The Pod Bay

TildalWave

12:07 AM

dunno seems odd to catalog 20 objects, where did you get that number from anyway?

Chris

here's where i first saw it: twitter.com/jremis/status/384445596662124544

(I think he counted wrong, as A-T should be 20 objects, no?)

PearsonArtPhoto

12:58 AM

With the way SpaceX is, this question probably won't be very answerable, but I like the question anyways.

3

Q: What went wrong, Falcon 9 1.1 first flight with first stage landing attempt?

They are reporting that the three engine relight in the upper atmosphere worked. But the relight of a single engine, lower down for pretend landing on the water generated too much torque and the fuel (in the mostly empty tanks) centrifuged away from the feed line and the engine ran dry. Why did ...

TildalWave

1:47 AM

@PearsonArtPhoto I think it's fun sometimes having questions that the answers for are still under investigation. It was a double launch day tho, so I didn't want the first one to completely steal the limelight... the other one is now in the parking orbit to GEO

BTW, found this (thought to save the question for the medical TOTW:

►

TildalWave

2:03 AM

@PearsonArtPhoto I was also thinking, maybe we rather move TOTW start dates on Thursday, to coincide better with our newsletter. What do you think?

Our newsletter seems to be sent out each Thursday at around 7 pm UTC

Stack Exchange

4:04 AM

And if clicking on any word pops up a site-search for articles about that word, I will close all windows in a panic and never come back.

Chris

12:29 PM

zarya.info/blog/?p=1595

Eesh

PearsonArtPhoto

@TildalWave People read the newsletter?

TildalWave

2:20 PM

@PearsonArtPhoto Dunno if they read it, but you can track how many subscribe in the mod tools. The number of currently confirmed subscriptions vs unsubscriptions is large enough IMO to count that as - yes, probably, dunno LOL

Undo

2:30 PM

I read the newsletter!

PearsonArtPhoto

You could count on at least one person reading it;-)

Actually, there's a surprisingly large number of users who have signed up. I'm impressed, actually.

PearsonArtPhoto

3:00 PM

@TildalWave My understanding is that the payload fairing actually separates from the booster, why, I don't understand.

Stack Exchange

NASA Image of the Day: Full View of Asteroid Vesta

posted on September 30, 2013

As NASA's Dawn spacecraft travels to its next destination, this mosaic synthesizes some of the best views the spacecraft had of the giant asteroid Vesta. Dawn studied Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012. The towering mountain at the south pole - more than twice the height of Mount Everest - is visible at the bottom of the image. The set of three craters known as the "snowman" can be seen at …

Chris

3:13 PM

@PearsonArtPhoto i believe it's just because the payload is jettisoned before reaching orbit, as soon as the atmosphere is not significant enough to cause problems

PearsonArtPhoto

I guess fairing was the wrong choice of words. The Payload Adapter separates from the booster, at least, that's what I understand.

Chris

oh, gotcha

PearsonArtPhoto

Personally though, I'm just glad the launch didn't end up like this:

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto I was pushing it here in the chat, and mentioned a few times in meta... you know, with links and all

PearsonArtPhoto

Well, let's officially kick it off for now, and see how it goes. I don't know if the newsletter subscription is enough to warrant planning the topic of the week aroudn it yet, but it could be considered. Hmmm.

TildalWave

3:21 PM

like this:

Space Exploration SE Weekly Newsletter. Subscribe now!

:))

Everyone

waves cautiously

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto They do that on Sec.SE, but they have the TOTW selection and the TOTW goes actually in the blog (well, occasionally, they don't really write it each week, but they're really good)

what's TOTW?

topic of the week

ah. aha. aka TY (+:

3:23 PM

6

Q: Topic of the Week

One of the things that Stack Exchange in general has found effective is to devote a week to a specific topic in which members of the site feel is lacking. For instance, Arquade will frequently have a topic week to discuss a new game coming out, or Science Fiction and Fantasy talked more about Sta...

discussion featured topic-of-week

this week, it's the planetary science

Planetary science

Planetary science (rarely planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation, interrelations and history. It is a strongly interdisciplinary field, originally growing from astronomy and earth science, Allied disciplines include space physics, when concerned with the effects of the Sun on the bodies of the Solar System, and astrobiology. There...

Everyone

Then I can hope to get some attention on meteorology for Venus, and Luna's surface hardness?

TildalWave

So... stuff to read on, ask questions and research for good answers. It's pretty broad topic, so I guess there ought to be some questions falling in this category

PearsonArtPhoto

Luna's suface hardness is still a bit broad, but in general, yes.

TildalWave

@Everyone sure... post them here too

Everyone

the question number? hang on

questions/2189/
questions/1480/

TildalWave

3:27 PM

@PearsonArtPhoto I was also thinking we could spend some of our rep for bounties on unanswered ones that fall into TOTW... if you want. Not too much tho, we don't have many voters here since they seem too preoccupied with Astro at the moment... they'll come back tho :P

PearsonArtPhoto

Perhaps. Hmmm. I have noticed a significant drop down in the number of site visits recently. Hmmm.

Everyone

@TildalWave: I was actually planning a 50 pointer for the meteorology on Venus myself ...

TildalWave

is there a way to make the tag planetary-science featured for a week on the main site?

Everyone

@TildalWave: main-site == SO?

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto They'll come back, I have no doubt... the first few weeks are really tempting rep-wise for any private beta

PearsonArtPhoto

3:28 PM

If there is, I don't know how to do it.

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto Let's ask @JonEricson :)

@JonEricson Ping! :D

PearsonArtPhoto

Actually though, we're still doing really well after 2 days of really good questions that brought in a lot of people.

@TildalWave I'm sure he got it the first time;-)

Everyone

Purely out of curiosity, is the Rosetta Lander provided with a propulsion system?

PearsonArtPhoto

That'd be a good question to ask on the main site.

Everyone

SEx.SE, you mean?

Not that the comet is going away, but you know, something to avoid flying into Old Faithful's cousin out there ... stuff like that

What level of math do I need to use GMAT with any skill? Skill as in being able to create /vewa model of Cruithne's orbit around Earth

Chris

3:46 PM

@Everyone usually those packages come with examples that aren't too difficult to rework into something useful for yourself

for that problem specifically, it's probably just a matter of importing the objects ephemeris and... not much else, actually

Jon Ericson

@TildalWave Write up a meta question, feature it, and it will show up in the community bulletin. Or drop a bounty on three planetary-science questions. But featuring an entire flag? That's an interesting idea... (At least for beta sites. ;-)

TildalWave

@JonEricson Good morning! I'm sure you meant tag? :))

Everyone

4:20 PM

back

/me posts a bounty on the venerean meteorology

Jon Ericson

@TildalWave Hmmm... I suppose I'd started thinking about... other things. ;-)

Everyone

Where is TOTW featured?

I mean, where will it be visible?

@Chris: TY let me try something

TildalWave

5:10 PM

@Everyone Hopefully, in our activity. ;)

PearsonArtPhoto

5:25 PM

For the time being, it's just in the meta posts and chat, and activity. Although @JonEricson seems to hint that something interesting is coming through the pipeline...

Jon Ericson

@PearsonArtPhoto Well, not so much a hint as "that's something I might bring up with folks around the (virtual) office".

PearsonArtPhoto

Ahhh. Hmmm. In that case...

0

Q: Featured tag/ "Official" Tag of the Week

I've seen in encouraged amount many sites to encourage people to ask for a period of time about a specific topic, in a way to encourage more site activity. Space Exploration has recently started doing this. We asked in our chatroom if there was a better way to feature a particular topic for a wee...

feature-request tags

TildalWave

5:41 PM

@PearsonArtPhoto hehe nice... I've also added a bounty to that lunar surface hardness, so we now have 2 with bounties (cheers for the other one), and hopefully more incoming questions. I was thinking of asking about the formations within the impact craters, there's some interesting ridges in the Mars craters in some areas, possibly wind erosion?

PearsonArtPhoto

There's a ton I could ask. I'll try to keep it to around one per day.

My goal is to make planetary-science show up on the first page of tags at least, hopefully better than that.

I'd like to get it on a course to get me a badge for tag creation;-)

@TildalWave: A question featured on meta is shown in the community bulletin of the main site.

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto I know, but that's now the "Topic of the Week" thread, not the actual topic of the week... what I would like to see is some incentive for members to focus on a particular topic. I'm not sure a call for having one is creating that effect. :}

PearsonArtPhoto

5:57 PM

Well, it's worth a shot

TildalWave

if we had an ability to make some tag featured on the main site, have it colored differently and maybe otherwise increase visibility of questions using it (shouldn't be mod only tags tho), that would IMO be neat. I.e. a slight change to how they're ordered on the front page perhaps, not necessarily a new tab (tho that could work too... simply have a tab link to the current featured tag).

PearsonArtPhoto

It really would be.

TildalWave

Or, alternatively, have that main page banner, like there are on A51 for the astronomy proposal (saying folks can ask questions about astronomy now on Phy.SE), or even in private betas that have the call for more activity in site's meta on top.... if any of that could be used to "feature" some topic, that'd be neat.

Everyone

6:15 PM

Why not zimply add a TOTW tab ?

It could simply be one more alongside active, newest, featured, week, month

TildalWave

7:32 PM

@PearsonArtPhoto how's that:

0

A: Featured a Tag for a Period of Time

Yes please! And since a picture is worth a thousand words (or so they say), here's a few suggestions how that could work on the main site. Please note I've included all the suggestions I could think of in a single image, and might look slightly too clattered: Wonders of Chrome Developer Tools...