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Space Elevator

neal.fun

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Re: Space Elevator

#111

Post by csomar »

O5vYtytb wrote: post #79
csomar wrote: post #62

Couple of things I learned from this: 1. Some birds go really high into the sky. Not sure how they evolved to tolerate such a hostile environment. But it seems that Duck-like birds are able to handle very high altitude. 2. There are lots of cool spaceships that man has made. But it seems most of these were made in the 1950-1990 era. It's a shame that we are no longer doing that.

I have to wonder what you mean we're no longer making cool spacecraft? The SpaceX starship is about to launch in an hour, it's very cool.

Yep. But you'd expect that we'd have more given how much technology has advanced and how bigger the economies are now. The recent progress is mostly due to Billionaires now.

Another possibility is: Space is too hard. So instead the focus is to analyze (ie: James Webb) instead of sending a human there.

Re: Space Elevator

#113

Post by Anduia »

hammyhavoc wrote: post #77
Anduia wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or perhaps a reason to update Windows https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35511713

The comment I replied to said that they use Firefox on Android. What relevance does Windows have to Android in this discussion? None.

Well I didn't see that. My apologies!

Re: Space Elevator

#115

Post by uncertainrhymes »

dxbydt wrote: post #108

(Sorry, am not a science person). Why does the temperature go down until 11000 metres, then stay at -70F until 20000m, then starts going back up to 28F until 50000m, then starts going down again 83500m, stays at -119F until 90500m, rises up again until 100000m ?

That is the measured air temperature, but it isn't used the way we normally think about it. At very high altitudes, the atmosphere is very sparse (i.e. very low pressure). There are not very many molecules of air, but those few do get hit with a lot of ionizing radiation, meaning they have a lot of energy.

It would not feel warm to you though, it would feel basically like space.

This is a poor analogy, but consider the difference between a single drop of water hitting your skin at high speed, versus a slow moving wave of water going over you. The drop has more energy, and if you just measured its 'speed' it would be higher than the wave.

Re: Space Elevator

#117

Post by piyh »

csomar wrote: post #111
O5vYtytb wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to wonder what you mean we're no longer making cool spacecraft? The SpaceX starship is about to launch in an hour, it's very cool.

Yep. But you'd expect that we'd have more given how much technology has advanced and how bigger the economies are now. The recent progress is mostly due to Billionaires now. Another possibility is: Space is too hard. So instead the focus is to analyze (ie: James Webb) instead of sending a human there.

The incentives for going to space are limited to more economic sensibility when you don't have a dick measuring contest going on between great powers.

Re: Space Elevator

#119

Post by andorov »

jackmott42 wrote: post #109
csomar wrote: post #62

Couple of things I learned from this: 1. Some birds go really high into the sky. Not sure how they evolved to tolerate such a hostile environment. But it seems that Duck-like birds are able to handle very high altitude. 2. There are lots of cool spaceships that man has made. But it seems most of these were made in the 1950-1990 era. It's a shame that we are no longer doing that.

List of cool spaceships being worked on now or recently: * The Falcon 9, the first partially reusable spaceship that actually costs less than not re-using anything * Terran R - a fully reusable space ship in the works by relativity space * RocketLab Electron - an active rocket that is unique in its use of electric turbo pumps, 3d printed engines, and advanced composites use * RocketLab Neutron - in the works, a large…

SpinLaunch is pretty interesting too - throwing ships into space https://www.spinlaunch.com/

Re: Space Elevator

#120

Post by codethief »

csomar wrote: post #62

Couple of things I learned from this: 1. Some birds go really high into the sky. Not sure how they evolved to tolerate such a hostile environment. But it seems that Duck-like birds are able to handle very high altitude. 2. There are lots of cool spaceships that man has made. But it seems most of these were made in the 1950-1990 era. It's a shame that we are no longer doing that.

> It's a shame that we are no longer doing that.

"We" have built a lot of spaceships since then but they simply went higher up than "just" 100km, so don't show up in the OP.

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