The Pod Bay

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TildalWave

12:21 AM

This week's TOTW (Nov 24-30): spaceport launch-site launchpad launch-escape-system

3 hours later…

Donald.McLean

3:22 AM

@Undo We'll take it off your hands, no problem.

6 hours later…

TildalWave

9:15 AM

not every troll is chimp-worthy :D

David Freitag

10:01 AM

@TildalWave That is freaking hysterical

TildalWave

@DavidFreitag You know what's even more hysterical? That the guy's tweet was retweeted nearly 14k times and favorited 11.5k times, and not a single one of those bothered to comment, feed the troll. :)

1 hour later…

TildalWave

11:25 AM

OK I put us back on average 4 question per day, at least according to A51 (in reality, the stats are better, but that's a "statistical trend"). Now go answer some! :P

James Jenkins

@TildalWave after looking at space.stackexchange.com/questions/2886/… I think the OP was asking a question that was very basic and your comments are asking for clarification of a much higher level question. I provided the simple answer.

TildalWave

Should I post more questions about this weeks TOTW now, or rather wait a day or two? Sundays seem terribly slow, apparently some are enjoying better weather than we do in my stretch of the woods :O

@JamesJenkins Ah sure, thanks! I'll go read it then. I just asked for clarification from OP, and met with somewhat condescending resistance from him. Wasn't the nicest thing to read first thing in the morning, I have to say. :{

@JamesJenkins +1 but I thought you could add to that list "having sufficient quantity of catalysts or biomatter to extract oxygen from carbon dioxide onboard" ... something like that

As for abundance of oxygen elsewhere in Solar system, or Universe in general ... here's a relevant Wiki with all the numbers and references:

Abundance of the chemical elements

The abundance of a chemical element measures how relatively common (or rare) the element is, or how much of the element is present in a given environment by comparison to all other elements. Abundance may be variously measured by the mass-fraction (the same as weight fraction), or mole-fraction (fraction of atoms by numerical count, or sometimes fraction of molecules in gases), or by volume-fraction. Measurement by volume-fraction is a common abundance measure in mixed gases such as planetary atmospheres, and is close to molecular mole-fraction for ideal gas mixtures (i.e., gas mixtures at...

in particular, this logarithmic scale graph tells the story pretty good:

2 hours later…

Everyone

1:46 PM

has misgivings

TildalWave

2:08 PM

@Everyone ?

Everyone

2:38 PM

@TildalWave : Had stepped out . Sorry. Misgivings about the way that question was framed; the one about hushed up spacecraft launch

TildalWave

3:16 PM

@Everyone Ah feel free to improve it, if you think it could use any further clarification... I can't think of how to do that, my mind is currently in 20 places... 19 too many for a Sunday ;)

Everyone

Erm
p.s. _bleat_

btw, would you remember an incident on the simulator when Michael Collins figured out a way to re-enter safely even with failed retros?

Or was that someone else altogether; vague memory of something I read aeons ago

TildalWave

4:23 PM

@Everyone It rings some bells but I don't remember it exactly either. Wasn't that during the Gemini and not Apollo? IIRC Apollo didn't use retros for Lunar missions, tho they might have for earlier ones before 10? :|

Everyone

Was it during the Gemini? Let me check ... googles

TildalWave

Mercury even? Dunno...

Aurora 7? :D

Anyway, something tells me I should watch The Right Stuff again LOL

Everyone

Why watch The Right Stuff again?

Nope ... I can't find it on google, but seeing it rings bells for you too - it must have been there somewhere

Didn't some wise man say "Seek, and ye shall find"?

TildalWave

4:47 PM

@Everyone Wise men say a lot of things, don't they? Like "patience is a virtue", "silence is golden", "all you need is love",...

Everyone

You're right. We need some Wise Women there too

TildalWave

There's apparently some "Chinese Long March 2D rocket launch" tonight

I'm not adding it to the schedule, live streams are highly unlikely

> Launch time: Approx. 02:15 GMT on 25th (9:15 p.m. EST on 24th)
Launch site: Jiuquan, China

A Chinese Long March 2D rocket will launch the Shiyan 5 experimental satellite.
http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html

Everyone

5:09 PM

Spacecraft/launch activity seems to be on the up ...

What would it take for an unmanned cargo carrier to have a launch escape system for it's satellites?

TildalWave

5:31 PM

@Everyone You'd probably have to remove the payload to accommodate the weight and space requirements of LES so it can still crash to Earth, only slower? Why would you do that when you can insure your payload and later build another one for half the cost and keep the other half of the insurance money? :D

Everyone

Yey! You mentioned insurance! Wheee (+:

TildalWave

Don't worry, I'm not going door to door with it :P

Everyone

That was probably one of my first questions on here, lol
I'll post this one then

TildalWave

Hey @ManishEarth where have you been lately? Last few days of the semester keeping you busy?

Everyone

There you go

TildalWave

5:36 PM

@Everyone There I go what? You posted something?

Everyone

Yep

"Why do any launch vehicles at present not include an l-e-s for their cargo?"

questions/2988

TildalWave

ah darn I just wanted to ask you to post it on meta so I can migrate it and we have one more place advertising our meta then, since it'd show where it came from LOL

Everyone

You may still ask (+: Want me to delete, and move it to meta?

TildalWave

neah too complicated now

Everyone

I'll put the other one there

(still thinking about how to word the question)

TildalWave

5:40 PM

You know it was a joke, right? But if you happen to post there "by mistake", I'll migrate it on the main site for you, no problem :)