HN?

As a younger person who predominantly uses metric - as long as there's a conversion I don't see the issue. Just list both. I'm not sure why the sight of imperial units makes some people irrationally angry.

Re: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up thirty feet above asteroid

#45

Post by merpnderp » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 2:58 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #42

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the British-built one? I think us Brits are the worst of the worst when it comes to mixing units. Fuel is sold in litres but consumption measured in miles per gallon. Milk is sold in 1 pint or 2/4/6 litre bottles. Road signs to towns are in miles but in roadworks are in metres. And so on.

To add to the mix, some signs are in yards - who even knows what one of those equals these days?!

Yards are the easiest to translate. A yard is roughly a meter (~9/10's).

Re: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up thirty feet above asteroid

#46

Post by cwilkes » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 2:59 PM UTC

vvvv wrote: post #10

It bothers me (too much) that we are going to space and still using 'feet' as a unit of measurement.

https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2019/06/05/tucker-carlson...

Tucker Carlson: God bless you, and that's exactly what it is. Esperanto died, but the metric system continues, this weird, utopian, inelegant creepy system that we alone have resisted.

Re: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up thirty feet above asteroid

#47

Post by angrygoat » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 3:00 PM UTC

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #40

magduf wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who's "we"? This article is about Japan. The Japanese do not ever use "feet" as a unit of measurement. It's only Americans who still use feet and other imperial units, which is why they lost a Mars probe.

You mean the British-built one? I think us Brits are the worst of the worst when it comes to mixing units. Fuel is sold in litres but consumption measured in miles per gallon. Milk is sold in 1 pint or 2/4/6 litre bottles. Road signs to towns are in miles but in roadworks are in metres. And so on.

Yeah, the strange half-transition to metric in the UK is really odd. I'm from Australia, another Commonwealth country, and we're -entirely- metric here. The only thing I can think of is that people still talk about height of people in feet and inches, but on official forms it's in centimetres.

I wonder why the UK couldn't quite make the jump over?

At least the US has agreed that the Moon is a metric only zone! https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2007/0...

Re: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up thirty feet above asteroid

#48

Post by jhayward » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 3:02 PM UTC

maxxxxx wrote: post #25

vvvv wrote: post #10

It bothers me (too much) that we are going to space and still using 'feet' as a unit of measurement.

You should be happy that they don’t measure it in “baseball fields” or something like that. That’s how usually things are reported.

My pet peeve is energy reporting that uses "average households" as a unit of power.

Re: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up thirty feet above asteroid

#49

Post by merpnderp » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 3:05 PM UTC

dls2016 wrote: post #31

nerdponx wrote: post #12

It's hard to get a sense of how big these features are. 30 feet is damn close, but it's still hard to say. How big is that big chunk of rock (?) near the bottom-right, casting a blocky shadow?

Given the distance to the sun and proximity to the asteroid, shouldn’t the vehicle and its shadow be essentially the same size?

I'd assume without an atmosphere to diffuse light, the sun is basically a point light for 95% of the Solar System.

Re: Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft grabs close-up thirty feet above asteroid

#50

Post by melling » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 3:06 PM UTC

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #44

melling wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't use the imperial system for space, but the American readers do. https://www.space.com/3332-nasa-finally-metric.html I'm just as guilty as the next person when I post numbers. Occasionally, I'll also show metric. However, as an old(er) dog, my first instinct is to use feet, miles, etc. Perhaps we should agree to use only the metric system on HN?

As a younger person who predominantly uses metric - as long as there's a conversion I don't see the issue. Just list both. I'm not sure why the sight of imperial units makes some people irrationally angry.

He’s probably referring to the time NASA lost the $125 million spacecraft because teams used different systems.

https://www.wired.com/2010/11/1110mars-climate-observer-repo...

It’s helpful when there’s only one system. In the US, it’s too costly to switch. HN readers are global and we’re technical so there’s no reason not to simply use metric.