As the owner of several western hats, I'm curious about Jeff Bezos' hat. What's the story behind it? It does not fit him well. He obviously has the money to have whatever kind of crafted, perfectly styled hat he wants. Maybe something from his family?
Blue Origin first human flight
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Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crew members have defined roles and responsibilities, and are important to the success of a mission beyond having paid to be there. The alternative is more apt here, I think: passengers.
You may be right. But still for the sake of discussion, I would argue that their mission required only 1 responsibility - that you be there. Even if they orbit around the Earth, modern spacecrafts are designed in such a way that crew member input is almost unnecessary. I wonder how much crew input is needed to dock on ISS in modern crafts...
Astronaut pro tempore may apply
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
are the members of the crew of Blue Origin 3 not 'crew members'?
Is a passenger on a commercial flight a crew member? Would you call every passenger an “airman”?
I’d ask their name and call them that.
I’m under no obligation to recognize anyone as anything but an average human without proof they’re actually skilled as they claim.
Titles are political euphemism. I want to know someone’s profile to know who I am dealing with. You’re a doctor? Of ants. Not helpful when I need someone that studied human anatomy.
None of these titles explain the training involved. The honestly gained skill set based on direct learning.
Bezos isn’t a genius; he’s a politically elevated person due to financial success. Humans will never live among the stars as the meat bags we are; far more likely we etch a simulated human consciousness into a new medium than adapt this biology. We’re just watching one guy get his jollies off at our political expense.
Titillate the masses to keep them politically disorganized. Humans used to wage holy wars, invade other nations to do that. Now it’s engineering and economic spectacle.
What a trivial and boring people I live among. Collectively setting themselves aside to ogle this stuff.
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#214I'd like to have gone for the ride, but it was rather underwhelming, and slightly absurd, from the spectator POV. Four dingbats going for a 10min joyride in a mobile lounge strapped onto a dick-shaped rocket. Still, I'm all for billionaires pursuing daft dreams like this rather than just buying big yachts like Larry Ellison, or not much of anything like Bill Gates. At least Bezos is putting on a mildly entertaining s…
> not much of anything like Bill Gates
you kidding?
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#215I found it annoying, even a bit insulting, that they kept referring to the people in the capsule as "astronauts". I could understand if they did it for Wally Funk, as she actually did the training back in the day, but the rest? When rich people were allowed in the ISS they were called "tourists", which is befitting.
I find strange that line of thinking. That NASA and other space agencies use highly trained personnel like military pilots for space missions seems largely a historical accident. In "The Right Stuff", there is discussion on this topic, initially trapeeze artists were thought to be the ideal personnel for the space program due to the high dynamic forces they routinely experience. Another opinion being considered was t…
If you're interested about that, the "The Calculating Stars" book talks a bit about it. It's really nice to read !
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#216This felt so underwhelming. I don't know if it's because I've seen SpaceX doing much more complicated missions or it's just not that big of a deal. They got about two minutes of zero G and came down immediately. You can experience that for much longer with a regular plane, for much less money. It really shouldn't count as space travel unless they go into orbit around Earth.
Getting rocket working correctly is never easy. Just like in IT when things work smoothly, it doesn't look amazing but it takes a tremendous amount of work to get things work correctly and seemingly smooth. A smooth operation is always amazing. The booster landing looks pretty amazing. The capsule landing went without a problem. The deceleration when the braking chutes deployed looks a bit fast, from 205mph to 150mph…
It looked like they were going about 15-16mph when they hit the ground. That looked a bit rough as well. They seem to have done fine, but I can't imagine that it was comfortable.
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#217I feel the same way when software developers call themselves engineers.
I generally agree with you, but we don't have a better term, and it's not completely wrong. I think you have to consider it as something of a homonym. The people who drive trains are also called "engineers", after all, though their job has nothing to do with engineering in either the software-engineering sense or the civil/mechanical/electrical engineering sense.
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#218I'd like to have gone for the ride, but it was rather underwhelming, and slightly absurd, from the spectator POV. Four dingbats going for a 10min joyride in a mobile lounge strapped onto a dick-shaped rocket. Still, I'm all for billionaires pursuing daft dreams like this rather than just buying big yachts like Larry Ellison, or not much of anything like Bill Gates. At least Bezos is putting on a mildly entertaining s…
> not much of anything like Bill Gates you kidding?
I meant non-philanthropic stuff. What billionaires choose to splurge their money on.
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#219I feel the same way when software developers call themselves engineers.
What if we have engineering degrees? That change anything? Edit: That being said, depending on who I am talking to it ranges from "I do computers" to "I am a computer programmer", and very rarely use "engineer" unless I am referring to my actual degree (BSCpE).
In Germany, and presumably many other countries, "engineer" is a job title that requires a certain degree. As in, you need to have such and such degree if you want to advertise yourself as an engineer.
The B.Sc. and M.Sc. in computer science are actually amongst those degrees that allow you to call yourself an engineer. If I remember correctly, my diploma specifically says "This diploma permits you to use the job title 'engineer'." (loosely translated).
Of course, the legal definitions are unrelated to whether or not it's sensible to use that title. Honestly, I think it depends on the kind of programming you're doing. If you're designing new systems, for example, it seems to fit.
Re: Blue Origin first human flight
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
Understanding the difference between orbital and suborbital space flight need not cause one to be cynical and negative about things. Especially since blue origin has a design that can scale up quickly, as SpaceX did with falcon 1 to 9
“Scale up”, a software term that has almost zero value when translated to aerospace engineering.
Will see how Elon's 100 of Starships per year will affect costs of transport to space.