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61

The Hoax Theory / Telematry Data

« Last post by benparry on November 02, 2024, 08:18:45 AM »

Afternoon All.

One of the all time great hoax arguments is the telematry data. Yawn i know.

However, i'm sure i'm correct in saying that it was only the backup telematry data was overwritten and i'm not sure if it was only for Apollo 11.

With this in mind where is the other original telematry data. I assume some is still stored somewhere.

The usual hoax argument is it's all be deleted which i'm sure isn't true

62

The Reality of Apollo / Re: Interesting video about the lunar rover, politics and Elon Musk

« Last post by Peter B on November 02, 2024, 07:38:14 AM »

...I think his take on Elon Musk is a little naive. Musk's other activities in the marketplace, politics, and government (e.g., his labor policy) convince me he's not just a bright-eyed technologist following a purely opportunistic course through murky political waters. But at least Edwards is framing the question in a way that makes you think.

I agree. Some of Musk's companies have achieved amazing things, but I don't think it's because of any particular insights he, personally, has. Instead, success has come with him funding good people for long enough to allow them to develop good products and then iron out the products' kinks.

I remember someone on this forum about 10 or so years ago saying that the SpaceX engineers developing and launching the Falcon 1 made a couple of boneheaded mistakes that led to mission failures...but now the Falcon 9 is not only the most successful launch vehicle ever, it also routinely recovers and reuses its first stages and payload shrouds.

A couple of months ago I was reading a book about Musk dating from the early days of Falcon 9, and found in it a story about some engineering professor who was asked to write an article for some magazine or other about what had happened to his top students from the preceding decade or so. It turned out that more than half of them had gone to work at SpaceX.

Same thing with Tesla - I get the impression they're good cars, and they've helped start a revolution in electric cars which was arguably overdue.

But then I see a video like the one below, which features more posts from Musk than anyone else.

Particularly relevant Musk comments are at 5:45 (he thinks he's part of the "Resistance" and seems genuinely puzzled that people don't see that) and 15:35 (showing a man with a desperate desire to be seen to be involved in "the process" despite a lack of relevant technical knowledge, and potentially slowing everything as a consequence).

I know Musk has his fans. And he also has his critics. One of my concerns is that some fans are unwilling to acknowledge any shortcomings in Musk. Another of my concerns is that some critics are conflating Musk and his companies, and using their dislike of Musk to disparage the companies.

I don't think Musk is complicated. Everything about him is on display, because he can't help but constantly broadcast his inside voice. It's just that he has a particular combination of beliefs that not many people share, with the result that both his fans and critics can find statements by Musk that suits their agendas.

63

The Reality of Apollo / Re: Interesting video about the lunar rover, politics and Elon Musk

« Last post by JayUtah on October 29, 2024, 03:47:13 PM »

I think Phil Edwards runs one of the better technology oriented channels on YouTube, even though he's not overtly scientific or technical. He does his homework, so the facts are generally quite trustworthy. But more than that, I like his choice of material and his approach. He has a knack for pursuing things that you would immediately find interesting even though you previously knew nothing about them.

Here I think his take on Elon Musk is a little naive. Musk's other activities in the marketplace, politics, and government (e.g., his labor policy) convince me he's not just a bright-eyed technologist following a purely opportunistic course through murky political waters. But at least Edwards is framing the question in a way that makes you think.

64

The Reality of Apollo / Interesting video about the lunar rover, politics and Elon Musk

« Last post by Peter B on October 28, 2024, 04:13:22 AM »

I don't know anything about the channel, but I found this 20 minute video interesting:

65

General Discussion / Re: Layperson's description of the James Webb Space Telescope

« Last post by smartcooky on October 25, 2024, 05:29:03 AM »

...and all that light is infra-red because, throughout those 13.5 billion years, the universe has been expanding, and this has caused the wavelength of the light to stretch.
   At which point it is time to confess that my recitation of these scientific facts is no better than Polly the Parrot telling us she's pretty. Neither Polly nor I understand what we're saying. I don't understand what it means to stretch the wavelength of light.

Its not that hard a concept to grasp. You can think of it like sound.

You are probably familiar with the Doppler effect. An example is, you see an aircraft fly past you, and as it passes you, the pitch of the engine note seems to fall. This is caused by the fact that the sound wavefronts arrive to you more closely spaced (compressed), i.e. more frequently, meaning it sounds like a higher frequency,  and as the aircraft flies away, the sound wavefronts arrive to further apart (stretched out) i.e. less frequently so the pitch sounds lower.

Now if the aircraft is moving away from you, and you know the actual pitch (frequency) of the engine when it was at its closest point to you, and you could measure the frequency you are hearing, you could calculate the speed of the aircraft. This is what traffic cops' radar guns do at radio frequencies.

Further,  if the aircraft is accelerating away from you, and you measure and calculate the rate of the falling pitch, you could calculate the rate the aircraft is accelerating.

Now apply this to light - when an object is approaching, the light wavefronts arrive more closely spaced (compressed), their frequency is higher, and the blue end of the spectrum is the higher frequency end so the light is said to be "Blue Shifted". If the object is receding, the light wavefronts arrive less closely spaced, (stretched out), their frequency is lower and the red end of the spectrum is the lower frequency end so the light is said to be "Red Shifted"

The faster an object is traveling, the lower the frequency of the light we see from it. If the object has accelerate to a high enough velocity, the frequency could fall so low (the wavefronts are stretched out so far) that the object is red shifted beyond the range of human vision, into the infra red - and so we need an infra red telescope to see them. 

66

General Discussion / Layperson's description of the James Webb Space Telescope

« Last post by Kiwi on October 24, 2024, 08:38:30 PM »

Manawatu Standard,  Wednesday 5 June 2024. page 11
Opinion – Pondering the mysteries of the universe
Joe Bennett

   On Boxing Day 2021 Nasa launched the James Webb Space Telescope into space. I read about it at the time, boggled at the technology and wrote about it. But having read, boggled and written, I forgot it.
   Unsurprisingly, however, Nasa didn't forget their baby, and now 30 months later it's back in the news and I'm boggling at it all over again. A few of the facts are worth repeating.
   After launch the telescope travelled 1.6 million kilometres or so away from Earth at a speed of 4800kph until it reached a place in space known as Lagrange Point 2. This is one of only five points in the solar system where the gravitational pull of the sun and the gravitational pull of the earth cancel each other out. Thus a telescope parked at a Lagrange Point will remain orbiting in the same position relative to both objects and will barely need to expend fuel. How the good people at NASA calculated the Lagrange Point, and how they managed to steer a telescope to it and park it, I cannot begin to guess.
   Equally boggling is the device itself. As it travelled towards its destination, it unfurled a parasol the size of a tennis court, consisting of five separate layers of a substance called kapton. The combined thickness of the five layers of kapton is less than a quarter of a millimetre.
   The telescope is so oriented that the parasol always comes between the sun and the complex electronics that need to be kept seriously cool. The result is that the sunny side of the parasol is hot enough to fry an egg, while the temperature on the shaded side never exceeds -230 degrees Celsius.
   The heart of the telescope is a mirror 6.5 metres across made up of 18 hexagons of gold-plated beryllium. Its mission is to look further back into space and time than its famous predecessor, the Hubble. To this end it has now formed images of a galaxy called JADES-GS-z14-0, which is so far away that the light from it has been travelling (at the speed of light, obviously) for 13.5 billion years. In other words the telescope is viewing light that was emitted only 300m years after the universe came into being in the Big Bang.
   And all that light is infra-red because, throughout those 13.5 billion years, the universe has been expanding, and this has caused the wavelength of the light to stretch.
   At which point it is time to confess that my recitation of these scientific facts is no better than Polly the Parrot telling us she's pretty. Neither Polly nor I understand what we're saying. I don't understand what it means to stretch the wavelength of light. I don't understand the Big Bang. And though I've several times tried to read simplified versions of the Theory of Relativity, I still don't understand the relationship between time and space.
   My more honest voice is simply one of bogglement, and it has questions for the James Webb Space Telescope. They may be idiot questions but they are genuine.
   If space is effectively nothing, how can it be expanding? And if it is expanding, what is it expanding into? And if the answer is nothing, how does that nothing differ from the nothing that is space? In short, I suppose I'm asking where the universe is. And I'm also asking, with no less a sense of gawping wonder, how it is possible for a nation that is capable of the scientific, technological and intellectual sophistication that is the James Webb Telescope, to be considering re-electing Donald Trump.
   Joe Bennett is an award-winning Lyttelton-based writer, columnist and playwright.

67

General Discussion / Re: Recent Claim by Musk concerning hot 2nd stage start

« Last post by Allan F on October 23, 2024, 04:10:00 PM »

Can be that they guide the booster in using waypoints, so the final few kilometers is the same each time. By doing that, they ensure the booster can fail safely in a predetermined path, if the engines go away.

68

General Discussion / Re: Recent Claim by Musk concerning hot 2nd stage start

« Last post by smartcooky on October 22, 2024, 11:10:03 PM »

Long road still, there's a lot of damage to the vehicle that's going to impede rapid turn around as is stands, but getting that catch on the first try is damn impressive.
Come a long way from the Grasshopper, that's for sure, hanging "in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

One of the other things which was pointed out in one video was how the chopsticks moved the booster laterally so that it was positioned above the launch pad. I mean, I knew there was no way the booster would be able to land directly above the pad, but I hadn't bothered to think through what would be involved in the repositioning process.

As far I can see, this may always be necessary as the booster will not always approach the launch tower from the exact same direction. There will be variations depending on the orbital inclination of the launch.

69

General Discussion / Re: Recent Claim by Musk concerning hot 2nd stage start

« Last post by Peter B on October 21, 2024, 05:35:07 PM »

Long road still, there's a lot of damage to the vehicle that's going to impede rapid turn around as is stands, but getting that catch on the first try is damn impressive.
Come a long way from the Grasshopper, that's for sure, hanging "in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

One of the other things which was pointed out in one video was how the chopsticks moved the booster laterally so that it was positioned above the launch pad. I mean, I knew there was no way the booster would be able to land directly above the pad, but I hadn't bothered to think through what would be involved in the repositioning process.

70

General Discussion / Re: Recent Claim by Musk concerning hot 2nd stage start

« Last post by jfb on October 17, 2024, 10:34:45 AM »

Also, time to stop funding the boondogle that is SLS? (not going to happen though...pork barrel politics and all that).

We get the government we deserve.  If the American people could stop treating politics as reality TV and electing clowns, grifters, criminals, and fossils to Congress, mistakes like SLS wouldn't happen (as often).