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CRS-7 Launch Update

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Re: CRS-7 Launch Update

#11

Post by DavidSJ »

VLM wrote: post #10
arianvanp wrote: post #5

Just after the pressure event you see Dragon being slung off the rocket... If only it was possible to deploy the parachutes during launch we could've hypothetically saved the payload. I wonder if the launch abort mechanism on the Dragon V2 would've been of any help here too to jettison it safely away from the rocket. I read the rocket was around maximum dynamic pressure during the event (Or just after?) and I'm not s…

WRT max-Q its a meme that won't go away because the most "interesting" thing on the public PR timelines before the incident was max-q. However dynamic pressure drops off extremely quickly due to altitude (low air pressure) and max-Q was a good while before the incident, so it wasn't a direct issue. It could obviously be an indirect issue if something started to buckle a minute previous or shook loose and for whatever…

> the space-x guys are ... very proud that they did a test flight with a separation near max-q specifically to prove it would work just fine even at max-q…

The in-flight abort test for Dragon v2 is scheduled to occur later this year. It hasn't occurred yet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_V2#Flight_testing

Also note that Dragon v2 was not on this mission and won't fly to space for a while. This was a Dragon v1 mission. Dragon v1 is unmanned and has no launch abort capability.

Re: CRS-7 Launch Update

#13

Post by Osmium »

arianvanp wrote: post #5

Just after the pressure event you see Dragon being slung off the rocket... If only it was possible to deploy the parachutes during launch we could've hypothetically saved the payload. I wonder if the launch abort mechanism on the Dragon V2 would've been of any help here too to jettison it safely away from the rocket. I read the rocket was around maximum dynamic pressure during the event (Or just after?) and I'm not s…

> we could've hypothetically saved the payload.

As I understand it, the primary payload (the new international docking adaptor for the ISS) wasn't in the Dragon capsule itself, so it wouldn't have been saved even if the Dragon was recovered (sadly).

Re: CRS-7 Launch Update

#14

Post by sokrates »

As a non-native English speaker, I find the omissions of "the" very prominent and interesting in SpaceX speech. "shortly before first stage shutdown", "resulting in loss of mission", "139 seconds into flight", "some period of time following separation", "data to determine root cause" -- is this a general theme in engineering or journalism? I wonder what linguists have to say about this.

Re: CRS-7 Launch Update

#15

Post by DanielBMarkham »

sokrates wrote: post #14

As a non-native English speaker, I find the omissions of "the" very prominent and interesting in SpaceX speech. "shortly before first stage shutdown", "resulting in loss of mission", "139 seconds into flight", "some period of time following separation", "data to determine root cause" -- is this a general theme in engineering or journalism? I wonder what linguists have to say about this.

Not a linguist but a writer here who loves language.

I'm seeing a lot of folks dropping articles. It's also becoming quite common to eliminate pronouns at the beginning of sentences, i.e., instead of "I went down to the store" you write "Went to the store"

I use this purposefully to jar the reader. I have no idea what the underlying linguistic reasons are.

Re: CRS-7 Launch Update

#16

Post by colomon »

beltex wrote: post #12

"Cause still unknown after several thousand engineering-hours of review. Now parsing data with a hex editor to recover final milliseconds." 4:09 AM - 29 Jun 2015 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/615431934345216001

Ugh, now imagining trying to debug a really sneaky bug that costs $100 million every time it triggers...

Re: CRS-7 Launch Update

#17

Post by termain »

sokrates wrote: post #14

As a non-native English speaker, I find the omissions of "the" very prominent and interesting in SpaceX speech. "shortly before first stage shutdown", "resulting in loss of mission", "139 seconds into flight", "some period of time following separation", "data to determine root cause" -- is this a general theme in engineering or journalism? I wonder what linguists have to say about this.

It's how engineers talk in this context.

Re: CRS-7 Launch Update

#19

Post by kstop »

termain wrote: post #17
sokrates wrote: post #14

As a non-native English speaker, I find the omissions of "the" very prominent and interesting in SpaceX speech. "shortly before first stage shutdown", "resulting in loss of mission", "139 seconds into flight", "some period of time following separation", "data to determine root cause" -- is this a general theme in engineering or journalism? I wonder what linguists have to say about this.

It's how engineers talk in this context.

Focus on the problem, not the people.

Re: CRS-7 Launch Update

#20

Post by kabdib »

colomon wrote: post #16
beltex wrote: post #12

"Cause still unknown after several thousand engineering-hours of review. Now parsing data with a hex editor to recover final milliseconds." 4:09 AM - 29 Jun 2015 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/615431934345216001

Ugh, now imagining trying to debug a really sneaky bug that costs $100 million every time it triggers...

I recommend Henry S.F. Cooper's book _The Morning Star_, which is about debugging hardware failures and OS race conditions on a spacecraft orbiting Venus.

(There are similar stories about debugging stuff on the various Martian rovers, but Cooper's book is a very good treatment...).

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