The thread for space cadets!

[uppi]

They also announced a plan to begin commercializing the ISS and will allow companies to install their own modules and ferry workers there twice a year. I think this is a good thing as the ISS has had miserable science returns (even before you factor in the exorbitant cost) and something clearly needs to change. I'm support government spending on basic research but there's been so little of it at the ISS that we should be exploring options for making some sort of return on the investment. While the private sector will be more focused on making money than research for research's sake, almost all of that effort to make money will involve a huge amount of R&D just due to the space-based nature of it. So it is not the case that research will go away as they add commercial operations and in fact the pure science work they are doing will continue and will even benefit from the cross-pollination that goes on in multi-discipline facilities.

Getting additional arguments for maintaining the station is good, I guess. But I somewhat doubt that the case for a commercial space station is sufficient right now to justify the cost. There are three main applications that come to my mind:
1) Testing private space equipment: Certainly useful, but needs a (private) market for space equipment in the first place.
2) Marketing: I could see companies use the ISS to market a non-space product ("tested in space", filming ads, etc.). But after a few times this would get old fast.
3) Tourism for the rich: Could be the biggest market, but I am not sure how big it really is.

 

[r16]

oh-kay , ı have read another one book and am now an expert on the development history of V-2 , as debated in this thread sometime back . A German author using archives , kinda lambasts von Braun as not innocent , if you will . Also attacks a firm conviction of yours idiotly that Wasserfall should have been the real priority . Says it is unpractical and an equal waste of effort . Will not agree , it could have been made a "formation destroyer" and it would sooner or later would have a proximity fuse in its 1 meter diameter , if Americans could fit one in a 76mm flak shell . And that 20 kilometers of altitude , man , that would have been bad . Nobody is doing a 633 Sqn remake , but destroying the facilities for the original Wasserfall fuel will make sure that there will be no rockets "this summer" as ı know the novel well , and yes , that summer is 1944 and D-Day and the defeat of the American Daylight attacks and thousands more German fighters over the beaches and whatnot . (No, the book is 1943 actually)

the book certainly convinces the V-2 programme was a war loser for Germany ; as there is the calculation that the same effort could have added 24 000 more fighters to the 36 000 or so the Germans "did" in 1944 . The surprise then lays in Hitler's antagonism to the whole thing . Really . Lambasting German brillance in tactics and "modesty" in strategy is not full justice either . V-2 in 1939 terms is acceptable , if you wanna accept some r16 baggage . From not this book , ı get the vibe that Hitler was trying to stab the Allies in the back , with trying to grab as much as he could and his actual concern in 1939 was the Balkans , creating a new "Austrian Empire" with "re-acquiring" land . And not fighting a Capitalist Crusade against the Soviet Russia , especially in Soviet Russia . A decade or two later ? Who knows ? One can even claim the Allied guarantees to Poland made sure Adolf would have to humiliate the West by defeating Poland and "losing" the buffer zone that laid between him and Stalin's lot . Mocking the V-2 as a re-incarnation of the Paris Gun of WW I fame then fails . Twice the range of the unwieldy cannon , 100 times in warhead and size determined so that it can pass through railroad tunnels is extremely wise , if it's to become a terror weapon .


to justify Allied inaction as Nazis and the Reds came to blows and wasted each other dead . And its puny range of 270 kilometers or so would be perfectly adequate when Wehrmacht occupied Belgium and put both London and Paris in range . No way to shoot it down , too , though one Spitfire pilot in 1944 put in a valiant effort as one V-2 was fired as he was passing by . So , a V-2 in 1939 is not to Adolf's taste , his egomania is yet to experience the jig he jigged as the French signed the surrender documents in '40 . As the baseline A-4 variant or the improved A-10 . 4 times in warhead , range maybe 800 kilometers . Adolf has already been failed by Goering with the Ju-88 , the wonderbomber , not fast enough , not long ranged enough . An armchair strategist should never say anything without a ruler and a school atlas , am calculating something like 1400 kilometers between Vienna and Istanbul . You know , because .

and yet the missile was number one priority for German Army , practically throughout the war . Ballistic missiles are deadly today or something , but they made "sense" in the past only if they were nuclear tipped . Adolf's bunch were mostly opposed to Jewish physics , so no chance of that , while say , the Americans had nothing rocketwise . One would be totally paranoid and Red to suggest there was some worksharing , but ı have never encountered this like ever . And the way the Brits missed important stuff on their air-raid on Peneemunde , which happened as they had to justify their lack of effort on ball bearings , the first disasterous attack scaring Germans greatly the day before . (And oh , von Braun arrested by Gestapo , as he was fast becoming an export commodity after the clearly coming Nazi defeat . )


then of course Adolf had the whole of Balkans and the range was no problem , so he wanted 10 ton warheads , if he couldn't have a basic supply of 150 000 missiles . He might have imagined his dashing panzers and intrepid pioneers would have managed to cross all the Thrace but we would surely invite the Russians for a party and the Germans had already tasted the Russian artillery . Didn't happen , so Hitler was stuck with a weapon system that did so little when the Allies could despatch 3000 bombers to Germany daily .

one could even examine if it could have been ever possible to load the dice against Nazi Germany , by hinting of great things that could be made with missiles but how would one be sure of the exact ceiling of German production ? Through the potato production statistics as Germans made their ethanol with fermenting agricultural produce ? Trusting it would happen that way because German Generals would love to re-enact the Hindenburg programme where they acquired factories and companies ? And be actually forced to do it with Goering's insatiable greed ? Nor it would be German foolishness . When the Cold War started and stuff , USAF found out designing an air to air missile to fight enemy planes was number 8 on the list of its priorities , while number one was the nuclear tipped ballistic missile , so that US Army or Navy would be unable to get in the nuclear club and eat USAF's lunch by claiming the flyboys were wedded to archaic planes while they had futuristic rockets ...

in the real world nothing exciting . Americans -instead of declaring new companies to take New Turkey's place in the F-35 programme- announce no more New Turkey personnel will be trained starting in August . You know , as deadly measures to be announced in the first week of June if the S-400 purchase was not cancelled by then . New Turkey calls it scandolous and brags about the "flying fortress" , that dumb A-400 transport from the Airbus -another thing New Turkey inherited from the dead or something Republic . It's called a flying fortress , no doubt because the spiritual leader of the Congregation had heard there was such a thing when he was a kid like in the 1940s and obviously they need far stronger incentives to stop still lackeying for Congregation favours . Oh my , S-400 the missile all important game changing pointy thing . One is amazed at this American fixation on making us pay for the WW II as if it was them who lost the war . Oh , wait ... Ah , yes , please understand nothing from this post .

 

[hobbsyoyo]

An 800+km ranged V-2 follow on would not have worked. The Germans were unable to solve the serious aerodynamic issues that plauged the V-2 without hacky work-arounds. They found that most of the launches broke up during flight due to the aerodynamic loading and the way they got around it was not by fixing the flight profile but by adding heavy banding around the rocket to reinforce it. The stresses on a longer range rocket would have been worse which would have required even more reinforcement which would have reduced the range and cut payload and so on. Plus, the accuracy is a function of distance for these rockets and while the V-2 could reliably hit cities, it could only just do that. I think an 800+ km rocket would have been even less useful than the generally useless V-2 itself.

The Wasserfall missile could not have worked even if they had sunk more money into the project. They were not accurate enough to be useful - even if they had been lobbed against formations the warheads were too small to be truly effective and the response would have been to fly looser formations, which would have basically eliminated the threat for no effort. They required too much infrastructure to launch which would have made them juicy targets for air raids and would have necessitated a whole new (and very costly) development program to make them road-mobile, if that was even possible. Also at this stage of rocket development, the rockets themselves were far more expensive to both develop and field than far more versatile aircraft interceptors so sinking money into that project was always a losing game.

The Americans did not have 'nothing' when it came to rockets either. They just chose - like all of the other allies - to focus on more practical designs like anti-tank rockets, rocket-assisted take-off technology and air to ground rockets. ICBMs and anti-aircraft rockets were not feasible for WWII under any plausible timeline and the entirety of the German effort in those areas was essentially wasted for them - though it was very helpful for the Allied R&D efforts that absorbed the German efforts.

 

[Imaus]

This study, while ending in a dramatic almost pre-95 note, does raise a few points and questions.

New study dramatically narrows the search for advanced life in the universe - because a planet may have, or needs, too much Carbon Dioxide.

I'm interested in Mars, and why just dunking more CO2 to it alone won't work (if we need to, or want to, Terraform it at all) - we need to basically strip down a huge chunk of the system's free floating Methane, Ozone, Xenon, and other noble gases as well. Since it's no longer a natural thing, but a artificial thing, Future Mars is still 'fine', but natural exoplanets get written off far sooner; the Goldilocks Zone has basically been quartered. Kepler 442B, GJ 581 D, GJ 667 C are in the new 'good' zone. Prox Cen B is right at the cusp - fingers crossed.

 

[r16]

An 800+km ranged V-2 follow on would not have worked...Plus, the accuracy is a function of distance for these rockets and while the V-2 could reliably hit cities, it could only just do that. I think an 800+ km rocket would have been even less useful than the generally useless V-2 itself.

The Wasserfall missile could not have worked even if they had sunk more money into the project. They were not accurate enough to be useful - even if they had been lobbed against formations the warheads were too small to be truly effective and the response would have been to fly looser formations, which would have basically eliminated the threat for no effort... develop and field than far more versatile aircraft interceptors so sinking money into that project was always a losing game.

The Americans did not have 'nothing' when it came to rockets either. They just chose - like all of the other allies - to focus on more practical designs ... ICBMs and anti-aircraft rockets were not feasible for WWII under any plausible timeline.

never said it would , now that the 1937 or thereabouts decision was taken when it seemed V-2s could land within a kilometer of the aiming point , not the 20 kilometers it achieved . Before double agents made the aiming point creep away from London city center anyhow .

the same book makes a point of how von Braun used the English word interceptor in his bid to have a VTOL fighter thing , which then failed , as like it should . But a 1943 at the latest Wasserfall , plausible (as much as a 1941 decision on Jumo 213 hence an high altitude 190 two or three years before its actual deployment date) would have not . Because they would have discovered the foibles and would have gone to , you know , SA-2 . With the basic minimum thing about observing the fall of the shot . The V-2s were not seen to breaking up in flight , before the test shoots were moved to Poland , you know after some accident diverted one radio control test specimen to Sweden . As for looser formations , that would have been a German "victory" with all the trouble they went to up armour the planes to survive bomber gunners , decreasing their capacity against fighters , when escorts became available .

and naturally the only thing the book has on American efforts on rocketry that they went to GE and started a Project Hermes , after years of British foibles that miscalculated the existence of a 60 ton rocket , instead of the what (?) 10 tons of the V-2 . As for anti tank "missiles" one can even argue the Hungarians beat the West , with testing missiles and Germans actually using hundreds against Russians and one needs to aware of not looking like a Nazi lover when discussing such tech leads .

 

[Samson]

Possible massive Alien / Nazi base found on the moon.

Possible in sense of not completely ruled out:

Eggheads in Texas have discovered a huge, dense mass lurking beneath an enormous crater on the Moon.

The Baylor University study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, combined data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) missions and found the huge blob lurking over a hundred miles beneath the South Pole-Aitken basin.

The mass, which isn't immediately obvious on the surface, appears to be dragging down the lunar landscape above it by around half a mile. In terms of size, lead author of the paper, Peter B. James, compared it to a pile of metal five times the size of Hawaii's big island.

The South Pole-Aitken basin itself is an impact crater on the far side of the Moon, and measures approximately 1,600 miles in diameter and 8.1 miles deep. It is one of the largest known impact craters in the Solar System and is home to China's Chang'e 4 lander and the Yutu 2 trundlebot.

The scientists have a number of theories for where this mass could have come from, including one that involves the solidification of an ocean of lunar magma.

The leading theory posits the mass comes from an asteroid with an iron-nickel core that smacked into the lunar surface four billion years ago. Scientists calculated that a sufficiently dispersed impactor core could remain suspended in the Moon's mantle rather than sink to the core.​

 

[tjs282]

Shame it's not in Tycho. Then we could posit TMA-1...

*reads article*

Aw shoot, they made that joke already...

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Because they would have discovered the foibles and would have gone to , you know , SA-2

Sure, with about another decade of research into staging, solid propellant formulations, radar guidance, miniaturized electronics and so on. The earliest effective anti-aircraft missiles were primitive compared to today but light years ahead of what was available in WWII or even the immediate aftermath.

As for looser formations , that would have been a German "victory" with all the trouble they went to up armour the planes to survive bomber gunners , decreasing their capacity against fighters , when escorts became available .

I mean no because the escorts still would have been there. It was a futile system that could not have worked at the time.

As for anti tank "missiles" one can even argue the Hungarians beat the West , with testing missiles and Germans actually using hundreds against Russians and one needs to aware of not looking like a Nazi lover when discussing such tech leads .

I was careful not call the American systems 'missiles' in that post and instead used the more generic rocket because missiles implies guidance, which the Americans and others weren't really focused on. Instead the US produced Bazookas, the Russians produced Katyuska's (spelling) and there were other similar systems that were successful.

Possible massive Alien / Nazi base found on the moon.

Possible in sense of not completely ruled out:

Eggheads in Texas have discovered a huge, dense mass lurking beneath an enormous crater on the Moon.

The Baylor University study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, combined data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) missions and found the huge blob lurking over a hundred miles beneath the South Pole-Aitken basin.

The mass, which isn't immediately obvious on the surface, appears to be dragging down the lunar landscape above it by around half a mile. In terms of size, lead author of the paper, Peter B. James, compared it to a pile of metal five times the size of Hawaii's big island.

The South Pole-Aitken basin itself is an impact crater on the far side of the Moon, and measures approximately 1,600 miles in diameter and 8.1 miles deep. It is one of the largest known impact craters in the Solar System and is home to China's Chang'e 4 lander and the Yutu 2 trundlebot.

The scientists have a number of theories for where this mass could have come from, including one that involves the solidification of an ocean of lunar magma.

The leading theory posits the mass comes from an asteroid with an iron-nickel core that smacked into the lunar surface four billion years ago. Scientists calculated that a sufficiently dispersed impactor core could remain suspended in the Moon's mantle rather than sink to the core.​

Shame it's not in Tycho. Then we could posit TMA-1...

*reads article*

Aw shoot, they made that joke already...

This is pretty interesting because we've known there were mass concentrations ('mascons') on the moon since at least Apollo. Some of the Apollo missions carried sub-satellites which they ejected into low lunar orbit and all but one of them were quickly dragged down into the planet by the gravitational disturbances caused by the mascons. One of them survived for a lot longer because it happened to be ejected into a stable orbit where the effects of all the mascons cancel each other out.

Good to see they're making progress on discovering the sources of the mascons.

 

[Cutlass]

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/12/7316...herculean-effort-behind-the-1969-moon-landing

NPR article on a new book about the Apollo Program.

 

[Berzerker]

The question has led to many new ideas about the origin of the moon. For example, after the moon solidified, maybe later material from Earth was ejected and settled on top.

"Ironically, that would mean all the rocks the Apollo astronauts picked up are Earth rocks," Asphaug said.

Simulations also seem to show that the larger the giant impact, the more the moon is made primarily of the impactor. So, another recent study suggests that instead of one Theia, a succession of smaller impactors formed a series of smaller moons, each one more Earth-like in composition, that coalesced into the moon.

Unfortunately, this would imply that all the impactors had to strike from the same direction, which is highly unlikely as impactors hit the Earth from all angles, Asphaug said.

But debris leaving the Earth and encountering the Moon would be traveling the same direction

https://phys.org/news/2019-06-moon-lunar.html

 

[r16]

a brief glance at the Project Hermes wikipedia page simply creates the silly idea that Washington paid money for what already existed . And how Peace slows down military development .

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Jim Bridenstine came out with pricing for Artemis - $20 to $30 billion over 5 years. I think that's more or less accurate but heavily contingent on NASA buying as few SLS rockets as they can, not giving every contract to the big primes and carefully managing their contractors. I think a moon program can be had for less than that but not by NASA.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I have mentioned in the past that Jim Bridenstine (NASA administrator appointed by Trump) did a very public about-face on his climate change stance. Well that did not go unnoticed and a White House official cc'd him on an email to complain about it.

Once a skeptic about climate change, Jim Bridenstine came around to the prevailing view of scientists before he took over as NASA administrator. That evolution did not sit well with a Trump environmental adviser, nor a think-tank analyst he was consulting, according to newly disclosed emails that illustrate how skepticism of global warming has found a beachhead in the Trump White House.

“Puzzling,” says the May 2018 exchange between William Happer, now a member of President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, and Thomas Wysmuller of the Heartland Institute, which disavows manmade climate change. Their exchange calls scientifically established rises in sea levels and temperatures under climate change “part of the nonsense” and urges the NASA head — who was copied in — to “systematically sidestep it.”

https://www.apnews.com/4ec9affd55a345d582a4cc810686137e

 

[r16]

this was meant for an aviation site , but ı had some fair amounts of second thoughts . In case you haven't heard , it turns out the F-35 has small issues , ı think 13 of them , anything between the stealth coatings on 35B and C having issues at Mach 1.2 and cabin pressuresation causing ear problems .

<oh , people around abhor politics , but it's politics . This New Turkey is best defined by the phrase "kifayetsiz muhterisler" , such people who want everything , can't do anything . A random thread ı had saved back in 2014 has me complaining about the German exciment on the ruling A-K-P's atomic bomb programme , running for 3 or 4 years straight with 10 or 20 centrifuges . The glory of New Turkey involves a lot of talking ; exploitation of Egypt and its natural gas in the Med was a centerpiece of the transformation my country went through . A straight record of failures then leaves Ankara alone ; it can't partake in the natural gas bonanza ... Pressure to be applied . Which then materializes as the S-400 sanctions . Alas , at the same time 4 decades of US efforts boil down to nothing as Kurds prove smarter then expected and refuse to fight without full American presence . Alas , this coincides with the return of the Russians . Alas , all of them happen simultaneously with visible signs that the ruling A-K-P might fail in the next general elections . All of which transpires as the sudden awareness of the issues of the F-35 . Which can no longer be sold to New Turkey as it has to be the stick for the gas reserves in the Med , yet it would be a very visible defeat for New Turkey . The politicians in Ankara are insisting they will have both the S-400 and the F-35 despite two years of American declarations that they will not . The Nazi assets during WW II have transformed themselves to be Nationalists and have killed thousands of people (who would raise the Left Fist and curse NATO loudly) and their leader just called for getting out of NATO , despite the clear US promises to keep working with New Turkey . On the day the F-35 woes were on the newspapers .

explains the thermal loads at the back of maritime variants , which would have been identified back in 2002 , if this was a real world instead of a joke . It doesn't fly straight . And flying it is an health hazard anyhow . Yet instead of a concerted effort to convince the voter base to this end , the talk is still down to that if lower rank Americans keep insulting New Turkey by denying the plane , they will be referred to Trump in the coming summit in Japan ... There might be even those who will be able to remember the hostility of the Prime Minister of the time against Israel and that would have been a good canard as any to stop Turkish involvement in the F-35 (after the discovery of a certain defect in the nation specific software to come / as one has to admit many things are fair in war) but Lockheed Martin wanted the 11 billions dollars that would have bought some 100 examples . As it has caused so much trouble for me personally ı DO remember the days very clearly . Details of my silly and sorry life can be found elsewhere on the web , in places some other major corporation tracked to have me shut up in some later years , after Trump simply gifted part of that 11 billions potential to the Theresa May Goverment . Nobody is ever required to believe me , am not offended , but , well , we will get even . We always get even . Anyone with billions in sales would have noticed that the troubles around (even here) have been the first steps of me ending at the very bottom of the list , of some 400 people to be executed , had the coup attempt of 2016 succeeded . As fate and fortune interwined and ı ended up as a spokesperson of sorts for people ı know online , who were not "discovered" and taken out during the visible phase of the Counter-Revolution . They were so eager , waiting to be discovered .

which then results in the claims of the existance of a letter of intent . As already said , my silly life is silly and while the list of woes of the F-35 would make real fame for a little company and whatnot , there is no interest in designing the 6th generation with the US , nor fixing the F-35 . We are not allies . Am particularly most uninterested in new materials , heat resisting and radar absorbing . Why , London has decided not to insult the Turkish Republic by a concise decision , by avoiding the maiden flight of the Qatari jet on the 100 years anniversary in 2023 and delaying it by 3 years ; people must be underemployed , why not take them back and fix it all ? And of course , it's all made up and there's nothing wrong with the F-35 , to think otherwise is an insult to godlike US companies which never ever fail . If you have the slightest doubt , log out , turn off the computer and pray long and sincerely (calling a priest being an option for the faithful Christians) because the Devil is in you ...>

and somehow ı wasn't that surprised to discover Pentagon has a logistics programme named Kessel Run for the Footpad , because by all means it's an enemy plane . So ready to listen to the sage advice of r16 , but feared it would cause issues with the fat nerds to officially accept Yavin IV was indeed the work of F-35 ? The site has even re-opened a locked topic so that people can even discuss the woes . If you haven't met a company troll in aviation business , ı sincerely hope you won't ever ; it's like each and every of them is making a million dollars a year . And it would look like ı was "attacking" them and each and every of them would unite and rush to prove they had done nothing and ı would once again be banned to post , perhaps for the 5th time . ı don't have the nerves to go through that routine again . Never minding the USB suddenly going into a read only mode quite long after ı had this one sentence comment on the tanker attacks and logged out . Oh , oh , would they be waiting like hawks , too ?


and oh , apparently letters of intent are delivered in solemn colours and cuts for clothes , almost as black as the hair colour !

 

[r16]

and oh , am so humiliated ... Qatar's Quantum Fighter makes its debut in the Paris Airshow . With the March of Plevne as the background music . And it has been speeded up . Maiden flight will be two years after the insult on the 100th Anniversary of the Republic , not 3 as the post above says ! Sorry for the consecutive post thing , too .

plevne is the location where the Russians quite failed to beat the Ottoman defenders in the otherwise disasterous 1877-8 war . Ask anyone in this country and he/she will say just like Osman Paşa never gave up resisting , New Turkey is standing upright and foiling every evil plot of the evil West . Except the music is obviously a British choice , claiming we were allies back then , them providing us "moral support" at a critical juncture of their Great Game against the Russians . It's of course a lie : Instead providing proof that the QFX is supported by you know who and those whom he represents or something . Despite the attitude and like two years of posts . Lemme say London has no clue on history and had they known it they would have never done it , choosing that music that's .

learn it from New Turkey , the front page of the former pinaacle of yellow journalism filled with the sad story of the family that started building horse carriages in the Ottoman Bulgaria at the very beginning of the 19th Century and now has gone bankrupt and their factory site for building agricultural tractors is being daily plundered , a truckload of people driving from Adana on that truck to Istanbul , to loot their share .

more fame plausible , however ı despise and reject . And this country is famous for the phone calls the "Police" makes to people , tricking them out of live savings and the lot . Might even become the "subject" of such calls . So , anyone whom ı have made to pay money to me or anything like that will have a police complaint and official documentation and whatnot .That one didn't know or heard is not an excuse and will not be taken as one . Even when this paragraph like suspiciously does not get translated . Trust me , libel needs quite a background , if one does not want to get bitten by it . As if ı live on the brink on war with the US for years and this is only for getting "protection" money from people as a Mafioso .

 

[Birdjaguar]

https://www.abqjournal.com/1331194/rocket-competition-fires-up-college-students.html

Rockets away in NM. @hobbsyoyo maybe your company should sponsor a team next year.

 

[Berzerker]

https://phys.org/news/2019-06-scientists-huge-undersea-fresh-water-aquifer.html

not cosmic, but since we dont have a general science thread.

short version: during the ice age continental shelves were exposed around the world and fresh water became trapped in sediments that now lie under the ocean

the water is freshest close in to the current shore line and gradually becomes saltier further out

This particular reservoir off the New England coast was being fed by run off from the massive ice sheet but the same principle is in play along every coast line. For example, all that run off entering the Mississippi delta is probably forming a pocket that can be tapped into.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

This is really interesting, thanks for sharing.

I have a feeling that no matter how desperate California gets for water, they won't be open to putting new off-shore extraction resources along the coast. They really hate the few drilling rigs that are already there and fight bitterly to stop more from popping up.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Allegedly, another software flaw has been found in the 737 which is delaying its return to flight. They are now having to park planes off the assembly lines in the employee parking lot.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

NASA is sending a drone to fly around Titan!

https://spacenews.com/nasa-selects-titan-drone-for-next-new-frontiers-mission/

Oof it won't launch until 2034.