Broken_Erika
Play with me.
So, how many former crew members now suffer from chronic tinnitus?
The thread for space cadets!
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Timsup2nothin
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Only one that I know of. Of course, I am the only former crew member that I actually know.
hobbsyoyo
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I recently learned that engineering doesn't pay very well in Europe. The government provides a ton of benefits that offset a lot of the missed pay but apparently an average salary is in the 30-40k euro range, about a third of what you get for the same jobs in the US. This article on a so-called European brain drain to the US underlines that idea but I have to admit I have run into maybe 3 immigrants from all of Europe in my short career thus far. I've met at least that many from Iran alone, plus people from all over the rest of the middle east and Asia. If there is a European brain drain, this politician is either overstating it to create a sense of urgency or the overall job market for engineers in the US must be huge compared to Europe.
The other alternative is that my own personal observations don't line up with reality.
https://spacenews.com/european-comm...es-sharper-look-at-space-investment-strategy/
The other alternative is that my own personal observations don't line up with reality.
https://spacenews.com/european-comm...es-sharper-look-at-space-investment-strategy/
warpus
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When you say "Europe".. where exactly do you mean though? There's lots of countries there with probably a huge variety in pay for such jobs. If you take the average across all Europe surely it will be lower than expected, due to the fact that parts of Europe are still playing catchup up to economies like Germany, and parts of Europe are genuinely poor, like say Moldova, Albania. Even EU countries like Portugal and Greece aren't doing great.
r16
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turns out getting a 100 likes in CFC earns you some trophy or something , which like scared me or something as it's not a thing am accustomed to or whatever . So , let's keep the ranting . When it was in Turkish newspapers it was 6 radio "contacts" , it has became 15 by the time the links in the previous pages were written as articles . So 1+2+3 followed by 4+5 ? And it's likely that it's just about under a light year , some rock or comet out of the Solar system , to reflect them , but you know , this requires some dude with a white cat on his lap and also 10 or 20 or 30 years lead in Dark Matter theory , to spot stuff that far out .
as for Euroengineering it appears Netherlands is actively "poaching" here , with a thousand given passports , at least 100 from Aselsan , which was the pride of the Republic back in the day .
as for Euroengineering it appears Netherlands is actively "poaching" here , with a thousand given passports , at least 100 from Aselsan , which was the pride of the Republic back in the day .
hobbsyoyo
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Stratolaunch is a company based out in Mojave that has built one of the biggest aircraft ever to fly. It was intended to carry rockets roughly the size of Falcon 9 v1.0 to altitude for launch. This enhanced the payload the rockets could carry and meant they could avoid congestion at popular launch pads. SpaceX briefly partnered with Stratolaunch to provide a Falcon 9 Air (and even more briefly the unflown Falcon 5) but backed out as it was against their core mission. After that, Orbital ATK was contracted to build a new rocket to go with the aircraft but they too cancelled that contract.
Because of all that, Stratolaunch started a whole new line of rocket development. These were to be hydrogen/oxygen powered and they even went through component testing of the first stage engine of this new platform. There were plans to develop a heavy (3-core) version of the basic rocket and a reusable, crewed space shuttle all based on the same engines.
Unfortunately, the founder and bankroller of the company (Paul Allen, formerly of Microsoft) died and the new executive team decided to end this development program. They are now baselining the aircraft to carry 3 Pegasus XL rockets built by Northrop Grumman (formerly Orbital ATK). Nothing about this idea makes any sense.
I suspect they have fallen back on a 'safe', quasi-plausible business plan while they decide if they can find a new business plan or if they should close shop. They have no use for this new Spruce Goose without bigger rockets to go on it. Pegasus XL's are tiny and stupid expensive - it's the cluster of three small rockets to the left in the image below.
https://spacenews.com/stratolaunch-abandons-launch-vehicle-program/
Because of all that, Stratolaunch started a whole new line of rocket development. These were to be hydrogen/oxygen powered and they even went through component testing of the first stage engine of this new platform. There were plans to develop a heavy (3-core) version of the basic rocket and a reusable, crewed space shuttle all based on the same engines.
Unfortunately, the founder and bankroller of the company (Paul Allen, formerly of Microsoft) died and the new executive team decided to end this development program. They are now baselining the aircraft to carry 3 Pegasus XL rockets built by Northrop Grumman (formerly Orbital ATK). Nothing about this idea makes any sense.
I suspect they have fallen back on a 'safe', quasi-plausible business plan while they decide if they can find a new business plan or if they should close shop. They have no use for this new Spruce Goose without bigger rockets to go on it. Pegasus XL's are tiny and stupid expensive - it's the cluster of three small rockets to the left in the image below.
https://spacenews.com/stratolaunch-abandons-launch-vehicle-program/
Is Kurzgesagt losing their edge?
They released this rather, IMO, paltry video.
I can think of a couple of reasons off the top of my head alone that they could had touched on, from the concrete to the more whimsical:
1) Putting people on a whole other planetary body pushes the envelope and application of engineering and science in so many fields it can sustain a economy all by itself, not to mention the advances thereof. Environments, Biology, Medicine, Engineering, Astronautics, etal. The only way to know how mankind will survive or live in space, or the Moon, or Mars, is to keep putting people there for years or decades on end.
2) To keep mankind and the Gaian Biosphere intact in some form elsewhere. This is what Zubrin calls 'spreading the eggs out of the basket' or 'not keeping all of your eggs in one basket' scenario. It is a response to the reality that we're in a system with two or three debris fields in a violatile and active universe that can fry our planet many times over - and has. It is not very glorious or glamorous, sure. it is very hoo-hum, and ties into 1 hard, but it 'works'. Scenarios such as global warming or nuclear war do not tie themselves into this much; as earth will still be very habitable after the worst of global warming and any nuclear war has the potential to hit any colony - this is against natural astronomical disasters; and it does have a vague asterisk that demands mankind keep spreading itself and the gaian biosphere to 'be sure'.
There's a 2.5) where the pressures of these new environments will, over time, keep the diversity and adaptation of the biosphere and mankind 'going'. The Humans of Tau Ceti may be, eventually, by nature be different from the Humans of Mars or Earth, and this is not a bad thing by itself.
3) The same reason Chile and Argentina have 'towns' (read: Hamlets) on Antarctica: Nationalistic Pride. Nations, as groups of people, engage in dick-waving; as Earth is settled and cultured, the way to show that your nation is 'great' is to march outwards. Orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond can simply be reached by giving the Napoleon Complex of the Nation a sustained kick for a few decades. India wouldn't be looking at Space if China wasn't already frolicking around there, and China went to make up for their century of humiliation and to show the world they can keep up with the Russians and Yanks, who went up to basically provide a cover for their missile programs....
4) More fanciful and basically worthless excuses, which is what the video provides - that someone, eventually, wants to do it and will. Self-glorification might tie into 3) a bit, or allure to some persistent libertarian-space-future myth where big heroes like Musk use their billions consecutively for decades to make private space programs and the like all to make their mark on history. Included in this are 'economic' reasons (Even Zubrin falls to this, claiming that just because Apollo inspired a generation of technology, science, and engineers that such will continue to happen if manned missions continue and all the economic benefits thereof), or utopian ideas that mankind must continue to spread from a stagnating, cultured Earth to keep pushing itself (Zubrin again tries to paint Mars as some pioneer paradise where a polity can start again with modern, updated ethics free from the chains of Earth ones akin to how the US did away from the UK, or so on).
What do ya'll think?
They released this rather, IMO, paltry video.
I can think of a couple of reasons off the top of my head alone that they could had touched on, from the concrete to the more whimsical:
1) Putting people on a whole other planetary body pushes the envelope and application of engineering and science in so many fields it can sustain a economy all by itself, not to mention the advances thereof. Environments, Biology, Medicine, Engineering, Astronautics, etal. The only way to know how mankind will survive or live in space, or the Moon, or Mars, is to keep putting people there for years or decades on end.
2) To keep mankind and the Gaian Biosphere intact in some form elsewhere. This is what Zubrin calls 'spreading the eggs out of the basket' or 'not keeping all of your eggs in one basket' scenario. It is a response to the reality that we're in a system with two or three debris fields in a violatile and active universe that can fry our planet many times over - and has. It is not very glorious or glamorous, sure. it is very hoo-hum, and ties into 1 hard, but it 'works'. Scenarios such as global warming or nuclear war do not tie themselves into this much; as earth will still be very habitable after the worst of global warming and any nuclear war has the potential to hit any colony - this is against natural astronomical disasters; and it does have a vague asterisk that demands mankind keep spreading itself and the gaian biosphere to 'be sure'.
There's a 2.5) where the pressures of these new environments will, over time, keep the diversity and adaptation of the biosphere and mankind 'going'. The Humans of Tau Ceti may be, eventually, by nature be different from the Humans of Mars or Earth, and this is not a bad thing by itself.
3) The same reason Chile and Argentina have 'towns' (read: Hamlets) on Antarctica: Nationalistic Pride. Nations, as groups of people, engage in dick-waving; as Earth is settled and cultured, the way to show that your nation is 'great' is to march outwards. Orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond can simply be reached by giving the Napoleon Complex of the Nation a sustained kick for a few decades. India wouldn't be looking at Space if China wasn't already frolicking around there, and China went to make up for their century of humiliation and to show the world they can keep up with the Russians and Yanks, who went up to basically provide a cover for their missile programs....
4) More fanciful and basically worthless excuses, which is what the video provides - that someone, eventually, wants to do it and will. Self-glorification might tie into 3) a bit, or allure to some persistent libertarian-space-future myth where big heroes like Musk use their billions consecutively for decades to make private space programs and the like all to make their mark on history. Included in this are 'economic' reasons (Even Zubrin falls to this, claiming that just because Apollo inspired a generation of technology, science, and engineers that such will continue to happen if manned missions continue and all the economic benefits thereof), or utopian ideas that mankind must continue to spread from a stagnating, cultured Earth to keep pushing itself (Zubrin again tries to paint Mars as some pioneer paradise where a polity can start again with modern, updated ethics free from the chains of Earth ones akin to how the US did away from the UK, or so on).
What do ya'll think?
hobbsyoyo
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I more or less agree with your points though I have not watched the video yet. In the end I am not sure we're going to have any serious manned interplanetary exploration missions for another twenty years. National manned deep space efforts have been badly mismanaged in both the US and Russia. China is continuing with a (very) slow and steady approach to manned deep space exploration while Europe/India/Japan are not really trying. There are some promising commercial efforts in the US but no one can be certain that they will realize enough profits to sustain them or if they will become dependent on government funding.
Timsup2nothin
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Manned exploration has fallen prey to the widespread increase in "life uber alles" thinking. In the great days of sail, more than half of the explorers that went off to sea never came back, and no one gave a moment's consideration to "hey, we better just stop exploring." But one space shuttle blows up and the entire space program grinds to a halt on the horror of seven dead.
This does fit NASA's vague commitment to "Mars in twenty Years' - 2038 would still be a win for them; and the outlook for even Lunar missions in the early 20s is drying up fast.
Maybe a economic boon might help, after all we're all still running around the Great Recession and are on the cusp of another recession for 2020 or 2022; which would push things back to the later 2020s and early 2030s for us to run wild again. The US still hasn't put up a person in space, under its own power, in eight years, and even estimates for this year might slip.
There is this, and it'll also hurt the commercial side hard. Hell, it has. Virgin Galactic lost one pilot and thus all momentum for almost a half a decade. If SpaceX or Blue Origin have a disaster, that's it - another five years of catchup. Especially if they fudge up with professional astronauts on board.
hobbsyoyo
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There is a crucial difference between Virgin then and SpaceX and Boeing now. Virgin was not flying NASA astronauts and was not supporting the national laboratory of the ISS. If SpaceX or Boeing were to have a mishap now, it would be painful but NASA would actually increase their funding to see the investigation and corrective actions through. On the other hand, if Blue Origin had a mishap then they'd be in the same boat as Virgin as their manned flights are also for tourists. And while Virgin and Blue both carry NASA zero-g experiments, NASA has other providers for that service, so there is no reason for them to offer up funding.
Now NASA would almost certainly perform some role in mishap investigations for all of the above and feed their findings back to the manufacturers. But if the manufacturers are providing NASA with rides to the ISS, then NASA will hand over a lot of money in the form of contract modifications to keep the program on track. The far bigger threat would come from Congress as certain members (*cough* Richard Shelby *cough*) are firmly in the pockets of SpaceX competitors. This is partially why Blue Origin is setting up production facilities in Alabama and Florida - to win over corrupt GOP legislators.
Now NASA would almost certainly perform some role in mishap investigations for all of the above and feed their findings back to the manufacturers. But if the manufacturers are providing NASA with rides to the ISS, then NASA will hand over a lot of money in the form of contract modifications to keep the program on track. The far bigger threat would come from Congress as certain members (*cough* Richard Shelby *cough*) are firmly in the pockets of SpaceX competitors. This is partially why Blue Origin is setting up production facilities in Alabama and Florida - to win over corrupt GOP legislators.
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Timsup2nothin
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Before Hobbs answers I'm gonna take a wild stab that being at ground zero under a rocket launch is not terribly healthy, even for a big tower made mostly of pretty durable stuff.
hobbsyoyo
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I do not have a ton of knowledge on launch infrastructure. I know inspections and tests play a key role in upkeep. There are some consumable parts but for the most part you just want to make sure nothing has broken between launches.
If you are re-configuring the launch pad for a different type of rocket, that's a very different problem. For that, a lot of the physical infrastructure from hold downs, to gas interconnects to the types of fuels themselves have to be changed out.
If you are re-configuring the launch pad for a different type of rocket, that's a very different problem. For that, a lot of the physical infrastructure from hold downs, to gas interconnects to the types of fuels themselves have to be changed out.
r16
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meanwhile the thread really misses the essentials . See , a week ago some Party TV in New Turkey declared some meteor will strike Earth in 2134 or 35 . With the power of 80 000 Hiroshimas , the tsunami footage shows the World Trade Center almost awash to the very top and amazingly it doesn't even buckle . Instead of the clear and present danger , we were than told the meteor currently between Mars and Jupiter will be given impulse to change orbit or destroyed by a nuke by Bruce Willis , Armageddon was '98 ?
Timsup2nothin
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Ermmmm...not to be a killjoy on the end of the world thing...but...
Hiroshima bomb was equivalent to 16 kilotons of TNT. So 80,000 Hiroshimas would be...1280 megatons.
I dinged around with this calculator until I got an impact of 1190 megatons, which seemed close enough. It left a five kilometer crater, and at my somewhat arbitrary choice of fifty kilometers distance I'm pretty upset...but from a global standpoint this is just not that big a deal. Certainly not a "missing the essentials" level of disaster.
Calculator is pretty cool, by the way. You can smack the Earth with a pretty much unlimited variety of rocks until you get what you want.
On the other hand, the Armageddon rock destroyed by Bruce Willis ("It's the size of Texas.") yields some entertaining results. I opted to be 10,000 km away from that one and still got "Your position is inside the fireball." At least I was spared the magnitude 13.8 earthquake.
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Thorgalaeg
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Not need to be the size of Texas to cause a funny global armageddon. Much smaller ones could cause "nuclear" winter after impact. (or nuclear summer if it impacts on the ocean) Still it should be much bigger than 80,000 Hiroshimas. For instance the one that finished dinosaurs was about 10 km and 100,000,000 megatons but smaller ones could do the job too, depending on composition and a number of circumstances.
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Timsup2nothin
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He actually said "80,000 Hiroshimas." 80,000 megatons is at least a decent pop. I went back to the calculator and fooled around until I got a 60,000 megaton result and I was getting a sunburn from the fireball at 250km with window shattering air blast and 7.8 earthquake. But the 'size of Texas' global killer from the movie didn't have to fool around with nuclear winter, it would be just an instant scorcher and that would be that.
Fortunately it was well into the "hasn't happened since Earth's initial accumulation, ain't gonna" class. The planet has gotten old and stodgy. It's just no fun any more.
