Space - The Final Frontier

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CaptTom said:
Pay wall. Too bad, it might have been interesting.
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Free link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ma...4v2bqkjmg7k&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Basically psychologists recognize a condition called "moral injury" where a subordinate acting in best faith to do the right thing is over-ruled and denigrated by a superior.

I was no Roger Boisjoly, I was just an idealistic engineer on my way to work (in Florida) that lunch time, and I saw the explosion from a far distance. Over the subsequent days, my whole perspective of engineering changed, even before we found out people like Boisjoly were screwed by the system.
 
JoeWras said:
Free link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ma...4v2bqkjmg7k&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Basically psychologists recognize a condition called "moral injury" where a subordinate acting in best faith to do the right thing is over-ruled and denigrated by a superior.

I was no Roger Boisjoly, I was just an idealistic engineer on my way to work (in Florida) that lunch time, and I saw the explosion from a far distance. Over the subsequent days, my whole perspective of engineering changed, even before we found out people like Boisjoly were screwed by the system.
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Here are quotes from the article:

“The day before the launch, Thiokol engineers and executives met with NASA officials on a teleconference. Roger Boisjoly, the principal engineer on the Thiokol O-ring task force, and Arnold Thompson were the most knowledgeable experts on O-rings in the U.S. The two engineers argued that an ambient temperature below 53 degrees Fahrenheit could prevent the O-rings from sealing properly. A Thiokol engineer reported the anticipated temperature during the following day’s launch time would be around 26 degrees. Erring on the side of caution, Boisjoly, Thompson and other engineers recommended delaying the launch.

NASA officials pushed back. Lawrence Mulloy, NASA solid-rocket booster manager at Marshall Space Center, was particularly angered by the prospect of postponement, which had already been done three times.

Thiokol executives requested a private caucus. Boisjoly and Thompson repeated their argument for a no-launch decision—to no avail. In what amounted to a “management” decision, engineers were excluded from the final vote. Returning to the teleconference, Thiokol executives informed NASA that the launch was approved.”

“Since the Rogers Commission report, an avalanche of published materials has chronicled the technological, management and organizational dimensions of the disaster. Yet little attention has been paid to the psychological suffering of the engineers who rightly opposed the launch. Recent advances in psychology give us insight into their suffering. Psychiatrist Jonathan Shay has observed that moral injury occurs when a person in authority disregards a subordinate’s judgment on the morally correct course of action, thereby violating the subordinate’s trust and self-esteem. Dr. Shay’s definition applies to the Thiokol engineers who challenged their executives to reconsider the launch. By not succeeding, the engineers paid a high psychological price.

Two years after the Challenger disaster, Boisjoly found redemption as a lecturer at engineering schools on ethical decision-making and data analysis. He received the American Association for Advancement in Science Prize for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility in 1988 for his contribution to the engineering profession.”
 
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I suspect Boisjoly's psychological suffering had more to do with the fact that had his advice been followed the disaster would not have happened. He'd be forever asking himself "what else could I have done" ...
 
Mashable published a nice overview of the SpaceX so called Starship rocket. Apparently, it’s first test launch is getting near. But they don’t have FAA approval yet.

https://apple.news/A6yh03WziTKO7sXe-wkYEpQ

A few quotes:

“Musk, who doesn't parse words when it comes to the realities of spaceflight, once said Starship's test in space wasn't likely to succeed on the first try.”

“The rocket is made of stainless steel, a material Musk is particularly fond of due to its relatively low price. Unlike NASA's mega moon rocket, which flies on super-chilled liquid hydrogen and oxygen, this beast is fueled with 10 million pounds of liquid methane and oxygen. The new fuel can be stored at more manageable temperatures than liquid hydrogen, meaning it doesn't need as much insulation and is less prone to leaks, a problem that often stymies NASA launches.”

“Starship is intended to evolve into a fully reusable launch and landing system, designed for trips to the moon, Mars, and other destinations. Its reusability is "the holy grail of space," Musk said at a company event in South Texas last February, because it will make spaceflight more affordable to the average person.
"It's a very hard thing to do," he said. "It's only barely possible with the physics of Earth."”
 
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Humans have discovered another astronomical oddity. A small dwarf planet called Quaoar has a very odd ring around it. It is 4 billion miles from the sun and occupies a place in the Kuiper belt.

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...s-a-weirdly-big-ring-of-debris-encircling-it/

“We have observed a ring that shouldn’t be there,” says Bruno Morgado at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
Until now, every ring or orbiting moon observed by astronomers has obeyed a limit put forward by astronomer Édouard Roche in 1848 that relates to its distance from a parent body. If an object is below the Roche limit, its parent body’s gravity rips apart the orbiting object into a collection of smaller chunks which eventually form a ring, like those seen around Saturn. Outside that limit, dust and debris should coalesce to form larger objects, such as moons.
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It is also possible that interactions between the ring’s particles or with Quaoar’s moon, Weywot, could be sustaining the ring. Further observations of Quaoar and more simulations of the system’s dynamics will be needed before a definitive answer can be found, says Morgado.
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To spot Quaoar’s wayward ring, the team observed the dwarf planet against the backdrop of various stars between 2018 and 2021, using Earth-based telescopes as well as the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS exoplanet-hunting space telescope. The researchers used changes in the stars’ brightness to calculate the ring’s characteristics.
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There is much more in the universe that we don't know than what we do know. Our laws of physics may only apply to our solar system. Lots to explore and learn out there.
 
The Science says... it is a process of learning.

The great thing about astronomy is it exposes just how little we know. This has been going on for, oh, about 100k years or so?

More recently, in the last 500 years, time and time again the thought-to-be-proven theories get dis-proven or amended a few years later.

My favorite is Pluto. Pluto was found partly due to the success of finding Neptune by orbital mechanical calculations. Percival Lowell had an obsession with "Planet X," and followed the plan of finding it by the same method that Neptune was found. Once found (after Lowell passed away), they plugged in the presumed mass of Pluto, and that stuck for a few years.

But over time, the science wasn't adding up and Pluto kept losing weight until it finally was shamed into the status of a minor planet.

Then it turns out that these "minor" planets should be called the "coolest" planets because they are fascinating. No longer just snowballs in the great beyond, they turn out to be pushing all kinds of understanding about how solar systems work. The probe to Pluto showed it is an incredible, dynamic body that surprises time and time again.

And here we have this recent news about another distant body. It doesn't surprise me that they are finding interesting stuff.
 
Here's an interesting little statistic in regards to advances in rocket technology.

If the next SpaceX launch successfully lands its booster, that will make 100 consecutive booster landings without a failure.

In fairness, I should mention there have been some launches where the booster was intentionally not recovered. IOW, it needed all its fuel to get the satellite to the proper orbit, none left to power a landing. <--- there's an extra charge if that is needed. But, as I read it, 100 straight recoveries of boosters that could be recovered.

We really are starting to live our youthful science fiction.
 
Chuckanut said:
Here's an interesting little statistic in regards to advances in rocket technology.

If the next SpaceX launch successfully lands its booster, that will make 100 consecutive booster landings without a failure.

In fairness, I should mention there have been some launches where the booster was intentionally not recovered. IOW, it needed all its fuel to get the satellite to the proper orbit, none left to power a landing. <--- there's an extra charge if that is needed. But, as I read it, 100 straight recoveries of boosters that could be recovered.

We really are starting to live our youthful science fiction.
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It stuck the landing this morning, so that's 100 successes. This is the 9th crewed launch for the Dragon.
 
Gumby said:
It stuck the landing this morning, so that's 100 successes. This is the 9th crewed launch for the Dragon.
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I'm glad NASA gave out two contracts for a manned LEO vehicle. Boeing is still waiting to get it's first manned launch off the ground. They are several years behind SpaceX. FWIW, this delay only costs us one billion dollars more than was paid to SpaceX. Imagine if we still had to depend on Russia. The price per seat would probably be at least a quarter billion. If we coiuld buy one at all. FWIW, there is a Russian cosmonaut on this latest launch.

I do hope Boeing gets it right this time. We need two vehicles. At some point a SpaceX vehicle will fail and be grounded for some time. Space travel is complicated and dangerous.
 
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Gumby said:
Interesting article about a company that is building a giant centrifuge to "fling" small satellites into orbit. https://www.yahoo.com/news/spaceflight-pioneer-spinlaunch-aims-liftoff-140000662.html
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I was following some analysis of that a while back. Very interesting.

I'm still not sure how they deal with the sudden release. That would leave the thing unbalanced. I think I read that it's just designed to handle that unbalanced load (that's hard to imagine), or maybe they'd drop a payload on the opposite side - into a tunnel or something?

Also interesting, they recover much of the energy, essentially using 'regenerative braking' to slow it back down.

-ERD50
 
Five planets lined up for our viewing pleasure this week starting Monday.

https://apnews.com/article/five-pla...jupiter-mars-d0170eea9fee67680cf2f1bca68a4fcf

Keep an eye to the sky this week for a chance to see a planetary hangout.Five planets — Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars — will line up near the moon.


WHERE AND WHEN CAN YOU SEE THEM?
The best day to catch the whole group is Tuesday. You’ll want to look to the western horizon right after sunset, said NASA astronomer Bill Cooke.
The planets will stretch from the horizon line to around halfway up the night sky. But don’t be late: Mercury and Jupiter will quickly dip below the horizon around half an hour after sunset.


The five-planet spread can be seen from anywhere on Earth, as long as you have clear skies and a view of the west.
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FYI - there is another thread on the planet align:

https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/planetary-alignment-on-monday-117480.html#post2915507


Chuckanut said:
Five planets lined up for our viewing pleasure this week starting Monday.

https://apnews.com/article/five-pla...jupiter-mars-d0170eea9fee67680cf2f1bca68a4fcf
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Thanks. The articles I found were confusing about what could be seen on which days, with vague references to Tuesday being the best, but maybe a week's worth of opportunities? Some others with planet rise and set times, but those confused me too.

So I went to an old site I was familiar with, it's got a great planet/star/satellite chart:

https://heavens-above.com/skychart2.aspx

You'll need to enter your location (follow the directions), and I found the chart easiest to read with just the elliptic plane, planet names, and constellation lines checked at the bottom.

You can set the time to current, and move back/forth to see what changes. Today (Monday) doesn't look that different from Tuesday for me, and we have clear skis tonight, Tuesday is iffy.

-ERD50
 
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