zlsa

10 ms·

61.
by zlsa 5y ago
It was a test launch. The alternative would have been a block of metal.
62.
by zlsa 5y ago
It's not part of the original spec for Markdown, but it looks like it's a relatively standard addition to Markdown: https://www.markdownguide.org/extended-syntax/#footnotes
63.
FAA Releases Draft Environmental Assessment for SpaceX Starship Launches(faa.gov)
4 points by zlsa 5y ago|0 comments
64.
by zlsa 5y ago
We don't know the public price of Inspiration4, but the $62m list price of Falcon 9 does not include Crew Dragon, which is a substantially more expensive vehicle to operate.
65.
by zlsa 5y ago
I don't have any knowledge about Virgin Galactic's trajectory, but in general rocket trajectories are chosen such that no matter where the rocket fails along its flight, it will either fall entirely within the published keep-out z
66.
by zlsa 5y ago
Liftoff[0] by Eric Berger is a great book about the early days of SpaceX that I can highly recommend. [0]: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/liftoff-eric-berger?v...
67.
by zlsa 5y ago
Correct, they have one chance to land. (But the runway is REALLY long.)
68.
The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight(newyorker.com)
476 points by zlsa 5y ago|251 comments
69.
by zlsa 5y ago
But it doesn't have access to the consumer-facing store and is intended solely for internal business usage (for example, employee training and the like.)
70.
by zlsa 5y ago
The Quest 2 has only been out since October 13 of last year. 4m units in the US in less than a year is a great number.
71.
by zlsa 5y ago
Compliant USB-C cables might not always work at full speed (or at all, on some devices that need more power to operate), but they will never be a safety hazard. The only possible safety hazard with USB-C charging is a noncompliant cable wit
72.
by zlsa 5y ago
Yes, MSFS uses satellite/aerial imagery and OSM data for buildings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-meVo-bhMw
73.
by zlsa 5y ago
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe a USB-C cable connected to a USB-C charger is cold by default until something is connected. Don't try this at home either, but it should also be perfectly safe to plug a USB-C cable into two differ
74.
by zlsa 5y ago
For Alternate Mode to work, only cables with high-speed lanes will work (aka USB 3.0 cables). Power Delivery doesn't need these high-speed lanes at all.
75.
by zlsa 5y ago
Any compliant USB-C cable must support USB 2.0 no matter what. If a USB-C cable isn't working with 2.0 data, then it's a noncompliant cable.
76.
by zlsa 5y ago
It should be impossible for any set of non-damaged, non-defective, spec-compliant set of USB-C cables and peripherals to cause fires. The specifications are very carefully designed to prevent any combination of cables and devices from causi
77.
by zlsa 5y ago
Lossless audio isn't the same as Dolby Atmos, which does work with AirPods Max and AirPods Pro.
78.
by zlsa 5y ago
The big vents about midway up the vehicle are gaseous depressurization vents for the methane and liquid oxygen tanks; the RCS (reaction control system) that's designed to provide torque has thrusters at the nose and tail (to maximize t
79.
by zlsa 5y ago
Yeah, critically the rocket engine turbopump already produces very high pressure kerosene and liquid oxygen; so why not tap off some kerosene there instead of building a separate hydraulic pump system?
80.
by zlsa 5y ago
The thrust vector control method in this case is gimbaling, and it basically means using linear actuators (I think these are commonly hydraulic, and Falcon 9's Merlin engines actually use the kerosene fuel in the TVC hydraulic system)
81.
by zlsa 5y ago
I'm sure you've heard this before, but have you checked out Space Engine[0]? It has some pretty advanced features, like path animations and cubemap rendering. I'm not sure how well it'd integrate into existing workflows,
82.
by zlsa 5y ago
Agreed. An interesting example is the new Microsoft Flight Simulator, which uses WASM[0] as a sandboxed language to create airplane gauges and custom flight models (HN discussion[1]). [0]: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/
83.
by zlsa 5y ago
In the linked article, benchmarks are shown for CUDA as well. Of course that's also nVidia-only like OptiX. And antecdotally, OptiX is around 1.5-3x faster than CUDA with Cycles rendering.
84.
by zlsa 5y ago
I've found that with complex shaders, it can be more performant to use CPU Cycles rendering because GPU rendering can have a substantial delay after changing parameters. In the same vein, Cycles is sometimes faster than Eevee, because
85.
by zlsa 5y ago
This is the advantage of building your hardware and your software under the same roof. You can make optimizations (such as not including hardware that makes OpenGL faster, but doesn't impact Metal nearly as much.) The "standard&qu
86.
by zlsa 5y ago
This is probably largely due to NASA's Congress-specified HLS budget not being enough to support two companies.
87.
by zlsa 5y ago
Because they're a launch vehicle company and didn't bid for the HLS contract.
88.
by zlsa 6y ago
The current legs are just barely adequate, and are a stand-in while the final legs are being developed.
89.
by zlsa 6y ago
Starlink[0] is made for you. It's a constellation in low-earth orbit, so latency is far lower than 650ms (current users are getting around of 30-60ms.) The current iteration must stay within the "cell" it's assigned to,
90.
by zlsa 6y ago
On the other hand, if swapping out a yoke for a steering wheel measurably improves overall safety on an otherwise identical vehicle, is there still an argument for using a yoke instead of a wheel (even if the car with a yoke is already safe

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