Recent content by malcontent

walks up to conduct safety study, sticks entire head into the thing

As far as I can tell this was not posted before, but this site is a trip: http://neofuel.com/index_neofuel.html

I love that a sim for space flight could, in theory, model a ship with a sextant.

Launch scheduled no earlier than 1:20 a.m. EST Wednesday, Nov. 24, 10:20 p.m. PST Tuesday, Nov. 23, 6:30 a.m. UTC. Prelaunch activities start the 21st. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-tv-to-air-dart-prelaunch-activities-launch-0

Nearing the launch window for this mission (late November), here is a nice article on preparations and a little on how it will use its camera to autopilot the final leg: https://dart.jhuapl.edu/News-and-Resources/article.php?id=20210813 As far as I can tell, this will be the first time the...

The source code to actually make (compile) the program was only in Martin's possession. He maintained possession of the program and how it could be distributed. He has released this code under the MIT license, one of the most permissive licenses, which says that the only requirement is that he...

Martin, thanks for building this incredible program and supporting the community around it. This is the closest one can get to the experience of space flight in front of a screen, I can land on the moon with free software, it's absolutely incredible. The dedicated mod community here I'm sure...

They definitely come up with an acronym first, then figure out which words to fit it after. Also it is early, it could be renamed like the James Webb Telescope

Ginny survives a flight hiccup: https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/305/surviving-an-in-flight-anomaly-what-happened-on-ingenuitys-sixth-flight/

That's why you'd land multiple vehicles, landing in shotgun formation. Just sort of spitballing here of course, but it seems to me that if 'some assembly is required' it would be cheaper to send smaller, easier land-able parts than a whole habitat.

I like the idea of sending gear beforehand. Land it like they landed Opportunity and you'll even have some nice panels to build a structure with when you get there.

Honestly the fact that he had to jump out makes it more awesome. The spacecraft was tumbling after a rough separation, he hit 8gs on a wobbly reentry and got fired out the back. Sounds like a wild ride.

This hasn't been declassified yet:

I would imagine, since spacecraft need power, this world had appreciably more spacecraft, and rocket launches of radioactive materials is risky, one of the early space-based industries might involve the production of radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Is there an appreciable amount of...

A test is for working out bugs, right? so finding a bug means a successful test! Twitter comment saying this test was a congressional requirement? Is that true? Which part, the test itself, or making a performative display of something they would do anyway?