HopDavid

4 ms·

1.
by HopDavid 5y ago
Tyson has pretty low standards for rigor and accuracy. Take everything he says with a grain of salt.
2.
by HopDavid 6y ago
Tyson's an entertaining bull shitter. It's easier to be entertaining when you have no need for rigor and accuracy. See biologist PZ Myers comment on Tyson: https://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2016/03&#x2F
3.
by HopDavid 7y ago
Much of Murphy's math and physics are wrong. For example to get delta V to go to Mars he adds earth's 11 km/s escape velocity to the 3.6 km/s Mars injection velocity. A freshman aerospace student could tell the speed of
4.
by HopDavid 8y ago
I would call Tyson a good spokesman for science if he had a high regard for rigor and accuracy. But he does not. http://hopsblog-hop.blogspot.com/2016/01/fact-checking-neil-...
5.
by HopDavid 8y ago
Altitude of EML1 is about 320,000 kilometers. An ordinary 320,000 x 300 km earth orbit would be moving 10.81 km/s at perigee. As an object falls towards earth it will surge ahead of the moon and the moon will be pulling it backwards. T
6.
by HopDavid 8y ago
A.K.A. Coriolis force. Something that needs to be looked at in space elevators and orbital tetehrs as ascending (or descending) payloads exert a sideways push (or pull) on the tether and thus induce oscillations.
7.
by HopDavid 8y ago
http://hopsblog-hop.blogspot.com/2016/04/liftport-lunar-teth...
8.
by HopDavid 8y ago
There has actually been a lunar elevator proposed, the most massive part lying at Earth Moon Lagrange 1. In my opinion, not practical. I took a look using Xylon: http://hopsblog-hop.blogspot.com/2016/04/liftport-lu
9.
by HopDavid 8y ago
XKCD is usually accurate as well. Tyson on the other hand...
10.
by HopDavid 10y ago
An elevator anchored to the earth and extending past geosynchronous orbit is wildly implausible. However orbital vertical tethers are doable with Zylon. A series of 3 orbital tethers could move stuff between LEO and the lunar neighborhood.
11.
by HopDavid 11y ago
When mass parameter is big, use of WSBs is interesting. But mass parameters for sun-earth or sun-Mars are tiny. I've expressed my skepticism for ITN between earth and Mars: http://hopsblog-hop.blogspot.com/2015/04
12.
by HopDavid 13y ago
Tom Murphy has an ax to grind. He fancies himself a modern day Paul Revere shouting the urgent message "Peak Oil is coming! Peak Oil is coming!". Anything that might lead us to complacency he attempts to debunk. So of course he wi