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02:54

NASASpaceFlight.com: India set for Mars debut with PSLV launch of MOM

posted on November 05, 2013 by Chris Bergin

India will launch its first interplanetary spacecraft Tuesday, with a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle set to send the Mars Orbiter Mission on its journey to the red planet.... Related posts:India launches GSAT-12 telecommunications satellite via PSLVThe Indian Space Research Organisation have successfully launched a Polar... India launch debut moon mission in collaboration with NASA and ESAThe…

Everyone

04:12

Anybody know whether that orbital inclination of 17.xxxx deg gives the ISRO Mars' orbiter any advantage?

@Undo @Tilda @erik @Hobbes @Horsh @Manish @geoffc Anyone care to remark on the orbital inclination of the ISRO Mars' orbiter at 17.xxxx deg?

Undo

@Everyone No comment, primarily because I don't know.

****

Everyone

@Undo Don't you ever sleep? q+:

Undo

@Mods Could we make a new synonym, unmanned -> unmanned-flight?

@Everyone When necessary.

Everyone

don't know about the inclination, or don't know whether I care to comment (+:

bees pedantic

Undo

@Everyone I don't know about the inclination. And I would just be making a fool of myself if I tried to make stuff up.

Which is what I would need to do.

Everyone

04:24

Ah. It's mentioned on the Orbiter web-site ... probably something to do with the fact that it's a polar-launch vehicle; different orbital maneuver/mechanics perhaps - be nice to know though

Undo

Although I sometimes wonder if half the stuff on Physics.SE is just from people typing jibberish in between two dollar signs and adding in some authentic-sounding wording.

2

Everyone

@Undo I see you've been looking at my questions (+:

Undo

LOL.

Everyone

Upvoted (+: added a remark

Got to run now ... my puir tummy

ManishEarth

@Everyone what Undo said

If you look closely, I don't know much about Space Exploration. I just know Physics and Biology, and I answer those questions here :P

Everyone

05:46

@Mani Great ... what am I doing here then? I don't have any answers, just a bunch of inane, and perhaps insane questions

ManishEarth

hah

Hash

07:41

sorry @TildalWave i am busy with my exams i will catch everyone by other end of this month during this period i will an inactive participant .....take care everyone .....

@Everyone how did you write in Hindi ??

Everyone

08:31

@Hash With perseverance, and painstaking effort

'o @Rhys

@Hash You ever used Open Office? It supports several devanagari fonts

ManishEarth

so does Word

The Mangal font is quite common

Everyone

@Mani pooh. MS Office

ManishEarth

yes, pooh

Everyone

heh

ManishEarth

but you make it sound like an exclusive OpenOffice thing.

Everyone

08:34

Rarely ever use MS Office (+: Couldn't be sure

WTF. How did IE10 auto-install ?

ManishEarth

@Everyone magic

TildalWave

08:55

Morning all ;)

Did anyone yet try to find live streams for the launch?

ISRO page is down, and the webcast.gov.in is also not working properly, so I guess the SpaceflightNow stream should do it

UV-D

@TildalWave good to hear you found an answer for the Nili Patera question, I'll stop my research and await your answer

TildalWave

Live stream for the launch of the PSLV-C25 on ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission is available on SpaceflightNow LiveStream channel in English and Indian Government Stream in Hindi

T-3:30

Well, more or less English :)

T-2:00

T-45s

T-15

ManishEarth

Wow, pretty poetic

(the Hindi bit in the English channel)

TildalWave

bloody hell that thing is fast

that's possibly the fastest first stage I've seen, short of ICBMs LOL

What do they mean with "heat shield"? The interstages?

ManishEarth

09:13

shrugs

TildalWave

can't be fairing

or maybe, if it's in 3rd stage by now already

the thing is as fast as they talk

or maybe I just woke up into a faster Universe :O

OK so if I get this correctly, the "range officer" is the one that holds finger on the range safety self-destruct button and he just gave control to another station?

Everyone

@hq5 h3q5 wh3ile/

TildalWave

Is that ROT-26? :D

Everyone

It's an Indian thing - Fasting. Indians fast at the drop of a hat q+:

lol no. I had some other buttons pressed whilst typing without realizing it

What was that about heat shields?

TildalWave

dunno ... everything looks fine, but I didn't get it what heat shields they were talking about

ManishEarth

09:25

Well, we don't fast. We use fasting as an excuse to eat "fast-only food" (food which is allowed to be eaten during a fast, though you're allowed to eat it on other times too)

TildalWave

I think it was just interstages

Everyone

Perhaps something down by the gantry? Did you observe any spraying over there?

Scratch that; solid fuel wouldn't need cooling/spraying

TildalWave

Spraying? The thing was in space already, I didn't notice anything LOL

"the space" duh

good morning!

Everyone

I missed the launch; my Gustav Holst' "Mars" chose the right moment to lose sound in the right-head-phone

bleat

and GM (+:

@Tilda Thoughts on me question in the room earlier? Does an inclined parking orbit confer any benefits for raising into transfer orbit?

TildalWave

@Everyone Not to my knowledge no, it's just "inherent" to launch location

optimal launch inclination is equal to the azimuth to the equator

Everyone

09:30

Hm. But this inclined orbit takes the Orbiter through the South Atlantic Anomaly ... unless I miss my guess

Cause for concern?

TildalWave

Shouldn't matter much, it should be now high enough to be constantly in "anomaly" as far as radiation is concerned ... or you meant something else?

@Everyone what's the inclination?

Everyone

There's a 25 minute coast after the third-stage ... about 1/3rd orbit duration

what of? Orbiter? 17.xxx

TildalWave

well dunno at which geo altitude SAA starts, but it looks to me close to equator anyway, so any low angle inclination that isn't equatorial (0 deg) should eventually go over it... unless the angle nicely divides 360 deg and exactly avoids it with each orbit

but I'm not sure why that would matter

Everyone

SAA -50° to 0° geographic latitude and from -90° to +40° longitude

I'm only concerned with the first orbit - that coasting duration after the third-stage before the fourth stage of the orbiter powers up

TildalWave

OK but we're just talking of exposure to solar radiation a bit earlier in the vertical altitude... the thing will have to reach Mars, it won't be able to count on the protection by the Van Allen belt

What just happened? They had 4th stage ignition?

Everyone

09:42

No reason to worry about fourth-stage ignition because of the exposure at that point then?

ah

TildalWave

no not yet ...

I guess separation from the 3rd stage then

Everyone

Hmz

TildalWave

OK they have it

Everyone

One of these days, I'll get me a good internet conxn - that actually allows me to vew these events without having to worry about eating into my bandwidth cap

TildalWave

and it looks like it's gonna miss SAA on first orbit too

Everyone

09:44

~~Cool.~~ Freezing!

TildalWave

should go over Mexico or thereabouts

so ... put on your sombreros

Everyone

You're wearing mine! q+:

TildalWave

it was raining ...

Everyone

That probably means the NASA DSN tracking is coming in fine again

Can't be my sombrero then; mine doesn't leak.

What's the time-lag to Ares?

TildalWave

I don't get the colors of clothes from some visitors, and it looks like it would mean something ... what is the teal color for?

Everyone

09:51

coloUrs q+:

TildalWave

or that

Everyone

What colour is teal?

TildalWave

I'm just a victim of English English vs American English "fight" :)

@Everyone LOL

Everyone

heh. You got caught in the middle too (+:

TildalWave

the algae green

Everyone

09:54

No idea ... Isn't that close to the colour the astronauts used to wear aboard ISS earlier? OR was it aboard Salyut?

TildalWave

I think that one was a lot darker and more blue-ish?

Everyone

closer to blue that one was, yes

Dunno then. Might be a question for the @Manis God

or the @Crazy God

TildalWave

this is teal ... sort of

Everyone

hahaha

I'll flag that as an interesting remark, and star it

smirks

That should get someone thinking

But, TY (+: It's kind of you to explain.
p.s. Want me to unstar that image? (+:

TildalWave

@Everyone it's OK ... there's crappier stars in the list LOL

Everyone

09:58

Heh

TildalWave

well there was one lady among the visitors dressed all in teal so I thought it would have some special meaning

Everyone

No idea \+:

does sf.com archive the feed for later viewing?

TildalWave

@Everyone usually they do yes

Crazy Buddy

Crap... I'm late for my own country's rocket launch :P

ManishEarth

@Everyone no clue. Manish knows nothing about Space Exploration.

Everyone

10:04

Let me try to view the archive during my free-hours

Try @Crazy then q+:

Crazy Buddy

@ManishEarth YUMMIE: Same here.. :)

Everyone

@Tilda Beware that sombrero hat. Injuns around you. ((+:

I've got to remember to play this when they brake into Arean orbit (is Arean the right word?)

I wonder whether the PSLV stages are assembled in-situ (or almost there), or they use something like the Pregnant Guppy

TildalWave

10:44

@Everyone I haven't a clue what that would be :O

@Everyone In the assembly tower I believe

there's a railway to it and I imagine the complete stages come there to be assembled ground up like it's usually done... rare ones are assembled horizontally, like Russians do it

they will do that with Soyuz also in Kourou tho

I just read some article not too long ago about it

This is the next launch one in a day or so

TildalWave

11:14

and another one ... they just hit the web

TildalWave

11:35

0

Q: Do any of the developing space programs use horizontal launcher assembly and launchpad loading?

Do any of the developing space programs (i.e. not NASA, ESA or Roscosmos) use horizontal launcher assembly in the launcher integration building and launchpad loading like the Soyuz at the Baikonur Cosmodrome does and it will also be done with future Guiana Space Centre launches of the Soyuz rocke...

There you go, a new question for the site ;)

with photos :)

Everyone

@Tilda Booohooohoooohooo My question ))~:

TildalWave

@Everyone hehehe,

keep them coming :P

Everyone

drowns @Tilda in used tissues soaked in tears

TildalWave

I can swim :P

Everyone

Of-course you sin!

q+:

TildalWave

11:40

hey, I posted you fresh photos here ... they're perhaps a few hours old at most

OK a few 10 hours

Everyone

Upvoted

TildalWave

well you better, it's your own question :)))

Everyone

Huh. I don't see my name on it

but, ty (+: you've phrased it better than I could have meself

TildalWave

anyway, it's not actually exactly like the one you asked, so you could still ask how they do it at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre ;)

Everyone

Does that train have a speed-limit?

TildalWave

11:43

not if the light up the 1st stage it doesn't :)

Everyone

heh

Seriously now, I'd imagine they would want to mollycoddle the spacecraft itself - if not the launch-vehicle. It's not as if rail-tracks on the sub-continent offer a silk-smooth ride

TildalWave

C'mon it's Tuesday why is everything so slow here? :O

I mean ... where's the folks?

@Everyone oh those trains go really slow, don't worry ... perhaps 4-5 km/h?

I've seen folks walking alongside it easily

Everyone

Hmz

An engine at both ends too ... so the track itself must be point-less (pun intended)

Given that it is in free-fall, how do they decide when to fire the engines to raise orbit?

Is there a rule of thumb that says a GSLV must have greater lift capability than a PSLV? Merely a matter of greater altitude to GEO/GSO?

RhysW

13:48

@TildalWave you here?

TildalWave

@RhysW aye

I've just raised a flag on Astro

RhysW

Got a Q for U

TildalWave

that questions is about rocket stage performance and Hohmann transfer orbits and so on

@RhysW shoot

(not too fast) :P

RhysW

i have a big file, i want to send it to home, but its too big for my memory stick, or drop box, or email or skydrive

TildalWave

@RhysW arj it into split packages, email one by one

I mean rar it

arj is a memory long gone LOL ... I'm just old and forget sometimes we're not 20 years in the past :)

Actually, if it's compressible it might even fit then on your memory stick

RhysW

13:56

@TildalWave compressed already

TildalWave

by which you probably meant USB flash / thumb drive?

RhysW

it started out 10gb bigger

TildalWave

weren't "memory sticks" some Sony's invention to keep us all buying their proprietary designs?

@RhysW Ok repack it then... no need to unpack first, just fire up your RAR and go in advanced options and set the individual package size

it's actually on the main compress page ... "split to volumes, bytes" dropdown with some default values and you can input any other you want

I'd give you space on my server, but I have a problem with upload speed ... it's crap since I last moved

RhysW

ah found the plit option

5mb is the closest i can get to what i need...

40gb split into 5mb chunks, this will take some time

TildalWave

@RhysW God, are you sure?

RhysW

14:09

@TildalWave unfortunately!

will load half up onto the stick then load the other half aother time, and make 2 trips

TildalWave

@RhysW can't you split by size of your stick first?

put a large chunk on the stick, then split the rest of it further?

@RhysW ah yes... that'd do

or borrow another stick

RhysW

@TildalWave yeah took me a while to think of that

TildalWave

@RhysW welcome to ... whatever age you are :P

RhysW

19...

i cant even count as old by any definition!

PearsonArtPhoto

I suspect this article can provide some help with this weeks TOTW: nasaspaceflight.com/2013/11/india-mars-debut-pslv-mom

Actually, for the very reason that MOM was launched this week makes that a good TOTW for this week.

RhysW

14:17

there are lots of tags this week

TildalWave

hehe true

RhysW

have you done a search using every tag at once to count total questions, so you can do a before and afteR?

TildalWave

we didn't even touch some

@RhysW I think it'll be easier just to count directly from the list of questions sorted by date ;)

PearsonArtPhoto

It's obvious that the TOTW adds 10-20 questions on that topic on a good week, and maybe not quite as many on a bad, but it still has a positive effect.

TildalWave

I agree, it's a good scheme

@PearsonArtPhoto hehe you asked a question and then marked it as a duplicate 5 minutes later?

Stack Exchange

14:26

NASA Image of the Day: Soyuz Rocket Ready to Launch New Station Crew

posted on November 05, 2013

The Soyuz TMA-11M rocket, adorned with the logo of the Sochi Olympic Organizing Committee and other related artwork, is seen in this long exposure photograph, as the service structure arms are raised into position at the launch pad on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013, Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for November 7 and will send Expedition 38 Soyuz Commander Mikha…

PearsonArtPhoto

Yeah, it didn't show up as a dupe in my search, but I noticed it later.

TildalWave

Who in hell downvoted my request for 1000+ questions by year end? How is that even "downvotable"?

I don't even know what a downvote there could mean :O

@PearsonArtPhoto I posted here some link that has a really bad layout but is full of interesting questions re this week's topic ... well, it's not listing questions directly, but it could serve as a template for many... I'll try and find it

spacenews.com/article/…

PearsonArtPhoto

I love how the ISRO mission is MOM.

Undo

14:58

@Undo: That'll be hard, as there is at least a 6 month pipeline to graduating a site, so far as I can tell right now... IE, SE decides to graduate you, and 6 months later you will be graduated — PearsonArtPhoto 43 mins ago

@Pearson We do not do it because it is easy, we do it because it is hard.

<\poetmode>

TildalWave

What he's saying though is we could be ready somewhere in the middle of the next year (doubtful) and still not graduate by 2015 because it's not merely a flick of a switch

And who's gonna do our design? Jin is the one to ask but last I read he was "all over the place" and also active with Careers 2.0

Undo

I know, I know... But it would be a good challenge (I would call 'getting started in the pipeline' graduating, we achieved our goal.)

Ooh ooh, I'll do the design! Nothing says anyone will like it... But I'll still do it!

TildalWave

you mean milestone?

Undo

And they actually hired another guy to do the PFM design.

TildalWave

I know, tho I suspect Jin still had fingers in that pie too

Undo

15:04

@Tildal Milestone, goal... Pretty interchangeable in that case. I think we both know that what we really want is a graduated site, after that it's just about keeping it running.

PearsonArtPhoto

Senior Product Designer

Stack Exchange

designuiuxcss

Stack Exchange is a fast-growing, VC-funded startup with over 35 million monthly visitors. We’re looking for a…

Posted on Careers 2.0 on May 28, 2013

TildalWave

@Undo yup that's the idea... but the problem is there's not much more to ask of those that are already fairly active... we'll need time so others join us, since we can't whack them on their heads and drag by the hairs to make them move in our cave, can we? :)

Undo

I have the bat.

TildalWave

Me too, but they're not much help from the LEO are they?

Undo

I vote that we make a random redirect for Stack a Overflow that sends every other visitor here.

PearsonArtPhoto

15:07

I'm not sure what the pipeline is, but I know there's a site still waiting to graduate, with the decision made mid June.

19

A: Why is Graphic Design still Beta?

Graphic Design will graduate... as soon as our designer Jin can get the new skin together. It's currently in line behind two other soon-to-graduate sites. I hadn't mentioned it because it still could be a while yet - Jin is only human! - and we didn't want to get anyone's hopes up. But, since yo...

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto This reads like Jin wrote it :)

Undo

Our q/day would go up, not necessarily the way we wanted it to, though.

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto because it's not easy to create a graphic design for a site named Graphic Design?

PearsonArtPhoto

Perhaps, but there's still 2 other sites ahead of GD, and there hasn't been a launch in 5 months...

Undo

They should just make the five highest-rep users do it.

PearsonArtPhoto

15:09

Just please don't make the moderators do it;-)

Undo

Lol

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto I got the impression that they involved Jin with Careers 2.0 a lot ... perhaps even too much? But Jin should be the judge of that actually, maybe he loves it (:))

PearsonArtPhoto

The real problem is there's one @Jin, and something like 100 beta sites, not to mention a similar number of launched sites.

TildalWave

yup that too

PearsonArtPhoto

Not to mention other stuff too.

Jin is probably one of, if not the, most worked people at Stack Exchange. They keep trying to hire someone to help him out, but there hasn't been a whole lot of luck so far...

Undo

15:12

The IAU ban came after the 'redefinition of 'planet' to include the IAU president's mom' incident.

TildalWave

well I still think that just not having that "beta" written all over the site would do a lot for it

@Undo (:))

Undo

Lol

PearsonArtPhoto

@TildalWave Yeah, that might be a conversation worth having. Hmmm...

TildalWave

~~=(: )~~

Undo

^ Looks like one of those pressurized cake-frosting tubes.

TildalWave

15:15

That "beta" sign there tells to people "we might not be around for long" so it drags the whole site down with it ... something about that should change, maybe even have an intermediate stage

Undo

\__/\__/

^Sombrero emoticon!

PearsonArtPhoto

Once a site is launched, Jin's pressure is down somewhat, but there's still a number of things that end up happening. Arqade seems to get a temporary re-design on a yearly basis if not more, for instance, there was the Hats thing last year (And no doubt this year), etc.

TildalWave

}:)>

PearsonArtPhoto

I bet Jin spends more than half his time working on maintenance tasks...

Undo

I'd like to shadow Jin for a day.

See what goes in to making an SE design.

TildalWave

15:17

@PearsonArtPhoto I didn't see him around in a long time ... he used to come to chats more frequently

Undo

@Tildal He was in the Apple.SE chat during the Oct. 22 Keynote.

TildalWave

@Undo stuffing a great idea into a minimalistic layout?

PearsonArtPhoto

There again, there's 100 sites, and one Jin...

TildalWave

There can be only one Jin!

Undo

@Pearson Scifi needs to clone him.

You can do that, right?

TildalWave

15:19

PearsonArtPhoto

I did pin the job listing in GD chat for a month or so, but no one around there was a good enough designer to tackle it.

TildalWave

before anyone asks, that's a doll there under the frame :P

PearsonArtPhoto

GD doesn't have many real designers there.

TildalWave

that hilarious actually

I mean the previous one

PearsonArtPhoto

I take it back, there's apparently 110 SE sites. Not sure if that includes beta...

Undo

15:37

@PearsonArtPhoto It does.

TildalWave

Oh and I thought we're a rare collector's item :(

PearsonArtPhoto

Okay, so there's 41 launched, 67 beta, or something like that.

TildalWave

how many in GEO?

(launched but language localized)

Undo

PearsonArtPhoto

TildalWave

15:41

hehe

PearsonArtPhoto

Just them.

No, I'm not sure, but I guess 1-2 at most.

TildalWave

I mean like ... oh dunno, sites in Polish? Chinese? Really, I haven't a clue how many of those are there?

PearsonArtPhoto

I don't think most of them have launched yet, they are pending a big update.

TildalWave

Oh... possible. I didn't follow since I saw them in A51

PearsonArtPhoto

4

Q: What was the 100th Stack Exchange site?

I just noticed that according to the main SE site, there's 110 SE sites. Which one was the 100th site?

discussion all-sites

TildalWave

15:45

Funny about Geographic Information Systems that it should be right up my alley but I kinda tired of it, at least from computing and theoretical point of view. My most fond memories are now from being on the orthophoto plane a few times

@PearsonArtPhoto you think it might be SEx.SE?

PearsonArtPhoto

It's not, I'm sure of that.

At best, we're #104 or something, but they are still trying to figure it out.

If you count deleted sites, that number is no doubt quite a bit higher.

TildalWave

anyway, nice question ... mSO is now busy, let's hope we get a few minutes of peace elsewhere... it's almost like sending kids somewhere so mummy and daddy can have a bit of quality time together LOL :)

Undo

16:03

Space.SE just passed SO for me!

TildalWave

16:29

@Undo huh I have more rep on Astro than you? When did that happen? :O

I was sure I was somewhere in the 3rd maybe 4th row

I get it, I think I was always looking just at the default filter, which would be usually per week or per month...

@Undo how come you have 8 gold badges on SO?

Undo

@TildalWave Because I'm awesome.

TildalWave

I didn't say you're not ... and bloody hell, I thought that "unsung hero" badge is just a list filler, you're saying people actually get those?

PearsonArtPhoto

I have it on SO too;-)

TildalWave

I don't really get its description

PearsonArtPhoto

PearsonArtPhoto, Ashburn, VA

9.7k 4 22 51

android java matlab python android-layout c++ android-intent

TildalWave

16:39

> Zero score accepted answers: more than 10 and 25% of total

PearsonArtPhoto

Basically, it means you have a lot of accepted answers without upvotes.

TildalWave

what not even by the one that accepted it?

oh... newbs

PearsonArtPhoto

You have to have at least 10 accepted answers with 0 score, and 25% of your 0 score answers are accepted.

Yeah, newbies is the primary source of such answers.

TildalWave

I always forget members need to reach a privilege to upvote

PearsonArtPhoto

It's been so long since I've been to a SE site that I couldn't upvote...

TildalWave

16:41

Anyway, I can't really see it possible here

PearsonArtPhoto

SO is one of the very few sites where it is possible to earn that badge.

TildalWave

yup I'd imagine so ... maybe Super User also, but Server Fault is already out ... I'm still gonna check tho

ha

> Awarded 56 times

on SF

PearsonArtPhoto

Math

Physics (1)

TildalWave

Super User: 42 times

I thought it'd be more there than on SF

PearsonArtPhoto

I can't find any other sites.

TildalWave

16:44

none on SecSE

PearsonArtPhoto

Ask Ubuntu

TildalWave

yeah? Interesting, because U&L has none

PearsonArtPhoto

Ask Ubuntu is quite a bit more popular than U&L

TildalWave

possible, but I'd find most useful info on U&L

rarely I find something on AU

PearsonArtPhoto

There might be others, but that's enough.

Donald.McLean

16:49

@TildalWave If I wasted some more time on SO I could get one fairly quickly.

PearsonArtPhoto

That's how I got mine, wasting too much time on SO...

TildalWave

I have only 9 answers with no score and 2 out of those accepted ... out of a total of 43

PearsonArtPhoto

There is not a site launched after us that has higher traffic than we do. That's good, so far:-)

TildalWave

I wasn't active with answers on SO since long ago ... I'd post a comment here and there tho

Undo

Oy, Space.SE site theme here, still very crude - but it's a start. Anyone here that wants commit access can have it!

github.com/Undo1/Space.SE-Theme

Actually, it would work for any beta site.

TildalWave

16:54

@Undo that "still very crude - but it's a start" doesn't sell it to me ... you should say "it's really great, you have to check it out" or something

Undo

Oh, @TildalWave, forgot. Just a minute...

This is the best theme ever!

^Better?

TildalWave

Certainly

let me check it then :P

ManishEarth

@Undo me!

TildalWave

Orange and Red? I think they're too bright

ManishEarth

I'm already working on a Chem.SE theme

Make it similar to SciFi

Undo

16:57

@ManishEarth Ok, uhh... how do I give you access?

I'm... kind of new to this.

ManishEarth

Manishearth. Add me to the repo

There's a settings button somewhere

Undo

Did that do it?

ManishEarth

yep

Undo

Wow, that looks nice.

ManishEarth

The backgeound is random, one day I'll get a better one

Everyone

17:17

a better what?

Undo

@Everyone A better background.

Everyone

Whom for?

Undo

@Everyone Manish is making a custom Chem.SE theme.

Everyone

Is that safe?

A custom theme for himself, or for the public at large?

Undo

@Everyone For the public at large - it's just some custom CSS.

Everyone

17:23

'k. that one up top?

looks a high-contrast scheme ... not for me old eyes |+:

TildalWave

17:38

@Everyone LOL

Everyone

q+:

Everyone

18:07

What's this 'leaderboard' thingy?

PearsonArtPhoto

20:38

I really get annoyed with the "50% Mars Mission" success rate.

It was only so low because the Russians used really crummy rockets to get there. The US success rate is in the 80% or higher, I believe.

I might go edit the Wikipedia article to reflect that. Hmmm...

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto Well looking at past 15 years of Mars exploration, the success rate is a lot higher

PearsonArtPhoto

That's because the Soviets haven't sent many;-)

Seriously, the rates are so terrible because USSR launched 8, with 5 rocket failures, in the first decade...

Exploration of Mars

The exploration of Mars has taken place over hundreds of years, beginning in earnest with the invention and development of the telescope during the 1600s. Increasingly detailed views of the planet from Earth inspired speculation about its environment and possible life – even intelligent civilizations – that might be found there. Probes sent from Earth beginning in the late 20th century have yielded a dramatic increase in knowledge about the Martian system, focused primarily on understanding its geology and possible habitability potential. Engineering interplanetary journeys is very ...

TildalWave

actually last 20 years have been pretty good

PearsonArtPhoto

Nice.

TildalWave

it's not updated for the last few but yeah it shows who was the most responsible for failures good enough

PearsonArtPhoto

20:51

I'm up to 1990, US has a 71% success rate, Russia a 10% success rate.

Higher if you count partials for Russia...

90's were a bad time for US and Mars...

Wow, my numbers show an overall success rate of 36%, but 70% for the US.

TildalWave

it's getting better and we have devised new ways to land there and so on ... I'd say we're fine on out track to actually send people there in the next 25 years or so ... I'll be an old man by then, but hey old age medication is getting better too LOL

PearsonArtPhoto

Of the failures, there was 11 launch failures...

TildalWave

I think we better not start crunching the numbers for Venus LOL ... to think just how many Venera probes didn't do anything useful because of failed lens caps, my head spins

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