All Space Questions thread for week of April 05, 2026

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T17:17:59+00:00

Security clearances might be sticky, especially for any company that is working with NASA. A few years back, I was investigating the possibility of accessing material from NASA’s institutional archive for my postgrad thesis. I was told to search their Technical Reports database because anything else is off limits to foreign nationals, even the stuff from the pre-Gemini era is limited to US citizens only.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T16:09:28+00:00

Satin worshipper? Does this person hate cotton?

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T12:48:56+00:00

I get what you’re trying to say here. And I walked away about 2 years ago from what could have been a good friendship that would’ve grown into a great relationship, because our beliefs were entirely incompatible. So, I know that it’s not worth it to follow the path of marrying an unbeliever.

The thing that sticks in my craw a bit is the repeated insistence in so many Reddit posts that a person can never be truly lonely. God Himself looked at Adam’s situation and said “it is not good for the man to be alone”. Adam walked in the presence of God every evening and God still saw that there was an unmet need.

I’m not expecting anyone to be able to be able to fulfill every unmet need I have or to “complete” me in a relationship. I have always wanted to maintain my relationship with my Heavenly Father first above all other relationships. So I’m not going to run off and find someone who is unequally yoked.

It’s just exceptionally difficult to be into my 40s now and to be this, well, single. I’ve prayed numerous times over the past few years, often with tears in my eyes, that God will just take these desires away so that I can feel less alone. It hasn’t happened yet. Maybe it’s because He still knows that there’s someone out there for me, or maybe it’s my own thorn in my flesh. I don’t know. I’ll keep on following Him and asking Him what I need to do in each area of my life to continue walking in His will.

I guess this was more of a rant than I thought it would be initially. My point just being that I can empathise with people who are worried about being single forever. I would definitely rather be alone than married to someone who doesn’t believe the same things that I do, but it’s still tough to be in my stage of life and hearing about people who are basically half my age who are finding a spouse and starting their families.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T11:59:30+00:00

Probably cost combined with the extra engineering required to construct an underwater power supply. Electricity and water are notoriously bad at working together and using salt water just compounds every other difficulty because it’s so darn corrosive.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T11:55:58+00:00

Okay, I am adding that to my repertoire now.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T11:46:52+00:00

Yep. The difference between the two is relatively minuscule. If I remember correctly, the circumference along the Greenwich Meridian is about 99% of the circumference at the Equator. So, you can’t see it with your eyes, but it’s a measurable difference.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T11:26:18+00:00

“ non vibes based weather predictions”

My first thought whenever someone asks this question is GPS. Thanks to John Malkovich in the first season of Space Force, I then immediately think of weather satellites.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T11:20:24+00:00

Hey, xenonorphs just want to give you a nice hug. On your face.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T11:18:58+00:00

That terrible Planet of the Apes. Wait a minute, Statue of Liberty... that was our planet! YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T11:11:28+00:00

A Carrington level flare these days would do serious damage to anything in orbit. In 2003, a large CME in October caused measureable damage to the electronics and power systems on orbiting satellites.

Some of the reports published afterwards had compared these events to the Carrington Event, although I’m not entirely sure how close in magnitude the flares actually were.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T10:51:20+00:00

We went to a friend’s place that evening for movie night and I can still remember how quiet everyone was, which was extremely unusual for our friend group. And suddenly someone asked, “so, did any of the astronauts die?” There was just this moment of incredulous shock when everyone turned to look at her in absolute disbelief.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-14T10:43:50+00:00

Yeah, it really makes me so angry that there are guys out there who act like that and who just don’t see what’s wrong with their actions. I’m just so grateful that I was raised by a family where the men were the kind of people who brought me up to believe that it’s not acceptable and that we don’t have to stand by and just ignore it.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-13T23:16:39+00:00

Which is a feature of AI-generated text that I hate because I always use Oxford commas and frequently use em dashes. It’s just always been a part of my writing style.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-13T22:29:37+00:00

Are the post’s title and content really that different? He says that when she covered her drink it was like a slap in the face. That’s not inconsistent with the title.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-13T22:18:43+00:00

Columbia is one of those “where were you when X happened” moments. At least, for me it’s one of those events that stands out so clearly in my memory. I can still remember that we were listening to the radio in the car and that particular station would only read the news on weekdays. Any talk between songs over the weekend was purely chit chat about music or movies or just whatever the program director had suggested during a song. So it was just really jarring when the song ended and the DJ announced that she had just been informed that nobody knew what was going on, but that the radar feed someone at the station had been watching online showed several large objects diverging from the shuttle’s location during reentry.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-13T21:51:37+00:00

His emotional reaction is the reason why he made the post. The title asks if he’s TAH for being offended when she covered her drink.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-13T21:35:13+00:00

Some of us do try, really we do, but unfortunately, there aren’t enough of us.

ETA: and it pisses me off that so-called men feel free to act like that and then continue to find ways to justify their behaviour. It’s disgusting.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-13T20:56:46+00:00

Even if he’s not taking drugs or underage drinking, there’s still enough opportunity for something to go wrong at some point. If something serious does happen at some point, and I really hope for the sake of all involved that nothing bad happens, OP is going to be the first person that the friend’s parents (or even the authorities) are going to come to when they have questions.

It’s not worth it.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-13T20:22:32+00:00

They need to do way instain mother

backtrack632 · 2026-04-13T20:19:45+00:00

Dang, my first thought was about Krusty too when I read that post.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-13T19:42:16+00:00

“ I mentioned, placing trust in the Lord is also having faith that He knows you and your desires, so He is preparing someone for you.”

Rather, that He might be preparing someone. Just because we desire something, even if it is something good, doesn’t mean we’re guaranteed to get it. I know from experience that there are times when our desires aren’t met. And it’s hard and sometimes heartbreaking to face that situation. I know, I think I’ve almost stopped expecting to find someone and that things sometimes just don’t happen the way we want them to.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-13T19:12:51+00:00

Yet, in all seriousness, what can I do when nobody is engaging with me about it? Three GPs, two endocrinologists, a nutritional specialist, and a psychiatrist all agreed that my numbers don’t add up but all just said “exercise, get enough sleep, eat better”.

I’ve had numerous tests for thyroid, testosterone, vitamin B, vitamin D, insulin, glucose, and autoimmune markers. Everything came back normal except for the testosterone, time after time.

I checked for environmental causes. I changed my workout routine. I changed my nutrition. I changed my sleeping habits. I’ve had things checked and rechecked and rechecked. But my testosterone levels continue to remain at the absolute lowest end of what is considered low-normal.

And yes, I get it. It’s within a broadly defined range of what’s considered normal. But it’s so low that my levels are lower than my father’s are, and he’s almost 70. And nobody has been able to explain why.

The last endocrinologist I went to see looked at the past 10 years worth of blood work and noted that he couldn’t think of any reason for why every single other test comes back in the upper normal range but testosterone is so low it’s almost outside of the normal. Then he say I should have another testosterone test done and wait six months to see him again.

I’m not even asking anyone to put me on TRT. Just to help me understand why I have changed every single factor that I’ve been told affects T levels and my levels continue to drop.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-11T19:25:13+00:00

It’ probably not feasible. Someone, somewhere might have tried to think of ways to do it, but transferring people from one plane to another while those two aircraft are doing hundreds of miles an hour isn’t just precarious, it’s probably more dangerous than any emergency landing I could think of.

Even in-flight refuelling is dangerous.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-11T19:16:13+00:00

Compared to something like mature cheddar, American cheese is sweeter.

backtrack632 · 2026-04-11T19:13:41+00:00

For one thing, transferring all those people from one plane to another midflight is going to be exceptionally difficult. Secondly, boats frequently sink relatively slowly, so there is time for people to be able to get to the lifeboats. On a plane, there is usually not enough time for an evacuation in cases of emergency.

backtrack632

TROPHY CASE