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ChairmanAgnostic

(28,017 posts)
Thu Aug 29, 2013, 02:06 PM Aug 2013

Big shiny metal god reaches sky with flames shooting out of its ass!

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-biggest-rocket-launch-20130828,0,723303.story

Peoples fell to their knees, wondering if god was leaving them for good! Others prayed, opened their fairy tale books, and read aloud, hoping that the gods would heed their wishes. Still others turned on massively powerful computing systems, to better analyze the spying data that this huge flying beast would soon bring them.

The NSA conveniently ignored the launch, but apparently, this will be a replacement for the oldest Keyhole satellite orbiting the earth for at least 8 years.

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Big shiny metal god reaches sky with flames shooting out of its ass! (Original Post) ChairmanAgnostic Aug 2013 OP
How does anyone wrap their head around such numbers? RC Aug 2013 #1
I was at the Cape, actually 20 miles away, when the space shuttle launched. ChairmanAgnostic Aug 2013 #2
I was 5 miles away from a shuttle launch once hootinholler Aug 2013 #8
Pretty heavy stuff: jsr Aug 2013 #12
Did someone say "metal god"?? arcane1 Aug 2013 #3
LOL ChairmanAgnostic Aug 2013 #5
maybe Marblehead Aug 2013 #4
not something to deploy unless one plans on using it. n/t nebenaube Aug 2013 #6
they could Marblehead Aug 2013 #7
I doubt they could keep them up there... nebenaube Aug 2013 #9
always thought the saturn 5 was supposed to be our largest--take it this is larger? dembotoz Aug 2013 #10
We forgot how to make a Saturn 5 hunter Aug 2013 #13
urban legend, that was put to death repeatedly ChairmanAgnostic Aug 2013 #14
I said "it would take a huge effort to recreate something like that..." hunter Aug 2013 #15
I took a class held by NASA's blacksmith ChairmanAgnostic Aug 2013 #17
Art! It's everywhere. hunter Aug 2013 #19
that's awesome. what an object to treasure. ChairmanAgnostic Aug 2013 #20
My father-in-law escaped his Mexican farmworker heritage as a Marine medic. hunter Aug 2013 #22
This was the largest to launch from Vandenberg. n/t cherokeeprogressive Aug 2013 #21
ROFL malaise Aug 2013 #11
This immediately came to mind: Initech Aug 2013 #16
REMEMBER MEEEEE NuclearDem Aug 2013 #18
 

RC

(25,592 posts)
1. How does anyone wrap their head around such numbers?
Thu Aug 29, 2013, 02:12 PM
Aug 2013
were guzzling nearly a ton of propellants per second to provide 17 million horsepower.


That had to be one heavy satellite.

ChairmanAgnostic

(28,017 posts)
2. I was at the Cape, actually 20 miles away, when the space shuttle launched.
Reply to RC (Reply #1)
Thu Aug 29, 2013, 02:15 PM
Aug 2013

The noise, even that far, was incredible. It was an incredible sight.

What gets me is this is even more powerful.

hootinholler

(26,449 posts)
8. I was 5 miles away from a shuttle launch once
Sat Aug 31, 2013, 09:32 AM
Aug 2013

You could feel it in your chest!

My mom lived near the test site for the main engines. She was 10 miles away and the tests would rattle her windows.

 

nebenaube

(3,496 posts)
9. I doubt they could keep them up there...
Sat Aug 31, 2013, 09:42 AM
Aug 2013

Eventually, the orbit will decay as any fuel left burns off.

hunter

(38,240 posts)
13. We forgot how to make a Saturn 5
Sat Aug 31, 2013, 11:16 AM
Aug 2013

Literally.

Engineers retired, "institutional knowledge" was lost, tooling scrapped or dispersed.

The Saturn 5 was largely designed on paper, using slide rules to do the math.

It's still the most powerful launch system ever built.

Microfilms of the blueprints and technical specs still exist but it would take a huge effort to recreate something like that. In any case, incorporating modern materials, control systems, etc., into the design would make it a different machine entirely.

Imagine putting fuel injection and a modern ignition system on a 1965 Mustang. You'd still have a car that drove like a 1965 Mustang. There's no comparison between that and a modern car with computer-designed suspension, safety systems, etc. The last time I drove an old Mustang our regular car was a 1984 Toyota Camry. In comparison to the Camry the Mustang felt very rough, unsafe, and unstable. The first time I drove a Mustang, back when I first got my drivers license, I remembered driving the same car and thinking it was awesome.

ChairmanAgnostic

(28,017 posts)
14. urban legend, that was put to death repeatedly
Sat Aug 31, 2013, 01:20 PM
Aug 2013

we could make one starting tomorrow. However, finding vacuum tubes and far weaker alloys might be a problem. In electronics alone, today's version would save several tons simply because of better (and lighter) computing, wiring, and controls.

hunter

(38,240 posts)
15. I said "it would take a huge effort to recreate something like that..."
Sat Aug 31, 2013, 02:11 PM
Aug 2013

Not the more common "urban legend" which I was unaware of.

My grandfather was an engineer on the Apollo project. His specialty was making "impossible" parts from titanium. Of course it wasn't impossible because the parts were made. At the time titanium was considered a notoriously difficult material to work with. We didn't know then what we know now.

There was a lot of intuition, experimentation, and gut-feelings involved in the work, not to mention figuring out what the Nazis and the Soviet Union had accomplished.

My grandfather was an officer in the Army Air Force during World War II, he had a high security clearance, and that's probably where he picked up the art. He never flew a plane, which was his romantic notion when he first enlisted years before the war.

So yeah, I'll stand by what I said. We couldn't build another machine like that, nor would we want to.




ChairmanAgnostic

(28,017 posts)
17. I took a class held by NASA's blacksmith
Sat Aug 31, 2013, 03:04 PM
Aug 2013

(yes, they had a blacksmith)

His specialty was making certain parts for the shuttle engine, parts that could not be machined. His favorite metal was titanium, and the guy was brilliant with a hammer, flame and tongs. He also knew his metals. I wonder if the 3D manufacturing can replace what he did.

hunter

(38,240 posts)
19. Art! It's everywhere.
Sat Aug 31, 2013, 04:52 PM
Aug 2013

My dad's an artist. I imagine my grandfather was an artist too, but by circumstances and in his scramble to find a career after the war ended he became an engineer in the aerospace industry.

I have his Apollo 8 appreciation medallion "...carried metal in this medallion to the moon." It's not that valuable on ebay (they made 200,000 of them) but it was valuable to him. He worked some very long days after the Apollo I disaster on the Command Module redesign.

He was most proud of his contributions to the Apollo Program. I suspect his wartime Army Air Force work was a little sketchy. He was the handsome officer in a spiffy uniform, slightly intimidating, who carried the "Get Out of Jail Free" card. He showed up whenever someone deemed critical to the war effort ended up in the slammer for public drunkenness, drug use, homosexual acts, or running naked down some small-town Virginia or Maryland Main Street yelling obscenities in German or Russian.

World War Two was a stressful time. He never talked about that.

ChairmanAgnostic

(28,017 posts)
20. that's awesome. what an object to treasure.
Sat Aug 31, 2013, 05:03 PM
Aug 2013

my dad served in order to become a citizen. I recently found his discharge papers, he was shocked that they still exist. BUt he could recite them word for word.

hunter

(38,240 posts)
22. My father-in-law escaped his Mexican farmworker heritage as a Marine medic.
Sat Aug 31, 2013, 06:48 PM
Aug 2013

He got to witness an atomic bomb explosion up close, from a hole in the ground. Then he got to march across ground zero hours later.The Navy paid for his college education and later he got a union professional job. He's one of the lucky ones -- nuclear fallout resistant.

My dad crossed his fingers and hoped he wouldn't be sent to Korea. He wasn't. Dumb luck. He never left Fort Ord or Camp Roberts.



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