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How to start a rocket engine

everydayastronaut.com

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Re: How to start a rocket engine

#101

Post by apendleton »

WalterBright wrote: post #89
apendleton wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With respect, you and your company of people who are already subject matter experts are not his audience; his audience is people who are not experts and want to learn about this subject matter. Most people on HN are also not subject matter experts with respect to rockets, so in that respect, are probably much closer to his target audience on average than you are. > He is not a rocket scientist. That might well be a p…

> subject matter experts often make poor teachers I find it thoroughly fun to talk with subject matter experts. What I learn is amazing.

I often do too! But I certainly also had some professors in college who were frankly just really bad at conveying their expertise in a way that was accessible to people who were not also already experts. Some SMEs happen to have good communication skills and can be really fun to talk to, but the systems that produce experts don't, in my experience, select for these attributes, so whether or not you get them is pretty luck-of-the-draw.

Re: How to start a rocket engine

#102

Post by hoot »

ragebol wrote: post #2

I could watch stuff like this all day. Tim's stuff is so great. Easy to be jealous of, since being YouTuber seems easy, but to make quality content, it really can't be. And then he's going around the moon, it's really mind blowing to see the success he's had. His interviews with Musk are a treasure trove as well, whatever you think of Musk.

Did anybody else feel like the musk interview got really awkward towards the end? It seemed like he became really bored of it and just shut down.

Re: How to start a rocket engine

#103

Post by WalterBright »

MS90 wrote: post #18
Koshkin wrote: post #16

Starting the engine(s) even in a propeller-driven airplane used to be a big deal, too. Hell, I'm sure that even starting a car engine back in the day was a much more complex affair (than simply pushing a button like it is today).

Yes, early cars had to be started with a crank handle that stuck out of the front of the grill, similar to how early propeller engines had to be hand-spun to get going. Apparently if you didn't crank it quite hard enough the handle could snap back at you rather violently, one of my great-grandmothers had her arm broken this way.

With the piston engines they had to be turned over by hand first to let the oil drain out of the cylinders before starting them by pulling on the propeller.

Re: How to start a rocket engine

#104

Post by valarauko »

LargeTomato wrote: post #78
sho_hn wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you give me an example of his 'arrogance'? I've been watching his content for some time, and I'd say he's always been very upfront and transparent about being an enthusiast/fanboy and not an engineer. His concept is to be an audience insert and ask the stuff his non-professional audience would ask, as a sort of avatar. I would expect no more expertise from him than from myself. If the people he interviews are h…

I can't find the tweet where he suggests to Elon how to design the sides of the rocket. Elon just shuts it down. I've never once heard EDA push back on anything Elon says even though Elon can say some outlandish things every now and then. That blind fanboyism is annoying. While not public, my friend was his liaison at Blue origin when he toured. He was extremely rude to the team at Blue. It actually surprised the med…

https://twitter.com/Erdayastronaut/status/144263153022495948...

Re: How to start a rocket engine

#105

Post by adolph »

ragebol wrote: post #2

I could watch stuff like this all day. Tim's stuff is so great. Easy to be jealous of, since being YouTuber seems easy, but to make quality content, it really can't be. And then he's going around the moon, it's really mind blowing to see the success he's had. His interviews with Musk are a treasure trove as well, whatever you think of Musk.

To pile on the Tim Dodd praise, be sure to check out his music too (which is used in the videos). Solid stuff that reminds me of Tycho. So glad he got picked for the Dear Moon mission.

Re: How to start a rocket engine

#107

Post by ghostpepper »

sho_hn wrote: post #71
LargeTomato wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I forget exactly what he suggested but I remember is being like kind of dumb. Elon was humoring him. This guy is absolutely not a rocket scientist. He's not even an engineer.

If I recall, Musk was explaining that on the Starship booster they had recently begun to use directed venting of ullage gases for control authority to save a seperate hot or cold gas thruster system and Dodd asked if this also applies to the ship. Musk then went "now that you mention it, we should look into that". During a visit a year or so later he then confirmed they had begun doing it on the ship too and that it…

In my (lay) opinion, this is still evidence that he at least has some idea of what he's talking about and not all his suggestions to Elon are "pants on head dumb". I was never under the impression he actually suggested something the team had never thought of.

Re: How to start a rocket engine

#108

Post by ace2358 »

jaywalk wrote: post #70
Retric wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Veritasium videos are often subtly misleading which really annoys me. It’s great for views, but terrible for science education.

Whenever he drops a new video, I just look for the "Here's how Veritasium was wrong" videos to get the real story.

It’s pretty rough because those ‘you’re wrong’ videos are actually just as wrong as he was. The main issue is that these complicated topics are difficult to describe properly is a 20 min English video that has to be edited to be interesting.

How electricity propagates is really complicated topic involving 3D vector calculus, for the EM waves. Most people don’t do electronic circuits by evaluating the vector field, they use the model of electron flow and the elements model (capacitance, inductance, resistance, voltage etc).

Ultimately these models are difficult to understand and most people (including my lecturers) make mistakes explaining them.

Re: How to start a rocket engine

#109

Post by adolph »

LargeTomato wrote: post #50

I'm surprised at the amount of people who enjoy EDA. I find him very irritating. Most people at my small space company find him extremely irritating. He is not a rocket scientist. He parrots silly buzzwords like "biomimickry" like a fanboy, not an engineer. He suggests things to Elon for how to do rockets that are just pants-on-head dumb. His blind fanboyism and arrogance irritate so many people who work in space. I'…

> He is not a rocket scientist.

He doesn't represent himself as one either. Between he and Scott Manley and others there are a lot of kids out there who are pumped about space in ways that I never felt as a kid. Is it wrong to be enthusiastic about something that is not one's own life-work, to be exited about anything headed pointy-end-up, flamey-end-down? Look at the mission statement:

Everyday Astronaut’s mission is to bring space down to Earth for everyday people. To celebrate and lift up those who are helping humanity explore the world we live on and our place amongst the stars. We believe the best way to get people excited about space exploration is through education. By breaking down complex topics, it helps give some perspective and insight into the decisions made every day through the industry. We help remove the barriers of intimidating subject matter to help foster an excited public to cheer on those who are pushing the boundaries and help inspire future generations. The point is, rocket science is awesome, and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to be excited.

Re: How to start a rocket engine

#110

Post by Gordonjcp »

localplume wrote: post #5
ragebol wrote: post #2

I could watch stuff like this all day. Tim's stuff is so great. Easy to be jealous of, since being YouTuber seems easy, but to make quality content, it really can't be. And then he's going around the moon, it's really mind blowing to see the success he's had. His interviews with Musk are a treasure trove as well, whatever you think of Musk.

He, like most big Youtubers, probably have a large crew of people working with them. The article was written by Trevor Sesnic, the video was likely edited by others, I don't know if he did the graphics, but Tim still did a lot (and arguably did the most fun stuff). Smaller Youtubers need to do all of that, and from what I've heard editing is the absolute worst given how time consuming it is. Many Youtubers struggle w…

> and from what I've heard editing is the absolute worst given how time consuming it is.

It can be, but as with many things it comes down to learning the techniques as well as the tools. You can learn how to edit quickly and effectively with a couple of simple rules, but the most important is "don't worry too much about throwing stuff away".

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