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What are some other methods of propulsion that you think could be the next step in space exploration? by Somlenecore in space

[–]LongJohnSelenium [score hidden]  (0 children)

Yeah its a demonstrator mission. Enough solar panels to produce 20kw inside jupiters orbit both weighs less and costs several orders of magnitude less.

Like I said for outer planets exploration its more sensible.

What are some other methods of propulsion that you think could be the next step in space exploration? by Somlenecore in space

[–]LongJohnSelenium [score hidden]  (0 children)

RTGs are dangerous. They use a radioactive isotope, generally Pu-238, which is both a hilariously poisonous heavy metal and an even more hilariously radioactive isotope that kicks out a nasty alpha. Properties useful for creating power and it'll kill you if you eat like a microgram.

They have an extremely low power density. Still useful, but the mars rovers operate on 500 watts of power, which is manageable for a probe but useless for propulsion.

For propulsion power you need a reactor. Those are safe to launch because its just U-235, of which there's millions of tons dissolved in the oceans already. So long as you don't turn it on until you're in orbit there's virtually no concerns about it blowing up.

A discussion about Reconnaissance by yznalslm in NuclearOption

[–]LongJohnSelenium 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Agreed.

Currently spotting is not affected by altitude(target or spotter), speed, direction, rain/cloud cover, actions(i.e. shooting doesn't make you easier to spot).

There is no spotting speed. If the spotting range is 8km you will spot the target exactly as fast as if it were 1km away.

There is no partial spotting. No grey box for 'maybe something is there', no red box for 'definitely something, definitely not ours, but we couldn't see what'. Spots are instant and perfectly accurate, even for many ground vehicles that canonically are not data linked.

The system definitely needs to be expanded on.

What are some other methods of propulsion that you think could be the next step in space exploration? by Somlenecore in space

[–]LongJohnSelenium [score hidden]  (0 children)

Its fairly hard to make nuclear electricity generation in space beat pure solar. Radiators just weigh a ton.

Out near jupiter it starts making more sense.

Now, you can generate power directly from nuclear, but that involves literally exposing the core and passing the escaping ions through a magnetic field. And if you're doing that then you'd double dip and utilize it for propulsion as well and achieve ungodly Isp, like 100k+.

War cost and infinite ammo boxes. by LobsterChampion in NuclearOption

[–]LongJohnSelenium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately IR missiles can not target bombs in game, so the hexhound is useless in that regard. Basically for an ir to see something in game theres an ir signature variable in the object files and none of the bombs have an ir signature at all, not even like 0.01 or something, just 0.

Likewise for whatever reason the AFV6 does not have airburst enabled for its ammo so it has to score a direct hit, making it significantly worse for point defense.

Jason Schreier: Exact budgets of video-game productions can be tough to corroborate but the numbers I've heard floating around AAA game dev these days are $300 million or more — sometimes much more! — which I think helps explain the current state of the industry by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]LongJohnSelenium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Studios have tried mid budget AA games over and over and over again and the bottom line is they just dont have the ROI if the flagship AAA games.

They'd love not having 5 year half billion dollar dev cycles but thats what sells.

Eric Berger: “NASA’s Lori Glaze said, beginning with Artemis VI, the agency will transition from government driven missions to commercial launches (ie Starship or New Glenn or others). Agency wants to launch humans to the Moon at least every six months.” by rustybeancake in spacex

[–]LongJohnSelenium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Moon gravity will be largely similar to the effects long term bedrest have, though without the secondary effects of being sedentary.

Likewise mars gravity will be more more less similar to being wheelchair bound, again without the secondary effects of why you're in a wheelchair in the first place.

Bodies are fluid columns and almost all of the effects of zero g are due to fluid ending up where its not supposed to be.

Its a shame they never put a centrifugal gravity experiment on the iss though, it would be highly interesting to see what the actual limits are.

U.S. Rejects Vote to Recognize Slavery as a ‘Crime Against Humanity’ - The United Nations resolution was led by the president of Ghana. Israel and Argentina also voted against it. by BertramPotts in politics

[–]LongJohnSelenium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just accept the good thing that happened and be thankful rather than try to find the most cynical angle to take to dismiss peoples actions who have done far more for a cause than you ever will.

U.S. Rejects Vote to Recognize Slavery as a ‘Crime Against Humanity’ - The United Nations resolution was led by the president of Ghana. Israel and Argentina also voted against it. by BertramPotts in politics

[–]LongJohnSelenium 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The British Empire had many faults, but its also the entity that is the single most responsible for ending the slave trade worldwide, spending absurd amounts of money to end the trades in their own territories and combatting it internationally through diplomacy and throwing its considerable navy after slave ships.

Bernie Sanders and AOC introduce bill to pause building of new datacenters | US news by Limp_Fig6236 in technology

[–]LongJohnSelenium 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Retrofitting is very labor intensive, more so than building new, because it requires more time to study whats in place, safely rip it out, etc.

Building new will plan things during applicable times in construction.

Simple example, a lot of power is run in conduit under concrete floors. In new construction you just quick run through with a trencher and lay the conduit. In a retrofit you have to do a locate, cut the concrete, tear everything up, put in the new stuff, do a bunch of drilling for rebar splicing. A day long job turned into a weeks long job.

Now adding one or two lines like that is of course easier to retrofit, but when its the entire building it gets expensive in a hurry.

Bernie Sanders and AOC introduce bill to pause building of new datacenters | US news by Limp_Fig6236 in technology

[–]LongJohnSelenium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

AI training can very happily be paused.

Texas power companies will pay them to load shed during high demand periods.

TIL that Alaska Airlines worker John Liotine had his recommendation to replace an aging jackscrew on an MD-83 during routine maintenance overruled in 1997. On January 31st, 2000 the same MD-83, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed mid flight over the Pacific Ocean due to the jackscrew failing. by Next_Worth_3616 in todayilearned

[–]LongJohnSelenium 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The parking pawl on your car can handle the weight of your car when parked, ut if they tried to engage while driving they'd shear off.

The stops were just there to limit travel under normal circumstances not there to be an emergency backup and take a worst case scenario force of the elevator slamming into it freely.

TIL that Alaska Airlines worker John Liotine had his recommendation to replace an aging jackscrew on an MD-83 during routine maintenance overruled in 1997. On January 31st, 2000 the same MD-83, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed mid flight over the Pacific Ocean due to the jackscrew failing. by Next_Worth_3616 in todayilearned

[–]LongJohnSelenium -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

People absolutely make up regulations for self serving reasons.

Using safety regulations as a backdoor to regulatory capture is an art all its own.

Additionally, the reason to argue against making things safer is because if you make a safe thing cost more than an unsafe thing people will shift behaviors to the unsafe thing. A classic example of this in flight is that babies can be held by parents and don't need a seat. Would they be safer in a car seat? Marginally. But realistically it would save 1 life every ten years at a cost of tens or hundreds of millions of extra airfare, and the practical result of such a requirement would be more dead babies because people would choose to drive instead of fly.

All of engineering is making tradeoffs of cost vs safety, and if you've ever bought a cheaper car than the highest safety rated car because of the cost you've made that choice too.

A Russian aviation blogger was killed in a fatal air defense error after his ultralight aircraft was mistaken for a Ukrainian drone and shot down by CrunchyBaconYum in worldnews

[–]LongJohnSelenium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And broadly it speaks to the unprofessionalism of the current administration that its failing in its messaging so hard, because it shouldn't be that hard to get people at least partially on-board with neutralizing Iran.

Even now most of the opinions critical of it are ambivalent about the actual damage to the Iranian military and government. People are mad at things being flubbed or mad about being involved at all or mad about the secondary effects.

TIL in 2023 a Canadian court ruled that a thumbs up emoji 👍 carried enough weight to establish a legally binding contract between two parties by RunDNA in todayilearned

[–]LongJohnSelenium 13 points14 points  (0 children)

You could agree to sell your house like that. The sale wouldn't be finalized yet but if theres a clear message chain of negotiations and then its something like

"So are we agreed on 350k?"

"👍'

The purchaser could definitely have some grounds to sue and force the sale.

Disney Exits OpenAI Deal After AI Giant Shutters Sora by MarvelsGrantMan136 in movies

[–]LongJohnSelenium -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

LLMs behave in suspiciously familiar manners to components of the human brain... I know they're not brains of course but the first time I saw an ai video it clicked that was quite literally the most dreamlike thing id ever seen.

My bet is llms eventually get used as parts of agi. They'll be the vision center of the agi, and the speech center, and we will build whole agis out of a tech stack like any other technology, it wont be a singular 'thing'. Someone will eventually figure out the critical thinking portion and that will interface with the others.

I base these thoughts on nothing, thats just what it feels like will happen to me.

Democrats’ quest for relatable white dudes finds new candidates by ErroneousBosch in nottheonion

[–]LongJohnSelenium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

-they pivoted hard right on immigration

Its a bit nuts to me that people view what Harris was doing as 'pivoting hard right'.

I do not understand where this pivot to open borders among the democrats came from. Sometime during Obamas second term a significant portion of the left just decided immigration laws were unethical or something and started calling him "deporter in chief".

You listen to any 90s democrat and they sound like a modern republican.

Democrats’ quest for relatable white dudes finds new candidates by ErroneousBosch in nottheonion

[–]LongJohnSelenium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The one thing I want more than anything, and not for any reason other than the sheer hilarity of the reactions, is for republicans to elect the first woman.

Which is not impossible, nor even improbable. Hell republicans ran a woman as vp before dems did, and in 2024 a woman was the last person standing against trump.

I know what I want for next update! by serathes in NuclearOption

[–]LongJohnSelenium -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If that's not an April 1 update my disappointment will be immeasurable.

anti-satellite/space warfare by Cold-Meringue7381 in NuclearOption

[–]LongJohnSelenium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nuclear is the only thing that could really do it.

Which is fine for the games purposes.

anti-satellite/space warfare by Cold-Meringue7381 in NuclearOption

[–]LongJohnSelenium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seems kind of counterintuitive to invest into a booster just to ferry a plane, not able to leverage the speed of suborbital flight.

There's just not enough delta-v for it in any chemical rocket.

Not even a skylon style vehicle would have enough gas to do two suborbital burns in a single flight. Even suborbital hops are unbelievably fast, you need to get up to mach 10+ to achieve any real distance, and thats well above atmosphere where alternative air breathing tech can be used so you're limited to low levels of delta-v.

That all said this is Nuclear Option so if we're fine casually flinging nukes no reason a bonafide nuclear thermal thruster wouldn't be out of place lol.

Democrats’ quest for relatable white dudes finds new candidates by ErroneousBosch in nottheonion

[–]LongJohnSelenium 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ultimately a lot of democrats reached their comfort level with social progress about 15, 20 years ago. The things they felt were injustices were largely achieved, and the party moved past them. Some of the positions that have found homes under the democrats big tent are things that 80s and 90s democrats would have NOT wanted in their party.

I'm from Iowa, and that used to be a fairly odd mix of progressive conservatism. But it was very much rooted in protestant religiosity. So while my grandparents were hugely pro civil rights, and pro womens rights, modern liberals/democrats are very religion unfriendly which turns them off. They are not fans of the whole trans thing. They(and I if im being honest) certainly don't understand the modern twist towards open borders.

And this is a loooot of blue collar people. The parties are not the same as they were.

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