Well of Souls Forums

Redundancy could still have been implemented, just use a separate processor to monitor the sensors, discard outliers, and synthesize a signal to the main computer, which would just operate as if it was connected to a single sensor. This processor and the connection to the computer would still lack ...

The 737 max concept didn't have any fundamental issues. The airframe can take the engines if you somehow deal with the balance/trim issue, and their plan was to use angle of attack sensors to augment the angle of attack control. That frankly aught to have worked fine had it been conducted competent...

Lucky Boeing? I know what you mean, but I doubt Being is feeling very lucky lately. If it's not 737 Max, it's Starliner... and I just learned that Boeing's 737-based KC-46 tanker is having all kinds of problems. I'm genuinely very sorry to see America's last civil aerospace company in this state......

Boeing's second attempt at the Starliner flight demo was postponed when the Nauka module malfunctioned a couple hours after docking to the ISS, uncontrollably firing its thrusters and flipping the station 1.5 times around the pitch axis. Per Zebulon Scoville (NASA Flight Director), "We proceeded to ...

It certainly seems within the capabilities of the Umiak to raise some "domesticated" Loroi, with chemical and mechanical means to ensure they stay safely controlled...they're certainly not squeamish about such things...and keep them around for interrogations/anti-psi experiments. But I get the impre...

The light is centered around her body, there is a second smaller halo on her head I admit but the light is mostly coming from her body including her arms where the light rays show it quite clearly. It's her amplifier that burns bright. It's quite obvious in the image. Well, yes, you could ask why A...

It's plausibly worthwhile for ships not in close combat (or attempting to imitate pieces of debris) to keep continuous links active, carrying low priority telemetry or even random data if there's nothing more useful to send, just so the enemy wouldn't be able to tell when they're sending messages. T...

Yeah, their lineup of partnerships was clearly designed to get political support on their side, and the usual Congresscritters are already complaining about the award (Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson complaining they didn't wait for "Ballast" Nelson to get in place as administrator first, as if it wasn'...

As the sole award, too. Not surprising that Blue Origin wasn't chosen, they would have had to be a politically mandated choice...in the words of Lueders: "I do not have enough funding available to even attempt to negotiate a price from Blue Origin that could potentially enable a contract award." Th...

The winner of NASA's Artemis contract is... SpaceX. As the sole award, too. Not surprising that Blue Origin wasn't chosen, they would have had to be a politically mandated choice...in the words of Lueders: "I do not have enough funding available to even attempt to negotiate a price from Blue Origin...

SN10's engine was producing lower-than-commanded thrust, thought to be due to helium ingestion. Ironically, it's thought to have been a quirk of how the propellant was flowing around the anti-slosh baffles that are intended to prevent that, Musk described it as the baffles acting like a straw. So, s...

SN10 landed successfully: And then unfortunately later exploded while sitting on the pad. I think the hard landing ruptured something. Progress! My father and I were chatting after lunch and I happened to notice the stream was on, and we watched it live. And there was much rejoicing . Yeah, there w...

SN10 landed successfully:

While oxygen and methane are a lot easier to keep liquid than hydrogen, I presume they will need to use some sort of active cooling system. That's my assumption as well. I've seen people arguing that the vented tanks would act as a vacuum flask, but that only works in atmosphere, with the vacuum ga...

That's why they have dedicated, smaller "header" tanks for the landing burn, which are full at the time of ignition. The engines relit properly, but then had some kind of subsequent pressure problem. Yeah, I read up on the header tanks after Mjolnir's reply. In this case, it sounds like the low fue...

It also doesn't help that all off the maneuvering to reorient the craft from the belly-flop attitude to the tail-first landing attitude is going to slosh the fuel around, which could lead to ullage and fuel and/or oxidizer flow problems. Basically, the proellant pumps are sucking in gas or foam rat...

Yes, Starship is enormous. You can also see from the wreckage just how thin the steel hull is. Yeah. An advantage and disadvantage of steel: the Centaur tank walls are so thin they can't support themselves and the vehicle has to be kept pressurized. Aluminum of the same strength is thick enough to ...

Thanks for keeping me up to date, guys. Impressive feat, SpaceX. Now I'd love some data about why the third engine cut off on ascent, whether that was intentional, or even part of a test, or a technical failure/safety cutoff, as it seems to me as if the same engine did not reignite as well. May hav...

The aftermath:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eo6bPRYWEAAF32u.jpg:orig

And SN9 is getting moved to a test pad (they have 2 now) Monday.

It was an exciting flight. Two engines cut out in succession on ascent, but this seems to have been planned. The craft performed its flop maneuver and descended using the aerodynamic fins, and this part seems to to have worked perfectly. It also did its controversial flip maneuver before landing wi...