The Pod Bay

geoffc

00:12

Passover in April.

Stack Exchange

05:43

astrobites: Fomalhaut’s Little Sibling Has a Debris Disk Too

posted on December 31, 2013 by Nick Ballering

A new debris disk is discovered by the Herschel Space Telescope around the red dwarf tertiary star in the famous Fomalhaut system.

PearsonArtPhoto

14:56

@TildalWave: I tried to answer your question, and gave up...

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto which one?

PearsonArtPhoto

5

Q: How much delta-v can be achieved by venting the ISS atmosphere?

A sort-of follow-up to What do the astronauts do whilst the air-lock cycles? The ISS fact-sheet writes to say Pressurized Volume: 32,333 cubic feet (916 cubic meters) Elsewhere on the stack are mentions of ISS maneuver to avoid space debris. So I let my mind free-wheel and came up with t...

I couldn't get the differential equation to come out right... Sigh. It's been too long...

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto ah, not my question :P I just edited it hehe

PearsonArtPhoto

Oh, never mind then...

TildalWave

it's OK

PearsonArtPhoto

14:57

It's @Everyone's fault...

TildalWave

we'd need atmosphere mass vs mass of the rest

PearsonArtPhoto

I got both of those figured out.

TildalWave

and then the easiest would be to just assume some time for complete decompression

PearsonArtPhoto

The thing I couldn't figure out was how to get force from that. I know P=F/A, but somehow that doesn't seem quite right to getting this.

TildalWave

and don't forget to mention that the life support would first have to be shut down :)

PearsonArtPhoto

14:59

Intuitively area doesn't seem to matter, but I can't figure out how to cancel it out...

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto Thrust equation? And you get Newtons / second?

PearsonArtPhoto

I must just not quite be a rocket scientist....

TildalWave

grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/thrsteq.html

PearsonArtPhoto

So to really figure it out you have to provide an area...

TildalWave

@PearsonArtPhoto it's the last day of the old year, nobody is really a "scientist" today unless it's some other propellants we're talking of :)

PearsonArtPhoto

15:03

In any case, back to my program...

Undo

This week's TOTW (December 29 - January 4): soyuz

Stack Exchange

15:30

NASA Image of the Day: Quiet Corona and Upper Transition Region of the Sun

posted on December 31, 2013

This image, taken on Dec. 31, 2013 by the AIA instrument on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory at 171 Angstrom, shows the current conditions of the quiet corona and upper transition region of the Sun. Image Credit: NASA/SDO

TildalWave

15:44

@Undo Cheers! I forgot to put it here too, didn't I? :D

Undo

@TildalWave Hehe :D

TildalWave

16:00

I also selected topic for the first three weeks in 2014 (based on votes, ordered by feeling™ :P)

geoffc

16:46

universetoday.com/107505/…

That link was SpaceX plans two abort tests this year. We knew that, but nice to see still on track. Pad Abort and Max-Q abort.

Spaceship 2 powered flight video: parabolicarc.com/2013/12/31/video-spaceshiptwo-wild-ride

TildalWave

Cool, wait does OS do human rating tests in 2014 too?

oh, and if all goes well we should see first SLS test launch too, 2014 is gonna be really cool

geoffc

2014 is Orion on D-4-H not on SLS.

SLS test launch is 2017.

My wager, SLS will never fly seriously. once every 4 years? Who are we kidding. By the time we get to launch #3 in 2023, SpaceX will have a way cheaper heavy lift flying regularly, if there really is a market. SLS is a jobs program,.

TildalWave

@geoffc ah yes that, sorry

geoffc

17:01

D4H launches are cool. The rocket cores are on fire, as they launch. Freaky cool.

But SLS is a waste of time. Orion is a useful project. But it is way too heavy for serious use.

TildalWave

they've been trying to minimize that with ignition sequence somewhat, and IIRC they changed the "paintwork" but it still had some ... khhhmmm.... "additional flames" during the last launches

moar nitro purge moar sprinklers !! hehe

geoffc

Not sure why they do not just use sparklers, like on the shuttle...

Actually, that is a question. Excuse me why I do ask. :)

TildalWave

I'm completely in the dark re their launchpads so... no clue

unless I start researching it

but since they're commercial I doubt they'd publish much more than they have to if it's not in their favor

geoffc

17:21

Who gets to edit/approve Tag wiki stuff? I do not see it in Review, when I click...

(Is there a specific permission you need? Other than moderator?)

Undo

17:32

@geoffc It shows up in Suggested Edits.

geoffc

@undo Thank you! Interesting. Never seen one come up before.

There is a badge, for creating a new tag, that gets used X number of times, right?

Undo

Yup

geoffc

(Its all about the points and badges...)

(Thus I like getting into a site early to make as many tags as possible!!! Though I do not think I have yet to earn such a badge anywhere...)

Everyone

@TildalWave No copy. Pse rpt

@geoffc Example of a nude joke please?

geoffc

@Everyone Sorry. Context to your request please? I forget what the context of a nude joke is, here.

TildalWave

17:38

@Everyone Shouldn't you be preparing for the New Year's? It' like 52 minutes left...

or maybe, that's where those posts come from LOL

some instructions how to prepare ....

►

geoffc

I am sitting in NYC, 40th and 7th, south end of Times Square. I need to get out of the office, really soon, since it is already crazy full of people down there, and they start closing streets pretty soon.

Sadly, our office does not have a view at all. Else it would be an awesome place to watch the party. Warm, coffee, washroom, water, can get food delivered... :)

Everyone

@geoffc Your comment - What do astronauts do whilst they wait for the lock to cycle?

geoffc

@Everyone Ah.

Everyone

@TildalWave I'm too sleepy, and simultaneously wound-up to actually relax

geoffc

I said RUDE not NUDE. :)

Everyone

17:42

Prolly the only way I'll be able to sleep will be to tire me eyes out

@geoffc You're right ... but ... it looks like 'nude'; failing faculties at my end

googles NYC address 40th and 7th :P

Found it!

It's an address in NYC :P

geoffc

Sadly, Al Sharptons office is right above us. What a horrible person.

Everyone

AL, or AI?

geoffc

@Everyone sorry, I am used to giving addresses that way, without remembering to derefernce it to being an address. :)

@Every

@Everyone No I. :)

Al has no I.

Everyone

hehe just ojking

So who is Al Sharpton?

Are there any sub-atomic particles that do not have spin?

TildalWave

@Everyone pions?

geoffc

17:49

Al Sharpton makes his living race hustling, being a grievance monger. Everything that happens is somehow race related. He has been caught making the crap up several times, and people have been killed in rioting that has ensued as a result. Not a very nice person.

Everyone

Very few journalists are ...

TildalWave

also Higgs

Everyone

@TildalWave googles pions

Hmmmm.. Wikipedia's pions gives me an idea. How far are we from your 1K target?

TildalWave

@Everyone it's our target ... that I set :P

17 more

good luck :)

Everyone

(+; How much mass could the CERN facility toss as far as the K-line?

Want to build on the idea? I'm too distracted to do aught research

Of course ... CERN would have to be constructed perpendicular to it's current orientation first

TildalWave

18:19

@Everyone no need for that I'm sure they can exit Earth at 4 TeV even horizontally

Everyone

But how much mass can they provide that acceleration to?

TildalWave

that nearly the speed of light

for protons

LHC provides 4 TeV per beam

Everyone

Not protons; something heavier ... like an astronaut+shielding is what I have in mind

geoffc

@Everyone are you suggesting a launch system, powered by protons approaching light speed, impacting on a platform to provide thrust.

TildalWave

@Everyone sure, proton by proton with in-orbit assembly :)

geoffc

18:22

That seems ill advised.

Like Laser propulsion, just heavier particles? :)

Everyone

I have no complaints :P

TildalWave

it's no coincidence it was built in Switzerland :P

geoffc

Geez, what is th ekinetic energy of a proton impacting anything at light speed.

Everyone

@geoffc I did mention shielding ...

Agreed it's a pretty raw idea at the moment though

geoffc

Hmm proton is 10 to the negative 27 KG. And lightspeed is 10 ^ 9 m/s? KE=1/2 mv^2, so 10^18 or so for v^2, ok, so 10^-9

Everyone

18:25

Still ...

geoffc

I think I would prefer to be pretty far away when testing.

TildalWave

@Everyone can't use that for acceleration of other mass particles, not in terms of "thrust" at least

geoffc

So can CERN deliver a continuous stream of protons? I imagine it accelarates a packet of them, taking many many revolutions to get up to speed, and cannot continually intake particles to accelarter.

@TildalWave Momentum transfer upon collision.

Everyone

@TildalWave That's why I asked how much mass )+:

TildalWave

@geoffc no ... it's not in the realm of Newtonian physics any more

geoffc

18:27

Good point.

Everyone

@geoffc true . I didn't think of that

geoffc

Ah, mass increases due to relatavistic effects?

Everyone

@TildalWave I talking through me hat again?

geoffc

How close does CERN get to c?

TildalWave

indeed

Everyone

18:27

sigh

TildalWave

dunno, pretty close, but not close enough to suck all of it into a black hole :)

geoffc

How big an effect is it? Actually, that only makes it better, doesn't it? :) The protons carry more mass when they collide to transfer moemntum with?

Everyone

@geoffc pretty high; of the order of double-digit percentages iirc

geoffc

Excellent, so your plan gets better. :)

TildalWave

if you really had a mass particle at v = c then it would suck matter around it at the speed of light

Everyone

18:29

Call it the sucker idea then \+:

TildalWave

.... yes

geoffc

@TildalWave But that is silly, we accept c is unattainable. Just close to C. Now does it really suck mass? I thought the energy inputted to get closer and closer to C basically converts to mass at that point.

Not that it eats mass from around it.

Everyone

And the clock says 00:00:00

TildalWave

@geoffc well, you'd need infinite amount of energy to achieve that anyway, so we'll never know

Everyone

Welcome to the new morn, all

geoffc

18:30

So ignore 100% c. And go with 98% C and still.

TildalWave

@geoffc OK, yes but I wouldn't want any of the matter I'd like intact interact with that

so ... no for a launch system

some relativistic side-effects might be exploitable tho

e.g. Alcubierre drive

Everyone

googles alcubierre

TildalWave

@Everyone c'mon we have a tag even

geoffc

Crap, looks like the POrt Authority bus terminal is shutting down... Crap, gotta get out of the city before I get stuck here. :)

TildalWave

@Everyone I'll add the new tag I added to some older posts for you ;)

it's alcubierre-drive

Everyone

18:33

@geoffc Ciao! Happy Year !

@tilda q+: opportunist!

what is negative mass??

TildalWave

@Everyone always :)

@Everyone -m

LOL

Everyone

glares

TildalWave

Negative mass

In theoretical physics, negative mass is a hypothetical concept of matter whose mass is of opposite sign to the mass of normal matter, e.g. −2 kg. Such matter would violate one or more energy conditions and show some strange properties, stemming from the ambiguity as to whether attraction should refer to force or the oppositely oriented acceleration for negative mass. It is used in certain speculative theories, such as on the construction of wormholes. The closest known real representative of such exotic matter is a region of pseudo-negative pressure density produced by the Casimir effect. ...

Everyone

I've got this weird thought germinating ...

TildalWave

@Everyone BTW Happy New Year!

Everyone

18:43

Took your time about it, didn't you? q+:

J/k (+: Wish you, your people, and the pod bay a most fulfilling 2014 AD of the Gregorian Calendar!

geoffc

Nope, misleading message. On the bus now.

Everyone

Is that anything like 'On the wagon'?

geoffc

In the Lincoln tunnel now.

So glad they added cell coverage into the tunnel! :)

My first time through the Lincoln Tunnel, I rolled down the window, and the car fulll of New Yorkers yelled at me. What did I know?

I have run the tunnel, in April, Special Olympics does a 5K rqace through the tunnel. I have done it 5 times, and I do the race twice, since they allow it.

Donald.McLean

Only time I've ever been through the Lincoln tunnel was in a bus without user adjustable windows.

geoffc

I have biked the north tube (Run is through the south tube). (Three tubes, 2 lanes each. Only been in a car/bus through the middle tube)

They vent the entire air volume of the tunnel, every 90 seconds, so not like you are going to have trouble breathing. Also, cars leak like sieves in terms of air.

Everyone

18:49

Why did they yell?

'o @Donald

geoffc

If you run, and can make it, try the 5K through the tunnel. You start in the toll plaza on the NJ side. Race starts at the beginning of the tunnel mouth. You get to Manhattan, come 30 feet out into daylight, turn around to return. 2.5K long tunnel.

@Everyone They thought the fumes would kill them. Or some such nonsense.

Apparently everyone in NY knows you do NOT roll down the windows in the tunnel. I am Canadan, only been here 7 years. And that was 7 years ago. :)

(I always came across the GW Bridge before. Now I use the tunnel for my bus ride often).

I now mostly bike across the GW. That is interesting. 300 foot vertical to get up trhe hill to the GW. Long slog of a bike climb.

Very steep. 12% and higher in places.

And kept getting dropped down to 1Xrtt, which is like Edge data rates.

TildalWave

OK, seems they're already giving the 2014 hat for starred chat message New Year's Day

So...

What does a man here have to do to get a star?

Everyone

Hm

Why don't they leave the windows open on one ride then? Just to test the theory?

@TildalWave That.

@geoffc as in motor-bike?

TildalWave

Hehe cheers! I starred some of all of you too... we get fancy specs :)

geoffc

@Everyone So you are suggesting Car-tunnel-Russian-Roullete to experiment with a theory, when your life is on the line?

Silly people.

Your motor cycle example is the perfect counter example.

Of course there is no issue. They are long time NY'ers and their parents told them not too, and they never questioned the issue.

Everyone

18:59

Well ... to be on the safe-side they could have alternate windows open instead

Reminds me of this cartoon I saw; Two boot-leggers are discussing honesty. One claims he is more honest than his friend because he has less warrants against him than the other. lol

TildalWave

Happy New Year @ManishEarth!

ManishEarth

Happy new year to you too! ... in a few hours maybe :p

Waffle's Crazy Peanut

Happy New Year people!!! :D

geoffc

Tildal: What is the timing of the Hat re-calc? I did not get my New Years chat starred one yet.

Oops my stop is next.

TildalWave

@ManishEarth in 4 hours CET

geoffc

19:03

Back on the other side.

ManishEarth

@geoffc It's every 10 mins or so

Everyone

'o @Mani. 'Morning lad

ManishEarth

'o

TildalWave

There, have a hat!

Waffle's Crazy Peanut

@TildalWave Who? For me?

Everyone

19:03

@geoffc Which side is front then?

TildalWave

well... goggles

make a "spectacle" of yourself :P

@Waffle'sCrazyPeanut you too

ManishEarth

@TildalWave already have it twice :p

Waffle's Crazy Peanut

I guess this is the first time @TildalWave has ever done a nice job. He has starred my msg :D

TildalWave

@ManishEarth not on Space

ours are special

ManishEarth

HAAAATS IIIIN SPAAAAACE

5

TildalWave

19:05

@Waffle'sCrazyPeanut HNY!

Everyone

I knew the day would come when everyone else in The Pod Bay would be talking through their hats ... it was inevitable

TildalWave

if we star every message, then we can make the chat really narrow and fit on mobiles

Everyone

The solution then is to have a 'black-hole' to counter the 'star'

Donald.McLean

19:24

Unfortunately, the "First" hat doesn't fit on my picture. The eye holes are in the wrong place.

TildalWave

@Donald.McLean Heh, does that matter? They should look silly, which they do...

Donald.McLean

@TildalWave Perhaps, but three of the hats actually fit my picture.

Everyone

Right. I'm off ot bed' nini

Waffle's Crazy Peanut

@Everyone G'night :D

Undo

21:16

I had no idea what to tag this:

0

Q: What 'contributions' could this private company have made to Boeing?

I was traveling through Nevada when I stopped to eat at Windmill Ridge - a motel / resturaunt combo thing. I noticed this plaque on the wall: "In recognition of your contributions to the success of the Boeing Commercial Crew Transportation System program to develop a U.S. capability to carr...

boeing

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