Science!! Fucking magnets, how do they work?

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I dunno about all that, but if we ever get to the point where we're dropping barn sized chunks of platinum into northeast Niger the results will be incredible. Seems like a miscalculation on a space mission is supposed to only endanger the astronauts. Changing that to roughly any 100 square mile location in the world is a huge step.
Hopefully they wouldn't be dropping asteroids or chunks that would affect 100 square miles. Break it up then send it on down.


Hmm.. a huge chunk of platinum landing in your back yard. A disaster that compensates the victims family at the same time?
 

Eomer

Trakanon Raider
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Yeah but besides science there's no reason to have stuff in space atm. Mining asteroids is perhaps the first step to having a reason to keep all kinds of shit in space.
It's somewhat chicken and egg, yes. But we can't even begin to comprehend what uses there might be for space based industrial production, just like pretty much every other major industrial invention in history.
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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It's somewhat chicken and egg, yes. But we can't even begin to comprehend what uses there might be for space based industrial production, just like pretty much every other major industrial invention in history.
agree 100%. I wish there was more government funding for this because that's one of the big roles of a modern government.
 

Xasten_sl

shitlord
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Yes, they have taken to wasting taxpayer money very well haven't they.
Many fields of research will only pay off after a long time. When this time horizon exceeds a certain time, say 30 or more years, the private market begins to experience distortions because investors don't want to put money into a project that will only pay off after they are dead. A huge return in 60 years is useless if you're dead.

You can argue all you want that government tends towards inefficiency, and I'll even agree with you. However, when the only two choices are government research and zero research, well, I think you can see the picture. Attitudes like this are the reason projects such as ITER, CERN, and others are chronically under funded. Private markets are becoming more and more relevant in space, and eventually NASA will have to change its mission parameters because private companies will become so good at rocketry and satellite maintenance. Until then, it absolutely is a legitimate government function to subsidize research into scientific frontiers that the free-market will not due to timeline and payoff distortions.

TLDR: If you're going to complain about wasted taxpayer dollars, at least pick a field that records investment losses. The contributions of NASA and similar veins of research to our society have been of immeasurable economic, social, and military benefit.
 

Heylel

Trakanon Raider
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How much do I have to donate for GA to lose his James Purefoy avatar? He doesn't deserve that shit.
 

Loser Araysar

Chief Russia Correspondent / Stock Pals CEO
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Many fields of research will only pay off after a long time. When this time horizon exceeds a certain time, say 30 or more years, the private market begins to experience distortions because investors don't want to put money into a project that will only pay off after they are dead. A huge return in 60 years is useless if you're dead.

You can argue all you want that government tends towards inefficiency, and I'll even agree with you. However, when the only two choices are government research and zero research, well, I think you can see the picture. Attitudes like this are the reason projects such as ITER, CERN, and others are chronically under funded. Private markets are becoming more and more relevant in space, and eventually NASA will have to change its mission parameters because private companies will become so good at rocketry and satellite maintenance. Until then, it absolutely is a legitimate government function to subsidize research into scientific frontiers that the free-market will not due to timeline and payoff distortions.

TLDR: If you're going to complain about wasted taxpayer dollars, at least pick a field that records investment losses. The contributions of NASA and similar veins of research to our society have been of immeasurable economic, social, and military benefit.
He knows all of this. He's just being a faggot.
 

TheBeagle

JunkiesNetwork Donor
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Ya the dolphin story was amazing. It makes me wonder if dolphins have passed down stories of humans from generation to generation through language and that entire populations near human habitation are almost 'domesticated' in a sense. Probably not, but I definitely consider dolphins and other Cetaceans as people.
 

Lambourne

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The other thing to keep in mind is that the resources produced from asteroid mining is worth far, far more in orbit than it is on the ground. Hence the concept of building things in space with it. Instead of paying thousands of dollars a pound to launch a bunch of metal in to space, it might be a lot cheaper to launch mining and manufacturing drones that will produce ship components, fuel and the like in orbit from asteroids.
This. Even just mining water ice and (using solar power) processing it in to hydrogen and oxygen would be very valuable. It's rocket fuel that's already in space. With this you could make your present day space probe go hundreds of miles per second instead of maybe ten. You could get to Mars or Jupiter in days instead of 10 months.

Imagine how the colonization of the Americas would have gone if there had been no coal, no metal, no animals, no plants and trees there. Imagine they had to ship the materials for every single building and road, all fuel and every last bit of food and water across the Atlantic. That's where we are at right now in space.

 

Dabamf_sl

shitlord
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Here's a question I've never understood about orbits that may be rudimentary: if a satellite or other object were to exert a force against its orbit and come to a stop, would it just fall toward the earth? Ie is the velocity of an object responsible for keeping it at the same distance from earth, like a roulette ball when it is spinning on the outside of the wheel? Or is it something else?

The same applies for the moon or any orbiting body. Does the object's velocity prevent it from crashing into the object it orbits, or does the gravity interact with something else, and if so, what causes an object to float around rather than just sit there?

Sincerely,
3rd grader
 

Himeo

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Here's a question I've never understood about orbits that may be rudimentary: if a satellite or other object were to exert a force against its orbit and come to a stop, would it just fall toward the earth? Ie is the velocity of an object responsible for keeping it at the same distance from earth, like a roulette ball when it is spinning on the outside of the wheel? Or is it something else?

The same applies for the moon or any orbiting body. Does the object's velocity prevent it from crashing into the object it orbits, or does the gravity interact with something else, and if so, what causes an object to float around rather than just sit there?

Sincerely,
3rd grader
rrr_img_11402.jpg


You're basically falling away from the planet, but the planet keeps pulling on you. Orbit is an endless fall.

 

Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Here's a question I've never understood about orbits that may be rudimentary: if a satellite or other object were to exert a force against its orbit and come to a stop, would it just fall toward the earth? Ie is the velocity of an object responsible for keeping it at the same distance from earth, like a roulette ball when it is spinning on the outside of the wheel? Or is it something else?

The same applies for the moon or any orbiting body. Does the object's velocity prevent it from crashing into the object it orbits, or does the gravity interact with something else, and if so, what causes an object to float around rather than just sit there?

Sincerely,
3rd grader
Short answer, yes.
 

Dabamf_sl

shitlord
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So what puts a satellite into orbit once it's in space? Does it need to fire boosters or whatever after it has reached the required altitude to start its sideways(orbital) movement? Can it go in any direction? Seems like a pretty precise thing. Too fast and it slowly gains altitude, too slow and it slowly falls to earth. Are there periodic adjustments for velocity and direction automated by the satellite? Is velocity what determines the altitude of orbit (faster is higher?) or is there another reason?
 

Lenas

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Things don't fly into space completely perpendicular to the surface. There's this new shit calledtrajectory, namean? You should read up on it.

Since a horizontally-launched projectile falls a vertical distance of 5 meters in its first second of motion, a orbiting projectile must be launched with a horizontal speed of 8000 m/s. When launched at this speed, the projectile will fall towards the Earth with a trajectory which matches the curvature of the Earth.
 

Zodiac

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First of all, they don't launch straight up. Normally they launch in an easterly direction. Also, they use multistage boosters to put it in the correct orbit.

As for understanding about orbits - just think of it as if you throw a ball really really hard into orbit it will keep falling but it's justmissingthe earth each time.

http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/how-orbits-work/
 

brekk

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Geosynchronous and Geostationary orbits are gonna esplode his brain.