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Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test

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Re: Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test

#561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If one pad is the bottleneck, and the goal is to ramp up to be a spacex competitor, then build more than one... Falcon has shown the playbook, and the demand for launch... The goal should be 2-4 launch sites in the medium term; with a second site very early to avoid exactly this.

Until recently, SpaceX only acquired new pads because they needed a completely new launch site (SLC-4 in Vandenberg) or needed to launch a vehicle that their existing pad(s) didn't support (Falcon Heavy for LC-39A, Starship for Pad A in Boca Chica/Starbase). Currently, Blue Origin's only orbital launch vehicle is New Glenn, and their Vandenberg pad is still under construction.

Except that they are a competitor trying to catch up; it's not enough to follow what spacex did. They need to target where spacex will be when their own product is mature.

Re: Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test

#562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been downwind of a rocket explosion or an EV fire, Fireworks are something that make me annoyed at the air quality degradation quite often.

1. once a year is quite often? 2. while on vacation last year I saw huge column of snooker and crazy sound only to find out two electric cars were burning at charging station right in next street, I was much more annoyed by fireworks I watch from window at midnight, if you don't want just keep your window closed which shouldn't be that much of a deal in freezing night in December/January

At least twice a year, it is a big deal on July 4th. And that's not counting numerous forest fires that were started by fireworks.

And I mean, the EV thing just seems like a manufactured concern anyway. Walking around I'm very happy when I walk near an EV and don't breathe in exhaust. EV fires are remarkable because that's the only time their presence causes lung problems, while gas vehicles cause lung problems under normal operation.

Re: Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test

#563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. once a year is quite often? 2. while on vacation last year I saw huge column of snooker and crazy sound only to find out two electric cars were burning at charging station right in next street, I was much more annoyed by fireworks I watch from window at midnight, if you don't want just keep your window closed which shouldn't be that much of a deal in freezing night in December/January

At least twice a year, it is a big deal on July 4th. And that's not counting numerous forest fires that were started by fireworks. And I mean, the EV thing just seems like a manufactured concern anyway. Walking around I'm very happy when I walk near an EV and don't breathe in exhaust. EV fires are remarkable because that's the only time their presence causes lung problems, while gas vehicles cause lung problems under…

what about forest fires not started by fireworks? we have forest fires every year in summer and we do fireworks in Europe (as in most of the world) only on NYE, so great idea, we should ban forests, they support air polution by burning every year

gas vehicles with modern filters hardly produce any (lung) problems under normal operation

Re: Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test

#564
post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our biology precludes that. We are adapted to life on earth. Sad to say but we should be seeding tardigrades, not humans, if we care about sustaining earth life after earth is destroyed.

We use technology to do many things we are not biologically capable of. If we can use technology to remotely explore inhospitable environments, we can also use technology to wrap ourselves in a hospitable environment.

Why though? Patriotism? Stupid. Reminds me of Don’t Look Up how they needed a hero to die on the rocket.

Re: Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test

#565

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know why we are wasting all this money making it habitable for humans when robotics have taken such strides the last few decades. Manned missions made sense when we didn’t have these compute and robotic abilities we have today. Now, they are undue risk and cost and offer no real functionality but some misplaced national pride perhaps.

Because it's better for Earth's biosphere to mine things like lithium on the moon rather than polluting our biosphere. The North and South pole of the moon also serves as an excellent staging ground to put solar energy collectors that can then transmit continuous concentrated power to Earth. The moon is dangerous because there's no people and civilization is 5 days away at best but if there was already civilization a…

You can do all that with a robot. Putting humans in the mix makes no sense. Costly and risky.

Re: Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test

#566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know why we are wasting all this money making it habitable for humans when robotics have taken such strides the last few decades. Manned missions made sense when we didn’t have these compute and robotic abilities we have today. Now, they are undue risk and cost and offer no real functionality but some misplaced national pride perhaps.

> when robotics have taken such strides the last few decades One of those strides has been in characterising just how magnificent the human eye, mind and hand are at picking weird shit out of a background.

Have you seen what you can do with just openCV? The world changed fast quite recently.

Re: Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test

#567
post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We use technology to do many things we are not biologically capable of. If we can use technology to remotely explore inhospitable environments, we can also use technology to wrap ourselves in a hospitable environment.

Why though? Patriotism? Stupid. Reminds me of Don’t Look Up how they needed a hero to die on the rocket.

speciesism.

Re: Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test

#568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it was one of hundreds of avenues that were explored, and ruled out basically as soon as it was explored. Sounds like me during a troubleshooting call trying to think of the wildest crap possible based on current available information, even if I sound crazy, sometimes my crazy question hits the nail. Never shun someone for trying to think of any crazy thing, sometimes they hit the nail on the head.

Very rarely is it appropriate to brainstorm widely. You want to start with a high level of discernment, focusing on the most plausible theories first, then broadening only if necessary. If someone started out with crazy low-discernment ideas, I’d probably ask them to leave to stop distracting everyone else.

You really do want breadth-first exploration, because once a group has identified and explored a few scenarios of high likelihood, the brain is already biased towards those events and more exotic scenarios are less likely to be imagined.

Only after that first exploration should you narrow it down according to likelihood. Then, if those likely scenarios appear to be dead ends, you can circle back to the earlier less likely scenarios. But trying to come up with less likely scenarios after your brain has already explored a different scenario in-depth takes a lot more effort.

> If someone started out with crazy low-discernment ideas, I’d probably ask them to leave to stop distracting everyone else.

Then you'd be doing it wrong. Valuing an idea (i.e. rating it in terms of relevance, likelihood, discernment, whatever you want to call it) is not part of the brainstorm, it's part of the post-brainstorm evaluation. Creativity and logic exercise the brain differently, trying to do both at the same time does not give the best results.

Re: Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test

#569
post #246
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. The forces these things produce are massive. I only know the specifics for the Space Shuttle, but when it is at full liftoff thrust (liquid and solid boosters) there's just no way to keep it leashed to Earth. It's going up whether you want to or not.

The space shuttle stack has a net thrust (thrust minus weight) of about 9 MN at lauch [1]. High carbon steel has a yield strength of 700 MPa [2]. So you need a piece of steel with a cross section of 0.013 square meter to hold it down. That's a rod 6.5 cm / 2.5 inches in diameter. Hardly impossible. Your nearest road suspension bridge probably has cables bigger than this. If you want to argue that it's impossible in p…

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Re: Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test

#570
post #345
post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah they shouldn't have posted that Nazi salute!!!

Irrelevant to his ability to run a company that makes good rockets at an efficient price, so... who cares? This is exactly the point of the person you're replying to. The ad hominem destroys your ability to recognise how insanely good SpaceX and Elon are at this rocket ship thing. Actual Nazis made a lot of stuff 75 years ago that you use and take advantage of on a daily basis. Nobody's judging you, dude. Appreciatin…

Making good rockets takes good engineers and musk ain't that
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