The Pod Bay

PearsonArtPhoto

02:47

uhoh

06:32

3

A: How many seconds of near-zero gravity are practical with a Reduced Gravity Aircraft?

Supplemental answer time. OK Go! has just released Gravity is just a habit, the "making of" documentary about the original video OK Go - Upside Down & Inside Out. Not surprisingly, it's essentially the same number that is given in the accepted answer. The new video includes other details about ...

@geoffc I have a Q&A about the zero-g video. Here's the A

It includes a link to a "the making of..." video as well.

0

Q: Is there any way to tell which NASA rover this "rover" might be modeled after?

In the OK Go! YouTube video linked below, there is a generic model of a planetary rover with a NASA logo on it. It has six wheels, (four on one articulated carriage) a vertical mast with a T-shape on top for a pair of cameras, and some kind of manipulator arm. Is there any way to tell which NASA...

@PearsonArtPhoto new question

@geoffc new question

Edlothiad

@uhoh Is the evidence provided above insufficient?

uhoh

I don't really read chat so much.

Also, knowing an answer is not a reason not to ask a stack exchange question.

Remember that the primary goal is to provide answers for future readers.

Edlothiad

I know, but I'm asking whether I could simply provide that as an answer to your question

uhoh

I don't know if you could or not.

It's better to ask "what your asking" first, rather than second.

I never understand why people add a second "but I'm asking" and then ask something different.

gotta go!

Space Exploration Meta

10:27

0

Q: Why does this meta have a much wider font than many other metas and main sites?

And does that serve a purpose? For esthetic reasons I would bring it more in line with other (meta) sites.

discussion feature-request

geoffc

11:21

@uhoh Your two statements are not exclusive. I.e. Yes, agreed, provide answwers for others usually in the future. But also, if you know an answer, asking the question is aperfectly good way to get the info recorded in this format.

Edlothiad

11:35

That being said, self-answers usually get less attention then non-self-answers.

And are sometimes even met with downvotes (although I don't know if that's the case on Space Exploration)

geoffc

12:48

@Edlothiad Cost of doing business.

uhoh

13:12

2

A: How to calculate the planets and moons beyond Newtons's gravitational force?

Let's add an approximations to take into account some of the General Relativity (GR) effects — at least for bodies orbiting close to the massive Sun — and start to look at $J_2$ the lowest order multipole term for a body's gravitational potential beyond the monopole term $-GM/r$. Newton: The ac...

I learned how to incorporate some basic bits of general relativity and approximate gravitational quadrupole moments into a numerical integration and matched JPL's Horizons to about 1 kilometer over six months and wanted to share it with the world.

two up votes!

Whereas (at)Pearson simply says "I don't know how to use Horizons correctly and I made wrong plots" and get 43 up votes.

So yes, attention and voting seems a bit fickle here.

It's a bit "Let's get together and use 'Science Words' and vote to see who's popular" sometimes.

Nonetheless, this is an Absolutely Fantastic SE site! Top notch. And this is because there are so many people here who care about maintaining the site and its demeanor and utility.

PearsonArtPhoto

13:49

I didn't know how to use Horizons, not I don't.

Small difference.

I certainly didn't deserve 43 upvotes for that answer...

Honestly, it's kind of embarrassing...

Although I'm glad the question was asked, because the same thing was driving me crazy.

Humanity Star latest orbit data (3 hours ago): 169 x 190 km (above geoid). New reentry estimate from Space-Track is 1246 to 1344 UTC; it is now 1347 UTC so HS has probably reentered by now

Tweeted by planet4589 on March 22, 2018 at 1:47 PM

geoffc

14:06

That documentary on the OK GO video was really good!

Edlothiad

14:37

Agreed, really cool how they pieced everything together

@uhoh I see you have encountered the HNQ, for some comparisons from another site, This Q&A about why gates open inwards in GoT (Spoiler: because they open inwards in all real castles) got 200+ upvotes, where as some far better answers looking at the development of an authors world have been lost to the depths. Votes are not necessarily a measure of quality.

Space Exploration Meta

14:56

0

Q: Do we have or do we need a tag for robotic aircraft used to explore other planets?

Do we have or do we need a tag for robotic aircraft used to explore other planets? I noticed this lack when I posted the new question Why Never-EVER Land? It looks like we have no appropriate tag, and yet there are many questions about this. What would be an appropriate tag and definition for ...

discussion

Edlothiad

@called2voyage hmm... that might have been before the "cosmic (tag) inflation era", back when people were rightfully conservative and cautious and trying to avoid tag inflation. So out of more than just curiosity, I will take this opportunity to honor that spirit and use the rovers tag, at least until 2020. — uhoh 2 mins ago

Paha! Golden!

uhoh

@Edlothiad I have no idea what HNQ is.

Edlothiad

The Hot Network Questions list. It appears on the right side of most main site pages and lets you see other questions from certain stacks which are "hot" many views/upvotes in a short period of time.

Usually means, people who don't really know, come along and click upvote because it was a mildly interesting read and move along, all while being none the wiser.

geoffc

16:16

@kimholder Listening to Space Show, you called in on your Bday? Still not heard your question, listening now.

kim holder

@geoffc :D i called in because i'd been promised by david that he'd sing me happy birthday on the air, which he did.

there was no obligation for me to call in for that deal, but i felt i should.

geoffc

Haha. Funny. Enjoying the show.

kim holder

by the way, i'm on the show next tuesday, march 27th. same time, starts at 7pm pst, 10 pm est.

PearsonArtPhoto

Nice!

I'm wondering if I ought to try to be on that show...

geoffc

I have called in. Asked Gwynne Shotwell a question.

PearsonArtPhoto

16:25

It seems that show is a bit bigger of a deal then I thought it was...

geoffc

Kim is a bigger deal than you thought she was as well. (I mean intellectually, in person she is skinny as a rail).

PearsonArtPhoto

I've come to realize that.

kim holder

aw, you guys are too nice.

@PearsonArtPhoto you definitely could be. regarding this site, and then add on whereisroadster.

PearsonArtPhoto

I'm trying the reverse, but...

kim holder

yeah, but i don't know that whereisroadster alone would be enough content. it's a 90 minute show.

i'll ask him to contact you, if you want. get you through the hoops a bit faster maybe.

PearsonArtPhoto

16:35

I just sent in an email, wouldn't hurt to try multiple ways, however.

A full 90 minute show might be challengine for the website, I will admit.

kim holder

yeah, make sure he knows who you are. he's a friend of mine now.

PearsonArtPhoto

Cool.

kim holder

oh - if you could call in for open lines this sunday, that would be nice. then you can do an initial plug, and he loves new callers. especially since he accidentally scheduled two open lines sundays back to back.

PearsonArtPhoto

Sundays are poor days, but I'll see what I can do...

kim holder

Elon Musk has been on the show 6 times.

not recently, of course. Shotwell was on most recently last summer.

Bob Zubrin was on a few days ago.

PearsonArtPhoto

16:48

Yeah, I saw that.

He signed my copy of The Case for Mars.

kim holder

awesome :)

i normally try to call in for him but couldn't that day.

PearsonArtPhoto

I met him at Humans to Mars Summit 2016.

That was a lot of fun. I wish I could go to it more, but...

kim holder

i'm toying with the idea of going to the Mars Society conference at the end of August.

geoffc

@PearsonArtPhoto I read a proof copy a prof had, and even caught an error! :)

PearsonArtPhoto

That was fun, right after Red Dragon was announced, as well as the IPS briefing.

Nice!

geoffc

16:51

@kimholder That would be fun! I like Zubrin. He is funny when he gets angry and how hard he controls himself.

PearsonArtPhoto

He is very animated for sure.

kim holder

i am thinking of that conference largely so i can meet him.

PearsonArtPhoto

The best part about being at H2M was all of the people around me were as big of space nerds as I was. I could have a intelligent conversation about anything related to space exploration, and everyone knew the background that I did.

If I had more vacation time, I would be tempted to try to get in to such events with a press badge.

kim holder

if we were out of beta and had a blog, that would probably work.

@geoffc what was the error?

geoffc

@kimholder Something about Apollo 17 being incorrect. I forget now, I was all of 18 at the time. It was a LONG time ago. :)

PearsonArtPhoto

16:56

livestream.com/viewnow/exploremars2016/videos/123269290

It was right after that debate that he signed my book.

kim holder

@geoffc man, you are a dyed in the wool space nerd :)

PearsonArtPhoto

I couldn't believe that no one from SpaceX talked then, with the IPL and Red Dragon both announced, but...

geoffc

@kimholder Damn straight! I had space shuttle pics from the newspaper on my bedroom wall when I was a kid. I laughed when I visited my sister, since my nephew did a project on the Saturn V, just like I had when I was in grade school. Though he has the Lego Saturn V. I want one. I can just go buy it of course now, but no where to keep it, and gotta sell the wife on it.

PearsonArtPhoto

I'm quoted in a very well known online news site as having read every book about space that my school library had.

theverge.com/2018/2/17/17019796/…

“I read every book in my little library that I could about space and space exploration stuff,”

kim holder

weren't you in a town of like a thousand people?

kim holder

17:16

i thought you said that to me once.

geoffc

@kimholder I thought that was YOU Kim! I have even been to your local library! Way back when!

PearsonArtPhoto

At the time it was about 4000, but...

kim holder

:D well yeah. 8000 though, that's like 8x bigger

PearsonArtPhoto

There were 4 classes for my entire grade in the town.

kim holder

(and i also grew up in toronto. and calgary. and north bay.)

PearsonArtPhoto

17:19

The biggest city that I lived in before I moved away from home had about 25,000 people.

And now I basically live in D.C., although admittedly on the very outskirts.

I have lived in towns on the outskirt of big cities most of that time.

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