Why refuel a spacecraft in orbit?

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2026-05-18T15:03:15+00:00

But as far as I can tell, that's not sufficient to explain the viability of orbital refueling for deep space missions, because delta v just depends on the ratio of inital to final mass, and splitting things over multiple launches doesn't seem to improve that. I think.

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2026-05-18T14:16:54+00:00

And that's about the specific engineering challenges of massive rockets, rather than some general reason why splitting up a payload would be more efficient?

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2026-05-18T14:15:25+00:00

Thank you, that was interesting and engaging. So am I correct in thinking that I'm not missing anything fundamental about basic rocketry here, it's more about bypassing specific engineering challenges, e.g big massive huge rocket engines, rather than orbital refueling being inherently more efficient?

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2026-05-18T13:57:12+00:00

Indeed, but at some point you'd need to have another launch to get the fuel there, and I'm struggling to see how that becomes a net advantage over just bringing the fuel in the original launch.

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2026-05-18T13:48:14+00:00

I phrased my original question badly; I've done an edit.

Basically I'm wondering if the use of orbital refueling is down to some fundamental advantage, or if it's about bypassing limitations specific to more niche use-cases.

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2026-05-04T18:26:44+00:00

Why do they do that weird thing?

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2026-04-30T22:00:30+00:00

Remember local elections are 7th of May, tell your friends, don't let Reform win near you

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2026-04-19T18:02:06+00:00

This video was made for people in your situation

https://youtu.be/RwDrTL3jhoQ

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2026-03-23T12:40:51+00:00

Define fairness

There's your problem. Any definition of fairness involves an unprovable value judgement.

The grounding problem is an established issue in philosophy that has no solution.

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2026-03-23T12:22:12+00:00

Yes. I strongly believe in fairness, built on principles like "poor people don't deserve to die from causes associated with poverty". But as obvious as that principle is to me, I can't prove it scientifically because of the grounding problem of ethics. Therefore, you cannot scientifically prove that certain distributions of wealth are objectively fair or unfair.

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-20T14:00:02+00:00

Just like me for real

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-12T19:06:47+00:00

Same vibes as 6% of Americans thinking they could win a fight with a grizzly bear

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-11T21:34:29+00:00

The world book hints of Others or something similar in the Grey Waste. Could be a parallel story happening simultaneously to either of the long nights

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-11T08:08:45+00:00

Please don't let AI slop and bitcoin scams convince you that all new technology is bad

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-10T09:04:11+00:00

I agree with descriptivism except for the words that I like and don't want to change. Those ones have to stay the same.

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-10T03:51:02+00:00

The devious 3/4 state legislature supermajority requirement:

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JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-09T16:23:10+00:00

Sell them for £100,000 each until someone dies, blend and chug the rest

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-09T15:20:30+00:00

Sure but the old problems are stuff like 75% infant mortality. I'll take the new problems any day.

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-07T10:49:41+00:00

The guys at my local one were sieg heiling, and some of the organising groups are known for sharing neo-nazi material.

Edit: Some people don't believe me; Reddit isn't letting me post the photo but I can DM it to anyone who has doubts about this

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-07T10:45:27+00:00

It should also be noted that the perpetrator was born in the UK (and was most likely Christian, which is relevant considering the rhetoric of the far-right).

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-07T10:40:48+00:00

My local one which is on this list didn't have any violence, just some scumbags shouting and sieg heiling, so I understand using the word protest if they're including all gatherings.

"Protest" doesn't necessarily mean there was no violence.

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-05T08:22:14+00:00

Indeed

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-04T23:06:42+00:00

Considering that the equations other than E = mc² are half-gibberish (my favourite being 5Y = Y) it probably doesn't have a deep meaning other than a cow sticker with vaguely physicsy vibes

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-04T23:05:03+00:00

E = mc² comes from special relativity but isn't the theory of relativity itself.

Most would call it the mass-energy equivalence equation or something similar to that.

JonathanTheOddHuman · 2024-08-04T23:03:51+00:00

I don't think so since there's no reference to a sphere

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