Humor Random Comments Thread

[Urwumpe]

While not entirely correct (or some are in debate in the linguistic community):

I doubt "Anhalt" is properly translated with "Stop". The name comes from the Castle Anhalt in Harzgerode, which had been the home of the Askenier family (Counts of Ballenstedt).

More likely is a connection to the terms "Haushalt" or "Gehalt" since there is also a similar old castle Halt at the other side of the country. So, Anhalt is not meant as "stop" (We would never call a place to stop a "Anhalt"), but rather "Ans Keep"... now, who or what is "An"? Not the name of the lord that ordered its construction, that was Otto the Rich. (some looking at the map later :facepalm: ) It is a geographic entity. The castle sits at the source of the small river "Eine", which could have been called "An" at that time, if you backtrack the changes in the German language. So, the name actually means:

"Keep at the Eine"

The regional district is also called "Wipper-Eine" today.

To they have one guy on standby?

Somebody else replaces them for the moment, for example by also watching his neighboring console for the moment. If it is a really important console, you usually have two consoles of that kind. In NASAs mission control, you usually simply called your staff support room (Where many people watched the incoming data for you and analysed what you can't handle alone) as flight controller to pay extra attention while you are away. The flight controllers are just the front end, many movies depict the job pretty badly.

 

[jedidia]

More likely is a connection to the terms "Haushalt" or "Gehalt" since there is also a similar old castle Halt at the other side of the country.

an "Inn" might also be a likely translation.

 

[Athena]

 

[mojoey]

Dear Verizon Wireless,

Seriously...like clockwork, every morning at 12:30, your mobile internet seems to...fail, for lack of a more 'friendly' term. I can call and text, but the internet just doesn't work. Can't download apps, can't stream music, can't conduct scientific research. Lord knows you get more than enough money every month. Fix it, yo.

 

[MattBaker]

Uhm, isn't a failure every 24 hours normal, at least if you have a router in your house since that reboots? Don't know if mobile internet does the same but sounds like it, doesn't it?

 

[Urwumpe]

12:30 in the morning... either you live in the USA or you are student. :hmm:

 

[MattBaker]

Can someone explain that to me?

“Or we could put it on top of the launcher, like it is with Atlas V, but then we would have to recalculate all the aerodynamics.”

How are they going to launch a Dream Chaser with an Ariane 5? The only pad for an Ariane 5 is in Korou. Launching manned vehicles from Korou already failed for the Soyuz because in case of an abort it would end up in the water. I would imagine a Dream Chaser is much worse in landing in the water than a Soyuz.

Wait, same applies to Cape Canaveral. Are the going to launch northward from there and in case of a failure it can glide to an East Coast runway? Because I can't imagine the Dream Chaser has enough dV for a return to launch site.

 

[Urwumpe]

Urwumpes world of fascinating technology:

The rocket engine teststand P4.1 of the German Aerospace Center has been build for testing the Vinci engine under vacuum conditions. What is really fascinating about this building is the way how it manages to test such a large rocket engine in vacuum:

It uses rocket steam generators. These are essentially ethanol (alcohol)/LOX rocket engine combustion chambers, in which a lot of water is injected and mixed with the combustion gases. five such generators at together 650 MW power are needed for producing 225 kg steam every second, which is then injected at 22 atm into two jet ejector pumps, which drive the exhaust of the Vinci engine to the condenser and out into the air.

The exhaust of the tested rocket engine also first runs into a supersonic diffusor, which works like the injector cones of the SR-71 plane, it uses the shockwaves in the supersonic exhaust to compress it and slow it down far below the speed of sound, before it then gets pumped out by the steam pumps. This diffusor stage is just the largest in Europe and operates at 3000°C and more than Mach 5.

And all that for just 40 kg/s of exhaust gases (result of 33 kg/s LOX and 6 kg/s LH2) and keeping vacuum conditions. And a rocket engine that will maybe fly in the future, after being extensively tested "training champion" for an Ariane 5 version, that the militarists in ESA don't want.

---------- Post added at 03:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:08 PM ----------

Can someone explain that to me?

Quite simple: The Ariane 5 is only expected to do unmanned launchers of Dreamchaser. For now. Otherwise, it could get pretty much "fun".

 

[MattBaker]

Quite simple: The Ariane 5 is only expected to do unmanned launchers of Dreamchaser. For now. Otherwise, it could get pretty much "fun".

Doesn't appear very logical. Why would you launch a Dream Chaser unmanned except for testing? So if NASA cuts funding for the testing they can do it of ESA money, alright. And then? You've got a certified crew vehicle with no use. Or are they hoping that one of their competitors runs into trouble during their test flights?

Or delays their test flight several times...No, that joke becomes overused.

 

[Urwumpe]

Doesn't appear very logical. Why would you launch a Dream Chaser unmanned except for testing? So if NASA cuts funding for the testing they can do it of ESA money, alright. And then? You've got a certified crew vehicle with no use. Or are they hoping that one of their competitors runs into trouble during their test flights?

Or delays their test flight several times...No, that joke becomes overused.

You could also launch it with cargo or launch it as pure return vessel to the space station.

 

[mojoey]

Uhm, isn't a failure every 24 hours normal, at least if you have a router in your house since that reboots? Don't know if mobile internet does the same but sounds like it, doesn't it?

Not for about 90 minutes every night.

 

[MattBaker]

You could also launch it with cargo or launch it as pure return vessel to the space station.

Return vehicle sounds fine and might actually be needed depending on the outcome of the year-long mission. If that one turns out fine they might do this more often and swap vehicles in between (I don't know what's the specified maximum duration for the new vehicles).

Cargo on the other hand? There are other options that might even be cheaper and with greater capabilities than a Dream Chaser. A lifting body runway lander for cargo? There's no better kill than overkill!

 

[MaverickSawyer]

deleted

 

[Urwumpe]

A lifting body runway lander for cargo? There's no better kill than overkill!

No runway lander as such (the accuracy is not that fine), just a cheap reusable land landing alternative. And its no overkill, think of it as a standard chassis for a wide number of possible scenarios. The aerodynamics need to be proved once, the landing as well. But once it works, it doesn't matter if you use cargo or crew. Even better, if you can land cargo, you can also land crew without qualification. Something that is not even possible with Soyuz, the astronauts for Soyuz still need some minimal qualifications, while Progress has lots of GNC systems extra to be capable of automatic flight.

 

[n122vu]

 

[Spacethingy]

So, uhhh, apparently, having a pagefile fragged into 50,000 pieces isn't great for system performance...

In other news, I just went to Phobos and back in a Deltaglider from the ISS for the first time. :woohoo:

 

[MattBaker]

picture

Nice try but we all know that's the time when Morm...dammit, not allowed to make jokes about that here.
But they're making it so easy.

 

[Linguofreak]

I doubt "Anhalt" is properly translated with "Stop". The name comes from the Castle Anhalt in Harzgerode, which had been the home of the Askenier family (Counts of Ballenstedt).

More likely is a connection to the terms "Haushalt" or "Gehalt" since there is also a similar old castle Halt at the other side of the country. So, Anhalt is not meant as "stop" (We would never call a place to stop a "Anhalt"), but rather "Ans Keep"... now, who or what is "An"? Not the name of the lord that ordered its construction, that was Otto the Rich. (some looking at the map later :facepalm: ) It is a geographic entity. The castle sits at the source of the small river "Eine", which could have been called "An" at that time, if you backtrack the changes in the German language. So, the name actually means:

"Keep at the Eine"

In this scenario the best translation for "-halt" is probably "-hold", which shows up in the word "stronghold" and also the names of various castles. Depending on how you apply Protogermanic to English sound changes to the "An" part, you could end up with "Anhold", "Ownhold", or "Onehold".

 

[Codz]

Just picked up Strike Fighters 2 - North Atlantic today. Gotta love the F-14 Tomcat based dynamic campaign over the North Atlantic and Iceland! Strike Fighters is just an overall excellent combat flight sim series.

 

[jedidia]

A Tomcat sim? Is it as good as Fleet Defender simulation wise?