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00:02
6
Q: Radiation shielding magnetic or mass, which is more efficient?

James JenkinsAs I understand it; being away from earth subjects you to significant health risks from radiation. On Earth most of this risk is deflected by Earth's magnetic field. I did not find a reference but presumably this magnetic field could be duplicated in a spaceship given sufficient energy. I also ...

I chose this one
@Undo hehe I can probably guess who wrote #4 without even looking
00:21
@Undo 4th one down, interesting!
0
Q: I want to recommend a book, or review it... How can i ask that in the form of a question?

geoffcI just got anatoly Zak's book on the Russian space program, and it is AWESOME! i would love to be able to recommend or review it. But I am at a loss of how to do so, in the format appropriate for the site? Can I ask it in the form of a question somehow? Maybe answer myself? What would be t...

00:41
@Undo LOL. That's twice that he's been asked today whether he's awake. @Manish Did you do something to offend the gods??
I'm curious; anybody remember the VAB?
'o @Rhys
01:18
@Everyone VAB? Véhicule de l'Avant Blindé?
glares @Tilda
Vehicle Ass Building
@Everyone the NASA one?
and if you're gonna use "Ass" then you could also use "Vertical" instead of "Vehicle" :P
q+: Is there even such a thing as a supine ass building?
hmpf
01:27
5
Q: Do any of the developing space programs use horizontal launcher assembly and launchpad loading?

TildalWaveDo 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...

Could use better answers tho
I remember that question q+: we talked about it in here before it was posted
It could. I'm tempted to wish there were actually some people from that cohort of space-faring/space-administering/astronautical related faculties in here
Anyway, back when VAB was constructed NASA itself was a developing program, right?
Btw, does acs.gov.br load?
@Everyone I wouldn't put it like that, because they did have a lot of activity before Saturn rockets too. Besides developing relative to who/what? There were the russkies and them at that time.
@Everyone No, because I haven't a clue what ACS is, unless it's supposed to be Attitude Control System :P Here: aeb.gov.br
That's what I meant - how many missions, or what type of missions, and in what proportion success/failure would a program need to be off what the 'developing-space-program' tag?
You realize it's not strict and that we could use other questions too, right? It's just to expose a bit more less frequently used tags, that's all. If you have questions that don't fit it, that's fine. If you would still want them to fit TOTW, then ask anyway and I'll pat your back telling you it's a perfect fit :P
@Tilda Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alc%C3%A2ntara_Launch_Center) mentions something called "Alcântara Cyclone Space" at that link
lol no, that was an aside - the bit about distinguishing a dev-program from a mature one
01:41
@Everyone they're all "developing" I'd hope
Blah. It's in portugese, or spanish
google translate
Say "maturing", and all the PC types will happily butter your toast at brekky ((+:
hah it's all flash and images site ... no google translate sorry
@Everyone I don't eat breakfasts :P
What was the motivation behind such a humongous VAB? How is it none of the others ever needed something on that scale?
breakfasts aren't eaten q+: they're savoured !
01:45
@Everyone I don't know, Saturn V was humongous and I guess they wanted two assemblies back to back? Dunno really
they had the money for it?
So the VAB was constructed merely for the Apollo program? Uh ...
it was the "bigger is better era"?
Tell me your curiosity is fulfilled, and i'll drop it (+:
(the question I mean, not the building)
I thought the whole KSC was built for Apollo?
Touche. So it was. Yet the Soviets ( granted they lagged eventually, and there were probably the arguments about economy ) didn't even consider something on that scale
01:50
BTW for AEB you might wanna check this PDF (it's in English): aeb.gov.br/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/PNAE-Ingles.pdf
For that matter, none of the later programs constructed a VAB on that scale
wp-content?? word-press?
site doesn't load
this is the assembly building that was used for Energia/Buran
and this is from inside
and the later one
They called it "Dynamic Testing Stand" whatever that means
So VAB isn't a one-offish thingy in terms of scale, and what it was designed for?
Dunno, but Russians certainly had a lot of hardware too
02:06
Anyone want some mSO rep? My bounty is about to expire on this question, and there aren't any answers.
:(
Alternate ways of doing it would be appreciated.
 
1 hour later…
03:19
Did someone just delete my profile, or something? "-10
User was removed " ?
Oo my poor tum. bbl again
03:50
@Everyone Nope - I have a -5 rep penalty on my profile too from a user being removed. puts down moderator punishment device
abck
Who was the user do you know?
We lost someone on the site who had voted for some of our posts.
No idea.
Definitely not our own profile, or something then
I looked through the list, but I gave up keeping track of all our users once we hit about 200.
No. We didn't do anything wrong :)
Serves you right for hitting our users q+:
j/k no offence
03:51
Lol
resumes campaign to hit users starting at #201
Ooh! Time to change the TOTW! Be right back.
Take your time. Any idea whether Alcântara has a geographical advantage over Kourou?
Uhh... No idea. Maybe some background?
Alcantara is Brazil's proposed launch station
03:55
This week's TOTW until November 17:
Dangit, I'm not smart enough to unpin Tildal's message :(
ISON. What other stars will ISON approach to approximately the same 1AU proximity?
Keep trying (+:
He'll eventually find it too trying to keep ahead of you, and give up hopefully
I'm on a tablet, and every time I try to hit to little arrow to bring up the menu, I hit one of those tags.
Are you on a desktop?
Or perhaps, Can we place a tracker in orbit around ISON and get a free high-velocity ride out of the Solar System?
Yep
Help!
I've been adbucted!
03:58
Try hovering over Tildal's pinned post, a little arrow shows up. Click it, unpin the message.
Awesome.
phew
For a moment there I thought I was being abducted
Lol.
well, this time you added Everyone - no reason for him to find fault with you
brb. I've got a case of the munchies
At least you didn't get hit by a bus or drop a paperweight on your foot.
Or get thrown into a school lunch table.
04:04
It's still your fault. All that adrenaline rush requires a great deal of energy
Got to go, i'm out of milk.
Perhaps I'll build on that ISON idea germ later. ciao
hides beneath a Roc
Bye! I've got to go too, adios!
Lucky for you I'm out of milk ... else I'd have shown that Roc q+:
04:51
@TildalWave You might want to do a cleanup of the comments section of my Mars answer. It was getting lengthy, so I migrated to chat, you can delete all the comments.
@vedantchandra Sure, just flag one as obsolete and I'll do the rest ... and you get one helpful flag out of it ;)
@TildalWave What happened to our most ethical way of functioning :O ;)
@vedantchandra I take it the chat you two used isn't needed any longer either?
@vedantchandra What do you mean?
@TildalWave No, we still need the chat, I haven't recieved any replies from him
@TildalWave Nothing, I was just making a joke about the helpful flag :)
@vedantchandra you can chat here, no need for a separate room at all ;)
04:56
Alright, then deletey-deletey please
@UV-D the "mars resources" related chat moved here ;)
just preserving the link ;)
Danke mucho, senor
@TildalWave Do you by any chance have a server running?
@vedantchandra yup, why?
I've been poking around the JS chat for a ChatBot I could install in SX chat
All we need is a running server
I thought, since we're in beta now, a big step to being a full-fledged site is having a bot
especially since our chat is so engaging and active as compared to many others
05:13
@vedantchandra Oh we have a bot ... it's just currently off and visits whenever he can be bothered
it's a Marvin type
05:30
@TildalWave I know, I was thinking we could have a permanent bot, Zirak type, summoned from another room
I'm asking in JavaScript, I'll see what they say
05:49
Well each morning (or whenever I wake up) when I open this room, I have hard time recognizing where I am, so sure, why not add another bot. Last time @ManishEarth added the Hissatron, I honestly thought I had a cerebral episode or something
I've set one up to test, type a command
BTW "bot" is short for a robot, which comes from Russian for "worker"... so, can this "worker" at least do something useful for a change? Last one was just spitting around a lot
@TildalWave Yeah, this is a new and updated fork that's a bit more subdued
06:04
@vedantchandra The bot user first has to be in the room, no?
16 messages moved to Trashcan
@TildalWave Exactly, that's what I'm negotiating with the JS folks
!!/listcommands
@vedantchandra Y U NO MAEK SENSE!? Could not understand !/listcommands (perhaps you meant to execute a command? If so, prepend the command name with a /)
/listcommands
!/listcommands
@vedantchandra birthday, unicorn, flip, docs, catgif, meow, cat, whoami, help, listen, eval, live, die, refresh, forget, ban, unban, info, jquery, choose, user, listcommands, purgecommands, define, norris, urban, parse, tell, mdn, accept, addid, awsm, beautify, convert, get, google, hang, karma, learn, mustache, nudge, reject, remove, spec, stat, timer, todo, undo, userquality (page 0/0)
IT WORKS!!
Okay, we have a working bot here now guys
Use !/ followed by your command
For example:
!/tell @TildalWave help
@vedantchandra Don't be annoying, drop the @, nobody likes a double-ping.
It has sass too..
!/google orbital mechanics
And we're done.
 
3 hours later…
08:53
@vedantchandra Hissatron is the same as Zirak's bot, just that I can't run it permanently
figuring out a way to run it server side once my sem gets over (i have a server)
FWIW, very few established sites have bots. Bots are fun, but they don't really help much in pushing us towards graduation.
@Undo now I am
09:53
Hmm, I can't run it permanently either..
I guess I'll put it on hold until you figure out your server situation
 
3 hours later…
12:30
What is the highest dV in space ever achieved by a craft from Earth?
 
2 hours later…
14:26
!/listcommands
14:39
/listcommands
no?
bleat
14:54
@ved I have a webserver that would be happy to host it, if you could figure out how...
6
A: What are the resource implications of the prevalence of supervolcanoes on Mars?

vedantchandraExistence of Essential Minerals on Mars Formation Mineral deposits are made through Volcanology. Under the crust of Mars, there is a massive collection of magma, consisting of an amalgamation of elements. Over thousands of years, the heaviest of these elements sink to the bottom. These include ...

^ Absolutely awesome answer. Go upvote it, people!
@Undo Steal a min? Any idea what are the fields listed on minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPCORB/Distant.txt? I'm just trying to find out what is the slowest asteroid on record
Hmm... Just a second...
@Everyone Where'd the linky come from?
Eh? My browser, you mean?
No no, where'd you find it?
I navigated into the mpc web-site
15:00
(/me is on tablet)
ooh
mpc.net > Observers > Orbital Elements
I'll run over to a desktop and see what I can do. Just a minute.
(I might even throw it into a SQL DB)
Sacrilege! Doesn't anybody use uhhhh (I forget the name of that bulk import utility we used back in 1999 - was it bcp) anymore?
16:05
@Undo Thank you so much :D
I really appreciate it
@Undo So you basically have to run a simple JS script in Firefox to boot the bot
Everything is accessed from a GitHub repo then, you don't need any local files
So can you run FireFox on your server?
@vedantchandra Never tried, but I could probably create a fake display
A better idea, IMO, is to use nodejs
No, it needs to be Firefox
Because the bot interacts with the page we're all seeing now
Yes
So?
There are ways to manage that in node
16:10
Yeah, but they get really complicated
All iterations of the bot are run off chatbot
I believe that Zirak's bot already has a way of integrating with node. Not sure, but there are some node-y things in the git repo
Who's gonna dig through that? Much simpler to use firefox
@vedantchandra ...and how would I run that?
it's a server
I have to allocate a dummy display to it, however
You won't, @Undo will
I was talking to Undo above
I can't initiate it without having a real display.
ah
Hmm, a userscript would work
for some reason apt-get install firefox doesn't work
ah, update
@vedantchandra The easier thing for me to do is to create a hidden display on one of my lab computers, and run Chrome/FF from there and leave it on
16:17
Yeah that would work!
Just that I need the time to do that :P
How long?
2weeks, because next two weeks I'm busy
I may do it this week if Im sufficiently bored
I'll basically do this
Okay that sounds awesome :D
Ping me when you're ready, I'll give you the details
@vedantchandra I know the details :P
16:23
Hahaha sorry then
But don't run the Zirak bot
Run this fork:
I already used to run Hissatron and I write a lot of userscripts
@vedantchandra why not?
I've noticed some bugs popping up here and there, but I know a fork that's really stable and unique
Also, Zirak's is really sassy and get's unnecessary sometimes
This one's personality is watered down, it's more functional
@vedantchandra which fork?
So just run the bookmarklet.js from there
What I plan on doing is creating a separate FF profile with GreaseMonkey and then writing a script that runs it on a new display created on tty8 or something
I can also then create a contingency in case one gets shut down
16:28
Wow, yeah
So if it borks, you have a backup
I already have some scripts that let me zombiefy the lab :P
Theoretically I can have this on each machine. Because once I create the FF profile for one, I can copy over the profile folder
Hey, it's my GitHub birthday! :P
Happy Birthday @ManishEarth!
17:22
what, again?
@ManishEarth at this rate of birthdays you'll soon catch up with some of our senior members, like you know who :D
 
1 hour later…
18:39
Interesting find: Brief on China's Space Strategy and Modernisation (PDF)
19:15
2
Q: How accurate is the patched conic approximation when performing a Hohmann interplanetary transfer?

user7388I've been making a Mathematica script whereby a spacecraft is transferred from Earth to Mars using a Hohmann interplanetary transfer by means of a patched conic approximation. As far as I can tell all of the equations and numbers should be correct, yet when running the code the spacecraft doesn'...

not sure if OT for us, but want?
19:40
heh found this when I was researching references for some Dan Neely's answer I was bumping up the list
@ManishEarth sure, move it over ;)
@TildalWave not moving it yet
@ManishEarth Ah.. OK then, when you will be moving it, move it then then :P
20:02
@Undo A mSO task for you... would you kindly ask for devs to add share buttons (you know, Twitter, FB, G+) to scheduled events? Also, I don't think that the Schedule Tab gets enough attention, so if they could find a way to stuff a link to it into the Community Bulletin box, that'd be neat ;)
What? Soyuz Expedition 37 deorbit burn & landing coverage chat room event. When? In 4 hours and a half. Where? In The Pod Bay (you are here)! Who? All the cool and SEx.SE Space Exploration kids :P
20:36
@TildalWave Mod-created events do show up in the community bulletin.
20:57
@Undo Aye, but I'd also like it to be easier to share it on Twitter. Since the length of the announcement is limited anyway, it shouldn't be a problem adding a link to it too. And getting to the room schedule isn't as easy as it could be either
I barely see any subscriptions to events
@Tildal True... Just a minute. I'll ask it on mSO as soon as I'm done dealing with this chemistry guy.
that's how you call your dealer? ;D
:D
There, done.
Live streams for the Soyuz Expedition 37/1 undocking, deorbit burn and landing are now available on NASA TV and NASA Public HD.
sorry, I hit enter too fast
:D
21:09
Also, if skies are clear where you are, you might wanna look up before that, see if some ESA's satellite called GOCE hits close to you :P
ESA's #SpaceDebris Office at ESOC: revised estimated #GOCE reentry window: 22:30-0:30 CET http://bit.ly/1cMw3g5
ducks
Bloody Europeans! :)))
They're taking over the world, one missile-shaped satellite at a time.
And I still didn't get any answer on ESA's Swarm either, that's due to launch in less than 2 weeks
that's 3 projectiles ;)
in LEO
strengthens personal Roc
21:12
> Officials say the risk of human casualties or property damage from falling GOCE debris is staggeringly low. You're 250,000 times more likely to hit the jackpot in the German Lotto, according to Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency's space debris office.
DANGIT! WHY DO THEY ALWAYS HAVE TO LAUNCH SATELLITES AND THINGS WHILE I'M GONE?
You're also much more likely to enjoy winning the German Lotto than being hit by a satellite
I have an event in three hours... to the minute.
And this will be the only time I have an event at that time on a Sunday!
The NSA must be sharing my schedule.
@Undo Nobody is launching anything tonight ... it's two landings, one hopefully soft and another one for certain that it won't be
Oh. Then WHY DO THEY HAVE TO DO SPACEY THINGS WHILE I'M GONE?
^That better? :P
21:15
hehe
"250,000x more likely to win the German Lotto jackpot than being hit by #GOCE"... wait, how many Germans play Lotto? http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1311/10goce/
0
Q: Share buttons for chat events!

UndoTildalWave recently had a great idea: Add share buttons to chat events! Here's a concept drawing of what I'd like it to be: Let's get rid of the export and delete links right after each title, and replace it with a chat-style popup-popper-upper: Which would popup a popup! Clicking share wo...

@TildalWave Did I get it right?
@Undo Oww, I had a great idea? Yes, cool thanks!
:D
It should be easy enough to do, so devs might like it, it would be another bullet point with the next update rollout LOL
Should be...
Can't believe no one has asked this before:
0
Q: Is GOCE designed to break up in the atmosphere?

UndoSoon, ESA is planning to deorbit GOCE, letting it burn up in the atmosphere. It seems this has been the plan for a long time - so why won't the satellite be completely annihilated into pieces small enough to not pose any threat at all? Was breaking up in the atmosphere a design criteria for GOCE?

21:33
@Undo Nice ... a question, would "fall apart" sound better than "break up"?
@TildalWave Not sure... your call.
dunno, I don't even speak English at all... I just type it :P
joking, I speak English all the time actually
lol
@TildalWave If there are any CM's lurking in TL, maybe you could show them that message above?
@Undo Sure, and I think I better delete it here too
@TildalWave eh, doesn't matter.
21:36
wait...
@Undo yes
Yeah, probably not a good thing. I can't read anything there, of course, so we're probably fine.
I'm more worried that I can
Ha, I could send myself a private beta invite!
OK folks at TL told me it's OK so... the site is in "private beta" but it's open to anyone, if they find it that is
@TildalWave I... uh... what?
Private === public now?
21:47
dunno... something about "not being worth the effort to try and keep people out"
I tried pretty hard to get into Space when it was in private... and I couldn't...
If you've ever been to an Italian discoteque, you'll know what I mean :D
Anyway, I'm out for a while. Bye!
21:59
@Tildal Explain twitter to me.
hahaha
@Undo Well you find stuff that interests you and you follow other accounts... then you get their tweets as a feed on the front page... or anything else they "stumble upon" and retweet from others... and you can of course write your own tweets. Topics are marked with # and work similar like here tags, you can attach photos, links, e.t.c. and the whole thing must be 140 char long or less.
To me, it has advantage over other social media that it doesn't require such involvement on my part, and I didn't see it having troll problems as much either
does that work for you?
Yup, works for me.
what the... ?
I'm getting 502 bad gateway for half of its API
22:15
Behind a firewall?
Nope, I can force it open with a few refreshes, it's just an overloaded server
People worried about it, as they should be.
and if they could use some units that would be awesome
What's "altitude: 125.80"? Of what?
Prob. Miles.
well it could be km as well, who knows?
22:18
But yeah. Ping minitech about it, have him write a nasty tweet about it.
They're quite amusing.
look, it's gonna be 0 either way when it's down, I don't wanna be too anal LOL
I think it's km because the speed seems to be in km/s (about the orbital speed of the ISS)
And why is it going up over Australia now? Warm air? :D
oh... elliptical orbit
22:51
NASA stream for the Soyuz Expedition 37 undocking, deorbit burn and landing starts in 10 minutes
23:34
we done?
for a few hours?
About an hour and a bit for the deorbit burn, I believe ... didn't listen to the stream, I was busy on Twitter telling ESA how great they are for not even bothering to include units in their GOCE tracking software LOL
I pay taxes for their programs, I can yell at them all I want :)
lol
@TildalWave didn't several craft get lost (IIRC on mars) due to unit-conversion failures ?
you'd think all the agencies would learn their lesson and have hard-fast rules about using units in everything :P
@RealzSlaw there were some fiascos like that yup ... not sure about several lost due to this tho ... you wanna ask @Pearson for that
you know, you should invite some ESA/NASA/chinese/russian space agency PR guys to answer Qs on space.SE
additionally, you can ask them to send an agency-wide email notifying employees about the site, so they can optionally answer questions
oh wow beautiful video now
They're invited like anyone else, tho if they wanted to do their PR the way they usually do their posts would likely be deleted
23:46
yeah they might be "invited" but they may not even know you exist
where abouts are they over now?
if their PR ppl know you exist, they might make a thing out of answering questions
50 some odd degrees over the equator
over water
watching from the station I think
its going over clouds over water, fast :D
should be somewhere over Atlantic about a good orbit before the deorbit burn
what happens to the solar panels I see
they are extended
those look like they'll break right off
hmmm didn't notice the last time, but I'd guess they're ejected before the burn
23:49
clouds are amazing
they're somewhere mid Pacific isstracker.com
off mongolia a few mins ago
@RealzSlaw yes? well that tracker is all screwed up then
either that or "a few minutes ago" means about 20 minutes

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