spacemark

8 ms·

61.
by spacemark 4y ago
As a former paraglider who's been eyeing sailplanes, I'd love to believe this - got any good links to data at hand?
62.
by spacemark 4y ago
I'm a mechanical engineer (satellites currently, launch vehicles and satellite payloads previously). On the side I sell budget star tracking astrophotography mounts I designed and build in my basement. I also do a few consulting gigs e
63.
by spacemark 4y ago
I think you overestimate how much control we technologists actually have. Takes far more than a few seats on some standards boards.
64.
by spacemark 4y ago
So, it's either keep grasping at something that isn't there, give up on the thing and accept it isn't there, or come to Jesus and get it in the afterlife. I've always been baffled by CS Lewis. Quite a mix of insight and
65.
by spacemark 4y ago
Yes, deliberate ignorance pendulum swings too far. Of course "free" information is not very useful because someone else is paying for it, motivated by their interests not yours. So do the adult thing and don't throw up your h
66.
by spacemark 4y ago
Oops my bad, thought this was a comment under another thread discussing terrestrial lensing which uses Earth's atmosphere, not gravitational lensing. Disregard!
67.
by spacemark 4y ago
Oops my bad, thought this was a comment under another thread discussing terrestrial lensing which uses Earth's atmosphere, not gravitational lensing. Disregard!
68.
by spacemark 4y ago
I'm an engineer (current job is designing and building small spacecraft), so forgive me for raining on physicists' dreams, but a huge reason such a telescope is not currently practical is the enormous amount of propellant required
69.
by spacemark 4y ago
Yes, it's possible but the refractive index decreases with increase in wavelength to the point that this would not be feasible. Radio wavelengths are ~9 orders of magnitude larger than optical, meaning the detector would need to be pla
70.
by spacemark 4y ago
A tenth the cost? No. Half the cost? Possibly but even that is a stretch. A huge amount of the work effort (and funding) would have to be repeated. All the testing, validation, hardware-specific characterization and calibration, troubleshoo
71.
by spacemark 4y ago
Seriously. Pretty insulting to assign a senior a 4 hr take home assignment when the hiring manager can just pick up the phone and talk to references, look up authored papers, etc. Ridiculous. Glad the tide is turning in favor of workers.
72.
by spacemark 4y ago
No, it's really not that simple. Inflation causes are many fold and it was an issue prior to Russia's invasion. Might help, but inflation isn't going to vanish with a "simple" policy change.
73.
by spacemark 4y ago
I'm confused. Are you saying Nader didn't do any good thus regulation is a fool's errand?
74.
by spacemark 4y ago
Very interesting. I work in the industry and have not heard about this concept. It appears quite a bit of low-TRL work has been done by our friends in Europe and Japan. Appears possible in the near future, especially with market pressures d
75.
by spacemark 4y ago
Not saying it doesn't have an effect, just that it's vastly overstated and the real picture is more complex. As usual, the nature of things is difficult to convey in a tweet.
76.
by spacemark 4y ago
Can we kill the "genius" trope already? In 15 years at the nation's best engineering schools and another 10 at companies and institutions that employ their graduates, I have yet to meet a nobel prize winner, CEO, professor, a
77.
by spacemark 4y ago
Hey if these unicorns get you going, let me introduce you to my friend "Space Based Solar Power." You'll really feel alive.
78.
by spacemark 4y ago
Unless you live in Antarctica the ozone hole has little bearing on how much UV exposure you're getting. The stronger sun down in NZ and Aus is mostly due to Earth's elliptical orbit (closer to the sun during south hemisphere summ
79.
by spacemark 5y ago
Couples filing jointly can buy $20k/yr, not an insignificant amount for normal people. There are ways to get more, like gifts, trusts, tax returns.
80.
by spacemark 5y ago
I think you underestimate the extent of corruption in Russia. The US doesn't even come remotely close. You can look up corruption indexes, Russia is near most corrupt, US somewhere in the bottom quartile iirc. A quick example from my i
81.
by spacemark 5y ago
I don't think they have a problem recognizing those that subscribe to the warrior cult mentality - notice how often our politicians publicly call Putin a "thug"? It's dealing with it that's the issue. You literally
82.
by spacemark 5y ago
Thank you, this is a very useful model of the philosophical differences between Russia and the west since the fall of the soviet union and provides some quality food for thought about how to change the direction geopolitics are going with t
83.
by spacemark 5y ago
>I'd hope that they think that protective system would be good enough. They most certainly won't. Peruse this site if interested. Long story short, the kind of wattage you're talking about (writing on clouds visible from t
84.
by spacemark 5y ago
Good points. If I can take a crack at the exercise for the reader, I think the inconsistency has fairly straight forward reasons, even if they're frustrating: humans are terrible at reasoned risk analysis (if they even see the value);
85.
by spacemark 5y ago
...which everybody does. There is nothing special about that particular smart person's ability to predict the future. Appeals to authority based on selectively chosen past performance... let's see how this ages 10 years from now
86.
by spacemark 5y ago
>get the whole world access to the internet Starlink is yet another printing press, a tool to control information. It can be wielded for good and bad, just like any other technology, and it will be for both. Has the internet made the wor
87.
by spacemark 5y ago
Not true at all, totally depends on the type of observation campaign. Plenty of big observatory projects are negatively impacted by the eternal march of "progress."
88.
by spacemark 5y ago
Apologies, my last sentence was unprofessional and unhelpful. I was not at my best in that comment. My other points stand, though. Everyone in the industry that's paying attention knows that Starship, IF it delivers on its promises, wi
89.
by spacemark 5y ago
Man, there you go again, trying to turn this into a debate where we pick apart everything the opponent says line by line. What a waste of time. Take care, good luck with your mental health.
90.
by spacemark 5y ago
Jeez dude, these were just random programs off the top of my head to illustrate industry distrust of launch vehicle promises. My comment wasn't meant to initiate a debate but offer the perspective of someone who is quite literally writ

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