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SpaceX's Helipad-Equipped Boat Will Bring Astronauts Safely Home
Next year when SpaceX starts shuttling astronauts to and from the ISS, the company will be using its Go Searcher ocean vessel to recover SpaceX's crewed Dragon capsules that splash down in the Atlantic Ocean. "The ship is now equipped for a worst-case-scenario with medical treatment facilities and a helipad, in case returning astronauts need to be evacuated quickly to a hospital," reports The Verge. From the report: Go Searcher is part of a fleet of ocean vessels that SpaceX has acquired over the years to aid in its spaceflight efforts. The most famous of these are SpaceX's autonomous drone ships, which are used as landing pads when the company's Falcon 9 rockets are recovered in the ocean after launches. Go Searcher used to accompany these drone ships when they were tugged back to shore as a support vessel. But at the end of summer, SpaceX gave Go Searcher a suite of upgrades -- including the addition of a helipad and a radar dome -- to make sure the boat can swiftly recover Dragon capsules that carry astronauts back to Earth.
As part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX has been developing the Crew Dragon capsule to take astronauts to the ISS. And the company is also responsible for getting these crews safely back to Earth. When astronauts need to return home, the plan is for the Crew Dragon to splash down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. During an ideal mission, Go Searcher will lift the Crew Dragon out of the water with a crane, attached to the end of the boat, according to NASA. The capsule will then be hauled onto the deck of Go Searcher, and the astronauts will be evaluated by doctors from SpaceX and NASA. But if something goes awry during the landing, astronauts can be airlifted directly off the boat via helicopter and taken to a hospital. The helicopter will also carry medical emergency personnel.
As part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX has been developing the Crew Dragon capsule to take astronauts to the ISS. And the company is also responsible for getting these crews safely back to Earth. When astronauts need to return home, the plan is for the Crew Dragon to splash down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. During an ideal mission, Go Searcher will lift the Crew Dragon out of the water with a crane, attached to the end of the boat, according to NASA. The capsule will then be hauled onto the deck of Go Searcher, and the astronauts will be evaluated by doctors from SpaceX and NASA. But if something goes awry during the landing, astronauts can be airlifted directly off the boat via helicopter and taken to a hospital. The helicopter will also carry medical emergency personnel.
If any physicists are around, I have some thought experiments for you. I'm going to post them on slashdot science articles likely to viewed by physicists.
They are a series of postulates and their justifications.
Please humour me. Read them, argue against them, call me a moron if you like, but *read* them.
Lets start with postulate A, mass isn't real.
Postulate A: Mass isn't real
Postulate B:
Postulate C:
Postulate D:
Postulate E:
Postulate E2:
POSTULATE F: The speed of light is obvious
POSTULATE G:
POSTULATE H:
Postulate I:
Postulate J:
Postulate J2:
Postulate K:
Postulate L:
----------
Postulate A: Mass isn't real
You have matter, which is {'stuff' with wave like properties plus energy}
And you have light, electro magnetic waves which are { 'stuff' with wave like properties plus energy}
And the two are interchangable, you can convert matter to light, light to matter.
And energy comes in two forms.
1) Kinetic, a velocity based energy (heat etc all related to this).
2) Electro Magnetic, some form of energy plus some form of wave like property conflated together.
And the two are not interchangeable. Unlike other energies, e.g. potential, heat, that are interchangeable.
Kinetic energy doesn't turn into electromagnetic, it misses this extra 'wave' like property.
You *can* convert matter to light (with the extra wave property) but not to kinetic (which is pure energy based on velocity).
Since light and matter are both wave like, and since light and matter are interchangable.... ...whatever gives matter its wave like property, also gives light its wave light property.
And this underlying 'wave' stuff must have zero mass, because when its in light it has no mass.
i.e. mass cannot form part of the fundamental model.
In light form, this wave stuff, is moving fast.
In matter form, it is stationary.
So the energy must be similar to kinetic when in light form.
And similar to bonds, binding it in place, when in matter form.
So all that's happened is that the stuff that makes up matter and light, has gone from being bound *tightly*
to being bound *loosely*. The energy has gone from *binding* energy to *velocity* energy.
So mass isn't a thing. It doesn't disappear and get replaced by energy, its simply a measure of how strong the binding
force is. Kinetic energy isn't related to mass, its related to the changes in binding force.
i.e. Mass isn't real, it's simply a measure of binding force potential. Postulate A .
Yes, the Russians have been putting people in space since the 1960's.
For a country that has a gross domestic product that falls just behind the US state of Texas, the Russian resolve to stay the course is admirable.
While recent developments in the US launch market will likely make Russian launches too expensive to be competitive once Boeing and SpaceX begin carrying humans in less than a year, I have no doubt that Russian engineers are up to the challenge of creating newer and more competitive systems. I sincerely hope that Russia can come up with something faster, cheaper, and better than SpaceX, or anyone, as this would be competitive progress that would benefit all of humanity.
Good luck in all your peaceful endeavors.
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells
I remember watching TV of the astronauts being recovered by the Hornet. A ship which housed some 3000 crew, and got about 18 feet per gallon of oil burned. It's in Alameda now (where they keep the naval wessels :-) and you can walk around a lot of it unsupervised, and get a tour of the rest.
It was overkill then, but I am not aware of a smaller helicopter carrier in service back then.
And now, we have a lot better idea of where the capsule is coming down.
Bruce Perens.
Do please tell Mr. Rogozin that we have the trampoline he ordered.
Bruce Perens.
For a country that has a gross domestic product that falls just behind the US state of Texas
You should have realized meanwhile that GDP is not really a meaningful number.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... population: 325 million.
https://www.reuters.com/articl... population: 145 million
A meaningful number is how much goods and services are produced by worker/citizen. I live in Thailand, if I'm not working, and work in Germany. The GPD is very different ... the quality of life and even some prices are higher in Thailand ... don't even know how big the difference on GDP is ...
In other words: if a country like Greece doubles its prices for everything (which they stupidly did after joining the Euro zone), they double their GDP ... without doubeling anything.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
It's funny because I think physics became a religion with physicists worshiping Einstein and Bohr and ignoring the basic flaws in the model they are presented.....
But we have to wait till enough people see Postulate A, because the later postulates stem from each other. I promise a DUH moment at F, a plot twist at G, a holy f...k at K, and a happy ending at L.
Thrills and rides, and some backstory at J2.
But I need a few physicists and science articles to come along over the next days to post it.
Go back to hammering sensors, Ivan'o'square.
Yawn. This company is so BORING!!!1
What a yawn fest. Unbelievably BORING!
haha
C wot eye did thar?
1. All particles are wave like, all exhibit wave properties.
2. Matter to photon is easier:
e.g. particle + anti-particle to photon.
e.g. Turn on a torch.
3. Photon to matter is even easier:
To convert light to matter, shine it onto an absoption body and get it absorbed.
Both the wave and the energy are absorbed.
If it doesn't affect the binding of the matter then it doesn't change the 'mass', but it does become part of the body that absorbed it.
It does become part of the matter. Both mass and wave are absorbed.
Thank you for that.
Seems rather pollyannaish to be looking at capsule and personnel recovery with a skeleton crew. These things don't always go swimmingly, e.g.,
https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/with-every-splashdown-nasa-embraces-the-legacy-of-gus-grissom/
I sincerely hope that Russia can come up with something faster, cheaper, and better than SpaceX, or anyone
"Russian Physics - Now with fewer moving parts!"
What's the speed of light?
American components, Russian components; all made in Taiwan!
And the second beast performed great signs to cause even fire from heaven to come down to earth in the sight of men.
What is Winter Sunlight?
For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion(operation of wandering)(planet) so that they will believe the lie.
... we picked up the Gemini capsules back in the day.
Astronauts Eugene Cernan (left), and Thomas Stafford receive a warm welcome as they arrive aboard the prime recovery ship, the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Wasp. [June 6, 1966]
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.