• Naz@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    People shit on NASA all the time, as if “private space exploration” is the future, but I did the math on their JUNO mission and their margin of error was 1%.

    NASA is goated.

    • untakenusername@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      imo NASA’s good for some stuff in space and private enterprise is good for other stuff, like finding high risk solutions cheaply, like making the falcon 9 land vertically, which halfed the cost per kilogram to orbit. NASA’s def better for research and stuff though. the future is a combination of both

      • Naz@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Delta-V Budget assuming standard parts

        Getting anywhere in space requires ∆V, think of it like “gas needed” to go somewhere in a car, in an extremely simplified form.

        The long form is a dimensionless change in velocity. You can point to any object in the night sky and calculate the ∆V required, like Jupiter.

        In this case, NASA needed to go say, 384 miles to get to Jupiter and made it with less than 4 miles of fuel remaining using the car analogy. That’s a shocking degree of accuracy.

        They then purposefully coasted into the gravitational terminus of Jupiter terminating the mission using the final 1% of fuel, while studying the planet over a number of years.

        In space, informally, and also because I’m personally somewhat awful at space, a 20% margin of error in ∆V would be considered “good” for us mere mortals, because we need to have wiggle room for errors, mistakes, and course corrections.

        (Flipping a lander or rover over on the Moon is considered to be average performance, see: IM-2)

  • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Programmer socks reflect stereotypes about how cishet programmers are an unconfirmed rumor.

    To match spaceflight-engineer stereotypes, do these socks go in a pair of jackboots?