The Space Thread - Launches, Events, Live Streams, Governments, Corporations, drama in Spaaaaaaaaaaaace

[Screamer_2]

Chinese are getting pretty impressive these days, but given that there will never be a sensitive US/Western payload flying on a Chinese rocket, SpaceX will always have a baseline level of pretty high demand.

Do you know what are the Chinese doing that requires so many launches?

 

[The Un-Clit]

Do you know what are the Chinese doing that requires so many launches?

Lotsa spy and communications satellites, building onto and re-supplying Tiangong, testing rockets for a manned moon landing before America can get back first, and secret military sketchy shit that we plebs will never know about.

 

[Gimmick Account]

Problem there is if one goes wrong, you're in for a real bad time once it decays from the required low orbit or fails to propel itself to a higher parking orbit when station keeping thrusters get low on fuel.

Yeah, well, weapons of war have certain handing requirements.
I assume you'd deorbit them over an ocean before it gets to that point like you would anything else end-of-life, or maintain them with your secret shuttles like you do with a keyhole sat, or whatever.

 

[Hatewerfer]

Yeah, well, weapons of war have certain handing requirements.
I assume you'd deorbit them over an ocean before it gets to that point like you would anything else end-of-life, or maintain them with your secret shuttles like you do with a keyhole sat, or whatever.

As long as the Sword of Damocles orbits over your house and not mine.

 

[bouquetnine]

Do we have those types of lasers yet, the sunlight recharging ones, in space or easy to put in space? Are they there already?
Or do we have the ability to shoot "space junk" at high speeds. The "junk" being anything that could smash into a satellite in space (rocks, rubbish, frozen turds from ISS, tungsten, even a clump of hair, etc.).
As for shooting shit on earth, I think we have had that pretty well covered for a while. (without lasers though)

Some people suspect the Maui fires were caused by space lasers (Direct Energy Weapons, or DEW). Diffraction would prevent a single laser from being effective, but a constellation of lasers could create the focus point necessary. It's not the greatest evidence, but it does suggest the DEWs are deployed and ready to be used.

I believe the idea of tungsten is that it can sink re-entry heat and the high density makes it a great kinetic impactor.

They're also great bunker busters. A tungsten rod at de-orbit velocity can pierce hundreds of feet of rock or steel-reinforced concrete.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Some people suspect the Maui fires were caused by space lasers (Direct Energy Weapons, or DEW). Diffraction would prevent a single laser from being effective, but a constellation of lasers could create the focus point necessary. It's not the greatest evidence, but it does suggest the DEWs are deployed and ready to be used.

lunacy

They're also great bunker busters. A tungsten rod at de-orbit velocity can pierce hundreds of feet of rock or steel-reinforced concrete.

You know what else is good for busting bunkers? Regular ground penetrators.

 

[Tumbo II]

Honest Qestion why do people care about space exploring other planets ect? aside from the The US and other governments getting to spend money I just really don't see the appeal.

 

[Kwisatz00]

A lot of nations can cause kessler now, it is telling how none do it. Is a the slightly softer nuclear option. Even north korea could probably do it.
India has gotten close.

Honest Qestion why do people care about space exploring other planets ect? aside from the The US and other governments getting to spend money I just really don't see the appeal.

If not why not, to do is better than to do nothing.

Fish: Why would you want walk on land?
Crazy fish: It looks like something fun
Fish: it will never work
....
Walking fish: I eat you sea guys in the millions

 

[MerelyAPlateOfSpaghetti]

Honest Qestion why do people care about space exploring other planets ect? aside from the The US and other governments getting to spend money I just really don't see the appeal.

The first, and strongest answer is "Because we can." Nothing is gained unless boundaries are overcome. The second is that finding new problems to solve means we find novel solutions, which may include new material science or discovering new physics properties. Governments spend money on a lot of stuff that doesn't end up lifting society to new heights (kind of the opposite in most cases) so I'd rather they invest that money in something that is a lot more permanent and may lead us to society-changing benefits.

 

[Billy Beeple]

Honest Qestion why do people care about space exploring other planets ect? aside from the The US and other governments getting to spend money I just really don't see the appeal.

For most of human history, if you didn't like the rules of the society in which you lived, you could go off and start your own society somewhere else (often with blackjack, and hookers). And if society didn't like you, instead of killing you or putting you in a cage for the rest of your life, they could exile you to a far-away land where they no longer had to put up with your shit.

For the past 100 years or so, we haven't had any distant lands we can settle, or to which we can exile undesirables—pretty much the entire livable surface of the Earth is claimed by one nation or another, including the oceans (Seasteading sadly isn't practical). I overwhelmingly feel this is bad for mankind.

That old adage, "buy land, because they aren't making any more of it," stops being true once we can practically travel to the stars. Then, instead of having your economic destiny pre-determined by the choices your ancestors made (where they settled, what property they purchased, what they willed to their progeny), we can once again become free men with our future completely in our own hands. You and I can't (yet) afford starships, but neither could our ancestors afford their own boat, and now there's harbors full of weekend sailors, airports with privately-owned single-engine piston planes, etc.

We need an escape valve from the tyrannical governments that keep us captive.

We need a place to try out different societal structures, far enough away that the failed experiments don't piss off the neighbors too terribly.

We need to kindle man's innate urge to tame the harsh frontier and build something from nothing.

Barring a nuclear war that depopulates entire continents, IMO the best alternative seems to be to settle other planets.

 

[Gimmick Account]

Honest Qestion why do people care about space exploring other planets ect? aside from the The US and other governments getting to spend money I just really don't see the appeal.

the wise man plants a tree so his children can be sick ass space pirates or whatever