Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS • Hacker News Board

Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS

#51

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 5:04 PM UTC

tedks wrote: post #36

ceejayoz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There isn't a voting system so people can democratically decide what content is good or bad. I'm confused. Comments have up/down voting, and posts have up voting and flagging. > In a democratic system like Reddit, there might be objections to changing the titles or shadowbanning trolls (reddit does shadowban, but mods can't shadowban people for disturbing the quality of a subreddit). On Hacker News, these features…

>I'm confused. Comments have up/down voting, and posts have up voting and flagging. The voting system exists so that the community can raise productive comments, and lower unproductive comments. It's impossible for Paul Graham himself to come to every thread and say which comments are good and bad. We have to help how we can. >I've seen both people posting "you're hellbanned and it doesn't look warranted" and product…

"The voting system exists so that the community can raise productive comments, and lower unproductive comments" sounds like "a voting system so people can democratically decide what content is good or bad". What's the distinction you're trying to make?

Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS

#52

Post by tedks » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 5:17 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #51

tedks wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm confused. Comments have up/down voting, and posts have up voting and flagging. The voting system exists so that the community can raise productive comments, and lower unproductive comments. It's impossible for Paul Graham himself to come to every thread and say which comments are good and bad. We have to help how we can. >I've seen both people posting "you're hellbanned and it doesn't look warranted" and product…

"The voting system exists so that the community can raise productive comments, and lower unproductive comments" sounds like "a voting system so people can democratically decide what content is good or bad". What's the distinction you're trying to make?

The community does not decide what is good or bad. Paul Graham has already decided that. There is no democracy.

Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS

#53

Post by bfe » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 5:25 PM UTC

readerrrr wrote: post #6

And that is their second launch within 14 days. The previous launch was a satellite to a geostationary orbit.

This 14-day interval between Falcon 9 launches was the fastest consecutive launch since Gemini 7 & 6A in December 4 & 15, 1965.

SpaceX plans to beat that record soon with launches a week apart becoming routine.

Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS

#54

Post by ANH » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 5:26 PM UTC

Of note, there is an Earth observation instrument, RapidScat, being carried in the Dragon's trunk, which will be (has been?) plucked off the capsule by operators on the ground. This one measures wind. Another, called CATS, will be similarly deployed on the outside of the ISS in December-ish; it will measure clouds and aerosols.

These are part of a collection of low-cost (well, lower than a full satellite) Earth observation instruments to take advantage of the external mount points on the ISS. NASA recently had a media briefing about this: http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/september/nasa-hosts-media-br...

Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS

#55

Post by drzaiusapelord » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 5:33 PM UTC

Already__Taken wrote: post #48

vermontdevil wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US Air Force has one up there now - X-37B. It's completely autonomous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

18 years. Took them long enough.

Except automation in spaceflight was a solved problem long ago. The Buran had more automation than the STS because of US politics in regard to the STS than some major innovation. In fact, the Buran is the poster-boy of lack of innovation. Its just a slightly souped up COPY of the STS long after the STS was in production. This like calling a 2014 Kia that looks like a 2003 Mercedes innovative because it has the option for a bluetooth stereo.

The Air Force's shuttle is actually autonomous not just automated. Its, say, more like a drone than a R/C car. Its many steps ahead of what the US and the USSR were doing in the 80s. From what we know its a very interesting technical achievement.Over 600 days in space for a spacecraft is pretty impressive also.

>OTV-3 had spent 600 days in orbit by 8 August 2014

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

I don't know why this metric isn't mentioned more often. This this is practically launch and forget, give occasional orders to, and land once in a while sci-fi spacecraft. From an intel point-of-view this is pretty much a spy satellite that can go anywhere in orbit, change its mission at any time, and then land and go back at any time. It may also have anti-satellite weapons. I guess we won't know its full capabilities until its declassified, but from what we know its a very interesting project from a technical achievement point of view.

Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS

#56

Post by ewoodrich » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 5:33 PM UTC

bfe wrote: post #53

readerrrr wrote: post #6

And that is their second launch within 14 days. The previous launch was a satellite to a geostationary orbit.

This 14-day interval between Falcon 9 launches was the fastest consecutive launch since Gemini 7 & 6A in December 4 & 15, 1965. SpaceX plans to beat that record soon with launches a week apart becoming routine.

Gemini 7 and 6A were manned launches on human-rated launch vehicles, so it isn't quite comparable yet.

Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS

#57

Post by bfe » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 5:34 PM UTC

antimagic wrote: post #19

MrBra wrote: post #16

Is it common to use metric system when launching rockets to space or is it a peculiarity of SpaceX? I heard the speaker on SpaceX channel always referring to kilometers and kilometers per second when talking about height and speed.

It's common for pretty much all of engineering really. It's ludicrous to make calculations a bit more complicated by using weird non-SI units. The fact that NASA managed to crash a probe into Mars because they hadn't yet learned the lesson says it all really. Just use SI units and stop worrying about it.

It's Lockheed Martin that still insists on using imperial units instead of SI, even after the loss of mission that confusion caused in their work with metric-using JPL on Mars Climate Orbiter.

Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS

#58

Post by bfe » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 5:44 PM UTC

ewoodrich wrote: post #56

bfe wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This 14-day interval between Falcon 9 launches was the fastest consecutive launch since Gemini 7 & 6A in December 4 & 15, 1965. SpaceX plans to beat that record soon with launches a week apart becoming routine.

Gemini 7 and 6A were manned launches on human-rated launch vehicles, so it isn't quite comparable yet.

Still, modern launch vehicle human ratings were only developed after the second Shuttle disaster, and are far beyond 1965 standards.

http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/displayDir.cfm?Internal_ID=N_PR_...

Falcon 9 v1.1 is almost certainly safer than the Titan II Gemini Launch Vehicle. As with prior Dragon flights, humans could have flown and been just fine.

Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS

#59

Post by pimlottc » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 6:21 PM UTC

jjoonathan wrote: post #47

pimlottc wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His point (I believe) is you always need to label units regardless of system. You could have the same problems with microseconds vs nanoseconds.

Tloewald's point was that microseconds and nanoseconds are not SI base units, so standardizing on base units eliminates the ambiguity (the second alone is the SI base unit of time). Of course additional mechanisms of double and triple checking are probably still warranted to account for human fallibility.

Regardless of what you standardize, you still need to include the unit for any figure.

Re: Station Crew Docks Dragon Capsule to ISS

#60

Post by jessaustin » Tue, Sep 23, 2014, 6:39 PM UTC

ewoodrich wrote: post #56

bfe wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This 14-day interval between Falcon 9 launches was the fastest consecutive launch since Gemini 7 & 6A in December 4 & 15, 1965. SpaceX plans to beat that record soon with launches a week apart becoming routine.

Gemini 7 and 6A were manned launches on human-rated launch vehicles, so it isn't quite comparable yet.

It's comparable to any consecutive launches that occurred in the nearly five decades since.