685 replies to this topic

[dasmo]

I’m chill. Airlines are arguably more useful than billionaires in space.

[Victoria Watcher]

He’s providing internet to the most deprived corners of the world, he’s not taking space tourists.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 July 2022 - 06:30 PM.

[dasmo]

They are probably better without it…

[dasmo]

But I will expect they will be more depraved soon.

Edited by dasmo, 24 July 2022 - 06:51 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

They are probably better without it…

That could be true.

[dasmo]

Balloons are less sci-if Tony Stark esque but it does seem like it would be a more environmentally friendly technology to develop. Not only for launching but also repair and retrieval. https://www.wired.co...ge-of-space/amp

[Victoria Watcher]

Balloons are incredibly inefficient. Satellites in low orbit can laser each other information. No ground stations required. Balloons would require analogue ground stations. Incredibly inefficient.

[Mike K.]

Holy Interesting banter of late, about the carbon footprint terminology originating from a marketing campaign funded by BP following the oil spill in the gulf. They used Ogilvy as their marketing arm. Now I’ve done some work with Ogilvy, those guys don’t mess around.

The modus here was to deflect the burden onto consumers by making the consumers, not the producers, feel guilty over their energy consumption.

[dasmo]

Balloons are incredibly inefficient. Satellites in low orbit can laser each other information. No ground stations required. Balloons would require analogue ground stations. Incredibly inefficient.

You might be right. I haven’t done extensive research just seems obvious to me. I see ground stations on every rooftop these days. How about that giant tower before Goldstream.

[Victoria Watcher]

Ground statins are ok one-to-one, But one-to-many almost overwhelmed.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 July 2022 - 08:02 PM.

[dasmo]

Looks like it’s doable with balloons only 20 miles high
“ The signal must not only travel across a 100 kilometer gap of open air but hit a one-and-a-half-inch target on a floating ballon.”
https://www.wired.co...real-genius/amp

[Nparker]

I saw Elon Musk's "Starlink Express" tonight. As reported in a Portland (OR) TV report from last night, it looked like an odd string of light moving steadily across the sky...like a train made of fluorescent light fixtures...As a result of being dropped into low earth orbit, from our distant perspective on the ground, the 53 new satellites almost look like a single object. 

https://www.kgw.com/...7b-2d3da7719201

 

Quite cool actually

[Nparker]

Next best times to see the Starlink flyover

https://findstarlink.com/#6091919;3

[Victoria Watcher]

SpaceX and T-Mobile team up to use Starlink satellites to ‘end mobile dead zones’

 

https://www.cnbc.com...satellites.html

 

 

 

 

The idea here is that the Starlink Gen-2 satellites will be able to get regular cellphone signals from anywhere on the earth.  No more lost hikers.  Your current cellphone will communicate with a satellite 500 miles up, travelling at 17,500 miles per hour.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 25 August 2022 - 07:33 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

On Monday, in what seems like a scene out of a science fiction movie, NASA will slam a spacecraft into a distant asteroid to see whether it can nudge its orbit — all in an effort to test a way to protect Earth from any potential future threats.

The good news is that there's no need to panic: The asteroid, which is part of a binary — or two-bodied — system, is not a threat to our planet, and there are no known ones that are headed our way for at least the next 100 years. However, space agencies like the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration want to be prepared should there ever be a threat.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...ssion-1.6590421

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 September 2022 - 05:55 AM.

[Mike K.]

Plot twist. The trajectory change ends up sending the asteroid to earth in 2094.

[Victoria Watcher]

Plot twist. The trajectory change ends up sending the asteroid to earth in 2094.

 

I'm guessing they have done the math.  But it seems to me a refrigerator sized craft hitting this thing will not move it much.

[Victoria Watcher]

Impacts by asteroids and comets have had big effects on life on Earth in the past. The best known collision occurred 66 million years ago when a 10 km wide asteroid struck Chicxulub in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The collision created a blast that had the energy of several billion atomic bombs and led to the destruction of 75% of all plant and animals species, including all land-based dinosaurs.

 

 

 

https://www.theguard...ollision-course

 

 

 

That's gotta hurt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The DART spacecraft was successfully launched on 24 November 2021.

 

 

 

 

 

So that's not bad, less than a year to get there.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 September 2022 - 06:07 AM.

[Mike K.]

I don’t think they have any idea what effect this will have.

[Victoria Watcher]

I don’t think they have any idea what effect this will have.

 

The one that wiped out the dinosaurs was 10,000m wide.

 

The one we are throwing a refrigerator at is 780m across.  

 

So we will see, I guess.