Humor Random Comments Thread

[Pipcard]

It's from 1995? That explains why there's still an H-II (as opposed to an H-IIA or H-IIB). No Atlas V or Delta IV either.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Anyway, to abruptly switch topics, I'm currently learning to ride a bike, and today I've managed to actually turn the darn thing without my feet on the ground for support. I'm even able to wobble my way down the street and avoid parked cars!:woohoo:

I'm 23 by the way, old enough to know some people would make fun of me for only starting to learn now, but thankfully old enough to know to ignore them.

It's a valuable skill these days. Cheaper than driving a car, for sure!

 

[mojoey]

It's a valuable skill these days. Cheaper than driving a car, for sure!

Oh for sure. Right up until you get put in the hospital for a rocket bicycle gone terribly wrong.

 

[Urwumpe]

Anyway, to abruptly switch topics, I'm currently learning to ride a bike, and today I've managed to actually turn the darn thing without my feet on the ground for support. I'm even able to wobble my way down the street and avoid parked cars!:woohoo:

I'm 23 by the way, old enough to know some people would make fun of me for only starting to learn now, but thankfully old enough to know to ignore them.

If it makes you any hope... I just relearn biking after not having been on a bike for some years.

The good news, you really never really forget the skill.

The bad news, you still get a bit clumsy compared to your previous standards. I still didn't exceed the 35 km/h wall here after a week :embarrassed:

The brakes are a bit too good, the difference between smoothly decelerating and blocked tires is just a few Milli-newton more force on the lever.

 

[ISProgram]

Gah! The original image is from 1995, and the only additions this particular person added was SpaceX's rockets! :rant:

And the images used for the SpaceX rockets don't fit in well with all the rest either! Thicker outlines than on the other rockets, and less detailed artwork too!
:chainsaw:

Yep, I don't even think those SpaceX rocket are to scale either. The Falcon 1 is much much smaller than the R-7, for one.

From what I've seen, Ox-rich preburners on kerolox engines hqve higher specific impulse, but are more... troublesome. Fuel-rich are more reliable, but come with the downside of being less efficient.

I might have to reexplain what I explained. I don't think I made it very clear.

What I meant was that in general, staged combustion is more efficient than gas generator, but less reliable. Since there have only been RP-1/LOX oxygen-rich staged combustion engines, and only fuel-rich gas generators, the fact that staged combustion is inherently more powerful than gas generator is a factor that could be incidentally applied to being fuel-rich or oxygen-rich (sort of an observation bias). If there was a fuel-rich staged combustion engine, for example it makes sense that it could perform close to a oxidizer-rich one.

Oh, and oxygen-rich engines have to contend with the fact that high temperature AND high pressure oxygen is very corrosive. So, a oxygen-rich engine IS less reliable than a comparable fuel-rich engine. Wait...

...my whole argument is now moot. h:

 

[Urwumpe]

It is a matter of specific impulse, which also depends on the average molecular weight of the exhaust. For example, if you burn slightly fuel rich with a hydrogen/LOX engine, your temperature will drop, but your specific impulse will go up, because you have H2 molecules in your exhaust, which move faster at the same temperature.

The same you have with oxygen-rich kerolox engines - the exhaust contains more lighter molecules and thus gets ejected at the same temperature with higher velocity.

Also oxygen-rich engines are not more unreliable than fuel-rich engines, since all that you need is how to make metal alloys that resist such an environment and how to use such materials.

 

[Athena]

The brakes are a bit too good.

I just remembered my really embarassing biking accident last year..."the brakes were so good", I was travelling so fast at that time and I thought the brakes won't slow me down so fast...well, let's just say I sort of flew off the bike and had backaches for the following days...:facepalm:

 

[Urwumpe]

I just remembered my really embarassing biking accident last year..."the brakes were so good", I was travelling so fast at that time and I thought the brakes won't slow me down so fast...well, let's just say I sort of flew off the bike and had backaches for the following days...:facepalm:

Yeah, something like that. I usually use the rear brake most of the time, but still, it is pretty disturbing already for my biking skills, if the rear wheel blocks and goes sideways if you are in a turn.

This afternoon, I will practice some new skill there... doing the first steps towards intentionally letting the rear wheel lift off, so I can swing the bike around the front wheel, if I need to get around sharper corners.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

My mom is 66, she's never learned how to ride a bicycle. It boggles my my mind to comprehend such a thing. When I was a teenager a bicycle wasn't something that cities frowned upon and banned from their streets and sidewalks. It was a mode of transportation, same with skateboards and roller skates (pre-blades).

I wasn't much on skates, and was only mediocre on a board. But I could bike a long way from home.

 

[Izack]

Hah, I had a poster of the original image when I was a kid. It's my little brother's now, and he loves it as much as I did.

My mom is 66, she's never learned how to ride a bicycle. It boggles my my mind to comprehend such a thing. When I was a teenager a bicycle wasn't something that cities frowned upon and banned from their streets and sidewalks. It was a mode of transportation, same with skateboards and roller skates (pre-blades).

I wasn't much on skates, and was only mediocre on a board. But I could bike a long way from home.

Well, to be fair, a bicycle can be quite expensive. I've been saving up for a while now to get one (but Steam keeps having sales.) As a kid I could easily bike 10-15km, and did it almost daily when school was out. That was before getting a Nintendo, of course.

 

[Ghostrider]

As a kid I could easily bike 10-15km, and did it almost daily when school was out. That was before getting a Nintendo, of course.

What console do you have that comes with transportation? I mean, neither my GB Color, N64, DSi or Wii can transport me 10 to 15km, although the Fit Plus has me doing the marathon now and then.:lol:

 

[jedidia]

Currently relevant in my life. Very, very relevant:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Currently relevant in my life. Very, very relevant:

Hey, I know that comic! :lol: I love Sam.

 

[Codz]

My mom is 66, she's never learned how to ride a bicycle. It boggles my my mind to comprehend such a thing. When I was a teenager a bicycle wasn't something that cities frowned upon and banned from their streets and sidewalks. It was a mode of transportation, same with skateboards and roller skates (pre-blades).

I wasn't much on skates, and was only mediocre on a board. But I could bike a long way from home.

Huh, I've never heard of a city banning bicycles. At least not the cities I've resided in. Actually, Seattle, and San Francisco encourage it, although riding on sidewalks is very illegal, given that bicycles have the same rights and restrictions as cars.

 

[MattBaker]

Currently relevant in my life. Very, very relevant

Well, that attitude discovered coffee I'd guess so...maybe we came that far because of that attitude.

 

[kamaz]

I started working on a short story from my wacky sci fi universe. And im interested in knowing what the orbiter community thinks the private spaceflight industry would look like in the early 22nd century.

Floyd's journey from 2001 is a good baseline I believe, with some minor changes:

- the space station looks like [ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=6506"]Space hotel v0.2.1[/ame]
- the Earth looks like [ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=6405"]Future Earth V2.0[/ame]
- the spaceline is operating at razor-thin profits due to recession and recent terrorist attacks, so the flight is delayed due to mechanical problems in the 30-year-old shuttle, which causes it to miss a launch window, so Floyd spends 12 hours studying cracks on the ceiling of the repurposed hangar which serves as a passenger terminal
- due to budget cuts Floys is flying economy, and the kid sitting next to him has decided to use the launch delay to stuff himself full of free food (offered as componesation for the delay), so immediately after MECO Floyd has to start dodging the kid's vomit floating in zero-g

... you should be able to take it from there

 

[orb]

 

[Ghostrider]

I'm looking forward to the part where Floyd takes pity on the ill kid and helps him to the toilet - well, actually the airlock - and vents the little pest into space.

 

[astrosammy]

:uhh:

Yes, I'm in that dark area... winds up to 76 knots.

The map with thunderstorm warnings looks a bit better...

(Disregard the images, they are auto-updating.)

 

[kamaz]

I'm looking forward to the part where Floyd takes pity on the ill kid and helps him to the toilet - well, actually the airlock - and vents the little pest into space.

After indulging in this fantasy for several minutes, Floyd grimly recognizes that airlock decompression would not provide enough delta-v, and the kid would end up orbiting the spacecraft, passing outside Floyd's window every minute.