LostCosmonaut

only 90s east coast kids will get this

BFR is now Starship (well, Super Heavy + Starship).

There is some concern over the number of changes BFR seems to be going through.

Regardless of whatever changes happen to the design, I am going to assume they will be keeping the 9m diameter, since they have already started cutting metal. Would be stupid to switch to completely new tooling at this point.

Several unusual bacterial species in the Atacama Desert of Chile are being hit hard by rain; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-35051-w

Here we show that the sudden and massive input of water in regions that have remained hyperarid for millions of years is harmful for most of the surface soil microbial species, which are exquisitely adapted to survive with meager amounts of liquid water, and quickly perish from osmotic shock when water becomes suddenly abundant. We found that only a handful of bacteria, remarkably a newly identified species of Halomonas, remain metabolically active and are still able to reproduce in the lagoons, while no archaea or eukaryotes were identified. Our results show that the already low microbial biodiversity of extreme arid regions greatly diminishes when water is supplied quickly and in great volumes. We conclude placing our findings in the context of the astrobiological exploration of Mars, a hyperarid planet that experienced catastrophic floodings in ancient times.

SpaceX does the usual thing; https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/15/18095633/spacex-launch-landing-falcon-9-watch-live-stream-used-rocket-how-to

Also, a few days ago, the first commercial Electron successfully launched; https://www.space.com/42415-rocket-lab-first-commercial-launch-in-photos.html (3rd one overall)

Electron can't compete with SpaceX on price per pound;

Quote

Rocket Lab's Electron looks sleek with its black paint job for It's Business Time. Rocket Lab's Electron rockets are designed to launch small satellites into orbit at an unprecedented pace. The rocket can carry payloads of up to 330 pounds (150 kilgrams) into orbit for $5 million per flight.

I believe their goal is to have the total cost of the rocket be lower, and target people who don't want to launch small satellites as secondary payloads on an F9 or similar.

edit: loosered by ramlaen

XB-19 Technical Report

Study of 14 Nuclear Powered Airplanes

Performance of External Bump Compression Inlet at Mach Numbers of 1.5 and 2.0

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/dassault-makes-it-official-rafale-is-out-of-canadian-competition

Even more of a lock that Canada is getting F-35s.

Pic from Vermont last year;

Also, looks like the ORDA areas (Whiteface, Gore, and that other one nobody cares about) are going to open day after Thanksgiving.

Falcon 9 upper stages are going to be made similar to BFR.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1060253333116473344

Musk says it could be used to test reentry tech;

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1060265065276825601

Flight Investigation of Supersonic Propellor

1 hour ago, Ramlaen said:

A probe to Uranus similar to the Juno probe with a goal of figuring out why the insides appear to be wonky (offset magnetic field etc.).

An outer planets orbiter would be neato. I'd personally prefer Neptune, since that gets you both an ice giant, and Triton as a scientific target (so even more data on KBOs, assuming Triton is a captured one).

Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter would have been extremely cool. On orbit assembly for a huge probe, plus nuclear power (actual nuclear, not RTGs), so much more power for instruments and data transmission. I'm curious how much weight BFR could put into a Earth-Jupiter transfer orbit, such a large, cheap rocket could potentially open up a lot of opportunities for science in the outer system.

ORO-T117: Survey of Allied Tank Casualties in WW2

A bunch of stuff about Imperial Japanese aircraft

A4 User Manual (in German)

What's this doing in the background of a worst of tanks map?

edit:

maximum driving skills

Literally the most capable SHORAD the US Army has right now.

Science Requirements Jovian Atmospheric Probe url]

Systems Study of Jovian Atmospheric Probe Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Faustian pact: Hilary Clinton will agree not to run, but Chelsea Clinton will run instead.

9 hours ago, Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect said:

Weren't people joking about Trump having a pretty small dick? Sounds like that guy is either uncomfortable with his sexuality or a wimp.

There's a shitload of real estate in the solar system, and we don't know much about most of it. What unmanned probes would you like to see built to learn more about the planets and other objects?

My first choice is an Enceladus orbiter/lander; it's one of the best candidates for extraterrestial life, has confirmed cryovolcanism, and organics have been found near it. Plus, any mission you send there can get some bonus science of Titan and other cool places in the Saturn system.

I also like FOCAL, just for the sheer audacity of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOCAL_(spacecraft)

Quote

 

Fast Outgoing Cyclopean Astronomical Lens (FOCAL) is a proposed space telescope that would use the Sun as a gravity lens.
 

 

Random fun fact: the drydock was originally built in Sweden in 1980 (for the Soviets)

After lasting nine years (significantly longer than the design mission), the Kepler telescope is out of fuel and dead.

https://twitter.com/NASAKepler/status/1057348589008101376

On 10/28/2018 at 5:06 PM, Sturgeon said:

So the Roach got DQ'd because I'm metric-literate and Lost isn't, great.

edit: I'm dumb, I thought I had put 10 foot 8  in the contest instead of 10.8. So that's entirely my fault.

Posted without context

Concerns about cooling and the complexity of the drivetrain, I think. Also, it would have been McDonnell's first plane, so the design was probably a bit rough in the details.