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I am currently traveling in Germany on what may be my last opportunity to make a "solo" trip. In Eisenach, I visited the birthplace of Johan Sebastian Bach and, and while reading some of the documents regarding his life, I found one that was related to one of his health issues and one directly connected to his death by a stroke. He had previously had an early surgical attempt to restore his failing vision from cataracts, and the description of how it was done--and that cataract surgery was sometimes successful even in the mid 18th Century! Spectacles were already in use then, but Bach developed a severe infection (no sterile surgical practices then!)and it led to his death from a stroke! Wow! Who'd have even suspected this development-- being so generally unknown?
GW--That's why they are called CRASH programs! (Tongue in cheek)
Hello to all!
I am currently traveling in Germany and possibly Czechia and Austria.
Yesterday I was in Jena, Thuringia--home of Carl Zeiss Optical and the Schott Werk. I found the information on the Zeiss Planetarium online while looking for some interesting astronomy sites to visit almost 2 years ago.
I went through Jena last year and found that there were no tickets available that day because of several grade schools visiting. Didn't mention it here on this website--a nothing burger.
This year I purchased an online advanced date admission and the presentation was marvelous, entitled Our Universe, and it was a full 1 hour tour of our solar system and galaxy--then extending into the depth of the Universe.
The entire narration was in German, but I am just proficient enough to follow the program.Anyone traveling to Germany who is a space geek simply can't miss it; cost of the presentation was 15 Euros.
As an edit: The Ernst Abbe Optical Museum is also an attraction, and both Goethe and Schiller lived and worked there parts of their lives.
GW-Thanks for your very well reasoned statements about the engineering involved back in the 1960's and early 1970's. The fact that most of the Apollo astronauts were big risk-takers--test pilots--allowed NASA to push the envelope on what risks were acceptable. I must have watched "The Right Stuff" 20 times to figure out why NASA has changed so much since then. It's a mind-set issue and the simple fact that SPACE IS HARD! There WILL be casualties in the program and I think that Isaacman know that. But--he too is a RISK-TAKER.
That said, the development timelines were set to be very overly optimistic by the politicians in control of the money. The FAA seems to me to be the biggest stumbling block to the current progress. Both Musk and Bezos are not the problem financially.
Just my 2 cents on the subject!
GW--I don't disagree with anything you have stated above, but back in the Apollo era, there was a helluva lot of risk taking and we still managed to complete many lunar landings with "experimental" designs. I also agree with your assessment that Blue Origin will have a better shot at success. But the timeline is a "variable constant," which you may remember from engineering school "jokes." The realistic time will probably be several test flights and unmanned landings FIRST before another manned mission completes in late 2029.
Well, if we are doing orbital refueling, why not adding the landing legs while in orbit? It's never coming back through the atmosphere and will be a candidate for reuse afterwards. The mass of the heat shield can be replaced by landing legs.
My thoughts are they should simply expend a non-orbital starship with legs coming in from maybe 25 km and then land it on a beach or a patch of desert with boulders. Or as GW suggested in mud. See how stable (instability testing!) it is (isn't). This is how I would approach the problem. Don't worry about heat shield installation. Do it "on the cheap," and learn from the experience.
At some point in development process, they will need to expend a ship (or several!) trying to land on some sand or dirt somewhere!
GW-This is why I threw the topic in your direction. The winds issue made me almost laugh watching the video. My thought about the bricks made from regolith was to double or triple the depth and excavate the regolith from under the touchdown point and "cement" them together by some means.
The SpaceX website stated that the full load of v.3 satellites will be 60. That calculates to a payload to orbit of 120 tons. And as GW stated, the weight of the PEZ dispenser system.
This may not be where this should be posted, but it is a decent YouTube presentation that purports to announce/review the landing legs required for Starship Lunar Landings.
I've been quite skeptical about some of the hare brained ideas posted across the Internet and find that this one has some merit in concept:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqhTsAP … WL&index=1
I'd definitely be interested in GW's take on this presentation!
I truly believe that and lunar lander needs a wide base and low center of gravity to be successful. There's a lot of wild Bravo Sierra on the Internet but this seems to be addressing the problem realistically.
Void-
I had a heart attack about 8 years ago and have subsequently experienced fluid retention in my feet, ankles, and lower legs. As a consequence of fluid retention, I take a medication called Furosemide (Lasix) which is a fairly strong diuretic, which makes me pee a lot but removes the problem. This is a medicinal chemical approach to the edema problem which I would consider possibly effective in microgravity for diminishing blood pooling and cerebral edema regulation.
I already mentioned Calcitonin--a hormone that regulates Calcium uptake and controls Osteoblast formation. This is how bones are grown. The other regulatory process--which I haven't honestly kept up with--needs to regulate Osteoclast action--which is involved in removing bone tissues. It may not be a perfect approach but I thought back in 2010 it was worthy of investigation--before the Artemis and Elon Musk's Mars plans.
Both Osteoblasts and Osteoclasts are stem cells responding to "growth factors." Growth factors are "where the action is" in modern biochemistry.
The biggest selling growth factor is Erythropoietin sold by AMGen--also abused in the past by long distance bicycle racers to avoid blood doping.
OK, here's a start on an interesting topic: why does the absence of gravity take such a toll on living organisms--particularly humans?
I spent a considerable portion of my career as a chemist/biochemist and here's the primary question: where is the gravity receptor and how does it work to control the bone density, muscle loss, eye swelling and heart swelling? THE basic question is where is the receptor and what is the "mechanism of action?" I worked a LOT making synthetic hormones to control the brain and some of my colleagues made lots of $$$ making Calcitonin for treating Osteoporosis. Our bodies produce lots of regulatory hormones and hormonal control handles most diseases by either making MORE hormones or LESS of them. Since I no longer am affiliated with any agency or industry, I can't really do research or write any papers that would be professionally regarded; I started work on a SBIR while I still had access to a good laboratory--but there was no request for proposals at the time. So--I simply decided to retire instead. But it was a good idea then and even better one now.
Starship 40 is already loaded on the semisubmersible ship FORTE and is now secured for transport back to Starbase.
I've been following the progress of Starship 40 at Christmas Island. The semisubmersible ship FORTE has arrived and in the process of loading the Starship for transportation back to Starbase.
Here's a link to the website with some excellent photos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTIaZaDn-84
The website is "What's Going on With Shipping," with Sol Marcigliano as narrator.
There is a new WhatAboutIt episode which is now available online at YouTube. Felix discusses the heat shield of S.40 issues in detail.
It's an engineering problem that can and WILL be solved. Engineering solutions are simply = time plus money. The desire is important and Musk is NOT an idiot. Once the data is available his views will change.
I appears that SpaceX is in the process of recovering the intact starship and is towing it to Australia. Musk released a statement yesterday to that effect.
I just watched an "Ellie in Space" episode with Joe Tegtmeyer which is a very good explanation of some Orbital Mechanics for Idiots. (Myself included!). Here's the link to the YouTube presentation. The length of the upcoming Flight 14 discussion covers the length of time the flight will probably take to watch the whole thing unfold. The discussion of the effects of the Earth's rotation on the proposed landing site is nicely explained with some decent engineering details--simplified version.
This is a documentary produced by SpaceX and gives the behind the scenes view of some of the engineering decision making. It's quite well done as are most of the SpaceX mission coverages. There is a companion documentary, titled Critical Path that covers the IFT 12 mission.
Thomas-most of the online forums always devolve into discussions surrounding radiation issues and how it will kill anyone going on deep space missions. This is exactly what I hope to avoid on the new forum. Dr. Zubrin has repeatedly addressed this issue in his books and I support his views 100%!
Hematocrit is also capable of hormonal manipulation via Erythropoietin, a growth factor commercially available and has been abused by professional bicycle racers.(Lance Armstrong!) Commonly referred to as "Epo"--It stimulates the bone marrow to accelerate the maturation of new erythrocytes, and is a standard treatment for anemia as induced by kidney dialysis.
The standard treatment for osteoporosis is Calcitonin injections; getting information on other hormones that control bone structural changes is somewhat difficult for me now that I'm retired.
Look up Osteoblasts and Osteoclasts for a start. It's been over 10 years since I did any literature research on this topic--but it should be worthwhile.
I'm opening this new topic as a potential discussion area for chemists, biochemists, and biologists.
I personally undertook writing--or doing the initial literature research--on the bone loss problem as early as 2010. I surmised that this bone loss was a problem related to Osteoporosis here on Earth and there are growth factors and hormones currently available for treatment of this condition.
The real treatment is generation of artificial gravity as suggested by Bob Zubrin using his tethers and centripetal acceleration around a capsule or spacecraft.
Since NASA and SpaceX haven't properly addressed this problem--I'm opening this discussion thread to begin a dialogue on this topic
I see that there are human problems which impact the feasibility of long duration of human spaceflight--changes in bone mass and density and ocular deterioration due to reduced cardiac output. No astronaut wants to arrive at say--Callisto and have their skeletal system be mush and unable to allow exploration with decent function. The SpaceX and NASA missions have been ignoring the human biology in their planning--unlike Dr. Zubrin.