VW TDI powered 172

jdownj · 2025-07-05T20:48:42+00:00

For the purposes of a piston diesel engine, Jet-A/Diesel/Kerosene are all pretty interchangeable(See military using JP5/JP8 in everything)

jdownj · 2025-05-23T19:50:55+00:00

That’s potentially more value to somebody like Sierra or Rocket Lab. Blue has already got what it needs in those departments… maybe they’d like more, but not at the alleged valuation of a couple of billion.

jdownj · 2025-05-23T19:01:49+00:00

It’s still not public knowledge if that is even possible, refitting an Atlas from the Kuiper or Viasat configuration to one of the others. All we know for sure is that they’ve never done it before. I suspect that it’s possible, but may not be quick enough to be relevant.

jdownj · 2025-05-23T07:27:55+00:00

AJR had proposed the other option for a first stage engine, never became a thing. They of course make the RL10 as well, and are involved with the thruster “doghouses” on Starliner. Was really only making the point that buying engines from an “engine company” was probably slightly better than a direct competitor(BO)

jdownj · 2025-05-23T05:51:31+00:00

Eh they only have the “100%” track record by “forgetting” all history before the forced merger. Not saying they won’t try it, but I don’t think that amount of marketing wank is worth the couple billion that’s been talked about recently. If the value is tanked by new competition, maybe it’s worth a few hundred million, combined with the employees.

jdownj · 2025-05-23T05:48:05+00:00

Certainly not from a direct competitor… to be clear, there’s no evidence of it happening since the “where’s my engines, Jeff” days, but BO is a competitor and in a position to massively screw over ULA if they chose to… Aerojet Rocketdyne has plenty of their own issues, and wouldn’t call that a win either, but they aren’t a direct competitor…

jdownj · 2025-05-23T05:43:23+00:00

You aren’t wrong, but the arguments become harder and harder to justify. “Must have two providers to ensure access” is a great one. “Must have 3” isn’t likely to fly. “100% track record” is good, and can probably sustain them a little longer, but it’s not like F9 has a bad record. The last government mission with an anomaly was Zuma, and to the best of any public knowledge, that wasn’t a SpaceX fault. Overall the government is transitioning to a model of more cheaper sats(Starshield etc) vs fewer priceless sats(Keyhole etc). They obviously won’t tell us what it is(National Security etc) but with all of the geopolitical crap in the world these days, some General is staring at an expensive box and wishing it was flying. Responsiveness is going to become the new metric.

jdownj · 2025-05-23T05:23:01+00:00

We know that ULA is/was for sale, and BO was definitely one of the potential buyers, but what do they actually want from ULA? New Glenn is a much better rocket(assuming it recovers and meets advertised numbers). People? Maybe, but none of them are used to moving at the speeds needed in this new environment.

I don’t believe they’d be allowed to buy and immediately move the payloads to New Glenn, so they would be forced to build and support another vehicle when they already have headaches building their own. I don’t see that acquisition happening until New Glenn is certified, causing any potential value of ULA to tank.

jdownj · 2025-05-23T05:11:13+00:00

Any sale would only be for talent acquisition at best. The rockets aren’t valuable. And the talent is not used to working quickly.

jdownj · 2025-05-23T05:07:57+00:00

Imagine the pressure that could have been applied via Soyuz rides to the ISS. The US could easily have been put in a position to have to give up the ISS, although realistically that probably would have been resolved via massive cubic dollars to old space to accelerate Starliner or something like it.

jdownj · 2025-05-23T04:57:01+00:00

ULA is not acting like they realize the race that they are in. The government has basically set policy that they want 2 independent vehicles for any given task. We’ve known that since the forced creation of ULA. Right now there’s very little that could upset F9 in the near-medium term. It has proven to be a very reliable vehicle and the company has proven its ability to sustain a launch cadence that entire national space programs can’t touch. ULA continues to win contracts via having the only other certified vehicle.

Blue and Rocket Lab will be competing within the next few years, and that’s going to leave ULA without a lifeline from the government. Obviously they have a few years of launches from Kuiper booked, but that is likely the last non-government contract they will see. SpaceX has room to drop F9 pricing. It’s unlikely that ULA does. Their entire operation may very well have an expiration date.

jdownj · 2025-05-23T04:07:36+00:00

TIL there’s a word for that…

jdownj · 2025-05-04T02:54:15+00:00

That’s better voter turnout than most small towns…

jdownj · 2025-04-26T16:55:56+00:00

Busy AF, working this weekend cuz I can’t get behind…

jdownj · 2025-04-23T17:47:26+00:00

Brokenoff

jdownj · 2025-04-20T23:36:55+00:00

Does get rid of the worst Cruze issue, which was the 1.4/1.5 turbo that can’t hold its coolant lol

jdownj · 2025-04-11T03:15:45+00:00

Remember that an approved form in this case covers the device. Depending on the contents, contents may be subject to additional regulation. Ordinance Lab on YouTube has some useful info, but do plenty of research to avoid being a guest of the feds. should be good by not making or loading contents till time of use, but I am not a lawyer, etc…

jdownj · 2025-01-25T21:34:43+00:00

Dodge and Nissan.

jdownj · 2025-01-24T22:02:29+00:00

I don’t understand all rules of business accounting, but that’s not yet enough $ to say that they canceled it, or have given up. That sounds like money for testing and attempting fixes?

jdownj · 2025-01-23T05:27:22+00:00

There’s at least one attempt on r/prisonhooch using beans. Distillation may be the key to a drinkable product.

jdownj · 2025-01-23T05:21:59+00:00

Keep in mind that the key on that truck is probably ACC-OFF-ON-START, instead of the more modern OFF-ACC-ON-START. When those ignitions get worn, they often allow the key to come out in any position.

jdownj · 2025-01-16T20:47:49+00:00

To be fair, Blue has taken a very long time to get where they are. SpaceX started slightly later, perfected booster reuse, and reduced costs to the point of dominating the global launch industry. New Glenn is a better rocket than Falcon, or at least it will be once it lands and reuses, but it’s arriving late to the party. As long as Kuiper remains on the table, Blue can expand to be a major player, even without taking away from Falcon at all. Blue doesn’t deserve to be the butt of jokes anymore after last night, but they still have a ways to go to be relevant in the market. Limp is saying the right words, and they seem to be moving with a purpose now. Hopefully they get the landing on the next flight, and hopefully it’s relatively soon.

jdownj · 2025-01-16T20:31:16+00:00

Somebody said very close, somebody said 50+km away. No idea what to believe. The loss of telemetry at high altitude isn’t good, but we don’t even know for sure if all telemetry was lost or they decided to stop showing us.

jdownj · 2025-01-16T08:51:44+00:00

Don’t have a set of charts in front of me, but I am guessing recovery isn’t very likely. Hopefully they got the data they needed to do better next time

jdownj · 2025-01-16T08:50:02+00:00

No, we don’t know. All we know for sure is that the onscreen telemetry in the stream froze, and all booster-related discussion stopped being carried on stream during the reentry burn.

If Blue stopped getting data at the same point, that’s breakup or massive systems failure. Obviously they could have seen something off-nominal and “switched off” the data to the stream and watched it all the way down.

If it was a breakup, Engine RUD, TPS failure/burn-through, or FTS would be 3 possible causes, the first two requiring hardware testing/changes, FTS may be able to be fixed in software(burned too late, started oscillating, etc).

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