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Couple of things I learned from this: 1. Some birds go really high into the sky. Not sure how they evolved to tolerate such a hostile environment. But it seems
by csomar 4y ago
Couple of things I learned from this:
1. Some birds go really high into the sky. Not sure how they evolved to tolerate such a hostile environment. But it seems that Duck-like birds are able to handle very high altitude.
2. There are lots of cool spaceships that man has made. But it seems most of these were made in the 1950-1990 era. It's a shame that we are no longer doing that.
- joemi 4y agoI think there are still a lot of cool ones, but not as many sexy ones. Rocket planes like the X-15 were incredibly sexy, IMO, though in many ways not as cool and useful as current rockets.
- O5vYtytb 4y agoI have to wonder what you mean we're no longer making cool spacecraft? The SpaceX starship is about to launch in an hour, it's very cool.
- millerm 4y agoWatching the countdown now! T-00:28:12! Will be spectacular no matter what happens! Yes, I'm excited. Not sure how the parent comment has missed what SpaceX has been doing with Dragon, Starship, Starlink, and all the rockets! Amazing.
- jackcviers3 4y agoIt exploded when trying to orient for the first stage separation. And it appeared to have 5 of the 33 engines out during the first stage flight. This launch gave me very "Don't Look Up" ending vibes.
- kbelder 4y agoJust the opposite. This is engineer-driven testing.
- jackcviers3 4y ago[flagged]
- outworlder 4y agoYeah. It's one thing to blow up during test firings, or when trying completely novel maneuvers like the belly flop. It's another thing entirely to do that during stage separation. Sure, historically separation has been risky, but it's nothing novel. They didn't seem to expect the vehicle to survive past that anyways. There would be a delay even if another vehicle was ready to go - the launch site is a wreck.
- trey-jones 4y agoIf you were thrown by the explosion (automated termination, not some catastrophic failure), then you weren't listening to any of the media around the launch. This was a successful mission, gathering data for future launches. Expectations were set appropriately, so I think it's really just your problem for not listening. In addition, this isn't publicly funded, so it would seem if some of the people get spooked by not understanding the goals of a launch correctly, then it doesn't really matter that much.
- outworlder 4y ago> In addition, this isn't publicly funded, so it would seem if some of the people get spooked by not understanding the goals of a launch correctly, then it doesn't really matter that much. It does matter that we are scattering debris over a large area for no reason. It does not matter if that was done by the flight termination system or other mechanism.
- RandallBrown 4y agoIt wasn't a catastrophic failure, it was self destructed.
- throwawaymobule 4y ago
- csomar 4y agoYep. But you'd expect that we'd have more given how much technology has advanced and how bigger the economies are now. The recent progress is mostly due to Billionaires now. Another possibility is: Space is too hard. So instead the focus is to analyze (ie: James Webb) instead of sending a human there.
- piyh 4y agoThe incentives for going to space are limited to more economic sensibility when you don't have a dick measuring contest going on between great powers.
- brvsft 4y agoTo your 2nd point, I'd venture an uneducated guess that the reason we were doing this was largely a part of the arms race between USA and USSR during that period.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jackmott42 4y agoList of cool spaceships being worked on now or recently: * The Falcon 9, the first partially reusable spaceship that actually costs less than not re-using anything * Terran R - a fully reusable space ship in the works by relativity space * RocketLab Electron - an active rocket that is unique in its use of electric turbo pumps, 3d printed engines, and advanced composites use * RocketLab Neutron - in the works, a larger rocket with the aim to be partially re-usable ala Falcon 9 but with a cheaper expendable 2nd stage and simpler design * SpaceX Starship - in the works, (test flight today!) a large heavy lift vehicle with the aim to be fully reusable * Blue Origin - working on a ship similar to starship there are others!
- andorov 4y agoSpinLaunch is pretty interesting too - throwing ships into space https://www.spinlaunch.com/ https://www.spinlaunch.com/
- avhon1 4y agoSierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser - a reusable lifting-body spaceplane, currently slated to fly to the ISS on top of the Vulcan rocket in December 2023
- csh0 4y agoI had never heard of the Sierra Nevada Corp. and was confused when I thought about the beer company working on a rocket :) Stranger things have happened though I suppose.
- jaystraw 4y agoWhat great idea didn't start as a sketch on a bar napkin?
- iancmceachern 4y agoIn other beer space connections, Ball Aerospace and Ball containers who makes many beer cans were once the same company. Also made Ball canning jars.
- swader999 4y agoI think there's a lot of craft we just don't know about.
- codethief 4y ago> It's a shame that we are no longer doing that. "We" have built a lot of spaceships since then but they simply went higher up than "just" 100km, so don't show up in the OP.
- ZeljkoS 4y agoRegarding 1, wikipedia about Rüppell's vulture (highest-flying bird) explains the adaptation: "The birds have a specialized variant of the hemoglobin alphaD subunit; this protein has a great affinity for oxygen, which allows the species to absorb oxygen efficiently despite the low partial pressure in the upper troposphere. A Rüppell's vulture was confirmed to have been ingested by a jet engine of an airplane flying over Abidjan, Ivory Coast on 29 November 1973 at an altitude of 11,300 m (37,000 ft)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%BCppell%27s_vulture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%BCppell%27s_vulture
- hobo_in_library 4y agoI was shocked to see a butterfly above the cloud level
- kmote00 4y agoYes, and the bumblebee was up there pretty high too. You gotta wonder, what were they doing up there? Did they just get... lost? Just taking a nap in a thermal updraft?
- TonyTrapp 4y agoIt probably got above the clouds just the same way as the mountain goat did: By living on a high mountain.
- jrootabega 4y agoI can't vouch for the quality of this site, but it says monarchs have been seen that high by aircraft. https://journeynorth.org/monarchs/resources/gallery/gallery-how-high-do-monarchs-fly https://journeynorth.org/monarchs/resources/gallery/gallery-...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mcv 4y agoSwans and geese may not look like the greatest flyers when they're on the ground, but they're among the highest flying birds. But why? Is it their size and strength? Why do people have trouble breathing at that altitude, but birds don't?
- nojs 4y ago3. The temperature gradient is weird, and doesn’t just get colder the higher you go.
- Xenoamorphous 4y agoI wonder how they estimated the flying altitude of pterodactyls.
- amenghra 4y agoAltitude of current birds x wing size ratio /s
- ljf 4y agohttps://www.npr.org/2010/11/16/131362653/peerless-pterosaur-could-fly-long-distance-for-days#:~:text=The%20results%2C%20which%20they%20presented,between%208%2C000%20and%2012%2C000%20miles https://www.npr.org/2010/11/16/131362653/peerless-pterosaur-... Seems to be a good chunk of (educated) conjecture.