SpaceX is yet to really prove themselves as a launch company, let alone Armadillo....
Oh yeah, I forgot that SpaceX has never had a Successful Launch with any of their Falcon 1 rockets yet.
And before you start saying, "Yeah, 3 failures and 2 successes is not really a good record." Please see the beginning launch history of the Atlas Rocket Family and other currently common launch vehicle systems. All rockets start out with a few bugs and, once those bugs are worked out, they tend to go into production mode where they can turn out successful launches repetitively. The Falcon I is already there or at least very very close. The Falcon 9 is just the next stage in the game for Space X.
Oh if only I had mod points. Larson hit the nail on the head with this one. Chemical rockets really do have a law of diminishing returns when it comes to cost vs. payload size. If we don't start moving to smaller, mass production type launch capability America's space program is going to stagnate more so than it already has (40 year moon anniversary anyone?).
That being said, let's hope some of the decision makers make a point to read slashdot and comments like this one...
Also, three cheers for the commercial space programs. SpaceX, I think you should lead the industry in a group hug =)
I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure I would rather *NOT* remember a good part of what happened before I woke up in that graveyard half naked...
To this day the most confident, rational, and competent people I know are the kids I grew up with which got their asses kicked across a parking lot at least once during middle school or high school. Every single one of them got in some good blows themselves and could sit there afterword bleeding out the nose or mouth smiling that they at least had a chance to 'shut that guy up' who wouldn't lay off of of them. It's completely anecdotal, but I have to say that I agree with what you posted in every respect. Tasting your own blood is a memorable and grounding experience in life that more people need to experience, in my opinion.
An entire generation or more has been raised to believe in its own innate and unearned importance...
That is quite a sweeping generalization. I am not sure which generation you are referring to, but if it is my own (I am 23) I would be inclined to disagree with you via a caveat. I will agree that, in general, there are quite a few folks who fit the description that you just posted. Nonetheless, I would caveat that there are some of us, in every generation (not just my own) that know without a doubt that we do not have unlimited entitlement and rights. There are even some of us that know that the Law is not an institution to be used for the abuse of personal gain. In fact, some of us, in every generation, outright abhor the strange exponential increase in the complexity of the Law in general.
So, in principle, I agree that there are quite a few folk out there that think the way you mentioned, using the term, 'an entire generation' really does disrespect those of us that try to remain rational, calm, pragmatic, and realistic. Please, don't lump entire groups of people together as if we are all just walking stereotypes to be typified into a particular Aristotelian category. There are always shades of gray.
The interviewee mentions that both LaGrange point orbits, as well as a few other options, are also being considered. Reading the interview, which is part of the article, can sometimes reveal useful information like this.
Also, to be pedantic, you would still need some fuel on a LaGrange spacecraft for station-keeping purposes. Though this amount would be minimal, you can't justifiably claim that you wouldn't need *ANY* fuel.
With regards to the night vision goggle thing. One of the theaters in a town I worked in for a summer did this. It annoyed me so I had one of my friends who was a photographer rig me up a cheap flasher from a camera (I don't know what the technical term is). The next time I saw an attendant wearing those goggles I set the flash off (I didn't even point it at him). He yelped and ran out of the theater. The theater got sued by the employee and they don't use those night vision goggles anymore....
now not okay to smile when you get your license picture taken where I live (planning for the future of biometrics, I suppose
I live in California and, to my knowledge, no such restriction applies on our license pictures. Nonetheless, when I renewed my license recently to have my motorcycle certification added to it the lady at the counter in DMV explained to me (after I flashed a reckless grin for the picture) that they preferred pictures where the person being photographed wasn't smiling. She said it made identification purposes smoother. Now, this young lady was, in my opinion, nowhere near attractive, but, in the most enthusiastic voice I could muster I explained to her that I couldn't help but smile when I laid my eyes on a girl as pretty as her.
She blushed and took a picture of me smiling like a grinning idiot. It's amazing what a little social engineering can do since so many situations occur at a personal level;)
I've noticed that general trend in society as I've gotten out of school and have been growing older. The younger folks that I know (myself included sometimes) tend to prefer experience by proxy rather then direct experience. There seems to be a severe disconnect growing between reality and the 'virtual' world. I don't know if this stems from some kind of inherent fear or psychological issue in folk or whether it is just a natural evolution of a 'progressing' society. It does seem sad to me though, that more kids would rather press multicolored buttons on a guitar-shaped stick all day than actually learn how to pluck a screen.
Ah well, leave the boring to the boring and experience life for yourself I suppose. It's a much more enlightening lifestyle to try things for real rather than be a passive observer =)
Unsurprisingly, all of it can't be stored. There's a dedicated group of people whose only job is to make sure that only relevant information is extracted, and another small group whose only job is to make sure that all this information can be stored, accessed, and processed at large scales.
I didn't know they needed perl coders at CERN. No wonder everyone is afraid of the LHC destroying the world...
Hmmm, I don't understand why this post was modded Troll. I guess it has to do with it being tossed up by AC, but it doesn't seem particularly inflammatory or abusive. I mean, it's an opinion not based on fact, sure, so maybe an offtopic mod is in order, but troll, really?
However JJ Richards of Massive wants you to give it a chance, claiming that if done correctly it can not only work, but actually enhance the overall experience.
I could have told you that. I've been craving some ice-cold Quantum Nuka Cola ever since roaming the capital wastes. And I know for a fact that if the Chinese ever invade my red, white, and blue sister state of Alaska that my government will run the Commie bastards out of the frozen wastes before they know what hit them! Now please excuse me while I go pray to my loard and savior John Henry Eden and attend to some....errr...personal business....
Although online image search generates many inappropriate results, our system is able to automatically select suitable photographs to generate a high quality composition, using a filtering scheme to exclude undesirable images
Sounds like they took all the fun out of it to me....
...nothing is going to deter that opinion. There are believers for everything, no matter how wrong-headed it might seem.
Some of us swamp ourselves with information via the internet and other sources specifically so that our beliefs will get deterred. While I agree that most people don't like hearing people scathe their personal beliefs with rebuttal, criticism, wit, and/or stupidity, there are others among us that actually enjoy the experience...if for no other reason than to seek 'knowledge' for its own sake.
Wikileaks is a wonderful source for those of us who have made a hobby out of inundating ourselves with contradicting information and evidence.
'However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pacemakers, space satellites, and underwater systems.'"
If this quote even reaches only one anti-nuclear nutjob and opens their eyes, just a little, to the benefits that nuclear energy can provide when handled safely and appropriately, then the world will be a slightly better place. This message needs to get spread around and stated by every single physicist, engineer, mathematician, and wrench monkey that works in any field associated with nuclear energy. It needs to be stated in every single press conference, peer-reviewed journal, and twitter feed by anyone talking about the subject that has any authority. Simply by throwing this short little blip into his discussion, Jae Wan Kwon has already earned more respect in my eyes than Michio Kaku...
This is probably redundant but it seems odd to me to award someone a prize for hoping that they are going to do something great. I mean, sure, Obama has definitely shown us that there are Americans with good smiles and good acting capabilities...but if that's what he is being awarded for why hasn't Brad Pitt landed one of these babies?
I suppose that the committee has the right to give the prize out to whoever they want for whatever they want but giving it to someone for their efforts and implying that, hopefully, those efforts will pay off one day just seems like an absurd case of futurism: "We predict that amazing things will come from this man, so we are going to award him for those things now." What if he gets shot? What if zombies attack before any of his work can pay off? What if our recent bombing of the moon (teehee) backfires and the intergalactic police invade our planet for vandalism? I know these are absurd examples but the point is that tomorrow is never promised (hell I'm not convinced it even exists in anything but our imaginations), and that even holds true for the invincible Barack Obama.
I guess giving it to him for his efforts is decent enough to offset this, but hell, I think a lot of people have been putting effort into making the world a better place, whether it be through blogging or grassroots activism or science experiments or white-hat hacking. Why don't they get prizes too? They are putting in major efforts as well right?
While I am not so sure that China will make it to the moon anytime soon, I think the belief that they will comes from a different approach to the problem than we take in America. America is a very risk adverse society in general and this has filtered heavily into our space program. We spend, literally, billions of dollars every year in this country building up infrastructure and bureaucracy within companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Gruman to design and manufacture very complex technical systems (read rockets and spacecraft) which have a 95% + success factor. I have worked on spacecraft design projects and getting a risk analysis with that high of a success rate is incredibly difficult. We are talking about connecting multiple valves, switches, screws, cables, etc. (parts level components) that each come with their own failure/success rating. These get implemented into triple and quad redundant designs so that the risk models can show parallel success paths which is what eventually allows the final massive system to have a 95% + success rating. All of this requires extraordinary amounts of personnel, and, as the number of people working on a project increase, so does the accompanying paperwork and approval meetings and so on. Thus, in order to launch one damn rocket, America literally employs tens of thousands of people at all levels micromanaging every single screw in a system (no, really, I did screw tracking for a summer internship once...Lockheed Martin never loses screws...).
The Chinese culture, currently, allows a different approach to be taken. Primarily, China takes after Russia in its approach to space access. Their motto basically boils down to, "Keep it simple and make 2 just in case." Russia, for instance, has multiple factories capable of literally assembling entire launch vehicle systems rapidly down miles of assembly line. Parts come in by train and are moved down miles of assembly line in huge factories and, basically, a complete rocket is spit out the other side of the factory. Is there as much analysis and modeling of risk and failure potential? No. Do the Russians care? No. If this particular rocket blows up, hell, just use the next one off the assembly line. What about the payload? Well hopefully the customer was smart enough to keep it simple as well and made two. China takes a similar approach. They also trade cost for risk. By not over-designing their systems, they can keep the cost low and produce tangible results faster. However, there is a higher likely-hood that the duct tape holding the vent open will tear and the rocket will explode. Nonetheless, they have backups so they don't worry about it. From an external point of view, however, it appears that they are doing exactly what America is doing at twice the rate twice as well. That's not entirely true, they just take a very different mission approach.
To be complete, just about every culture has its own quirky design methodologies. Russians are pragmatic and get the job done. Americans value safety and low-failure rates. The Japanese spend a lot of time and effort streamlining and optimizing their manufacturing process. Every culture has a different approach because every culture is made up of slightly different values. To use a metaphor, there is more than one way to the top of the mountain. Americans try to chose the safest. It gives off the appearance that they are slow and wasteful (and to some extent we are) when compared to trailblazing 'craizes' like Russia and China. Nonetheless, all paths have their potential benefits and disadvantages. =)
The first application mentioned, the one that assigns user-specific keys/passwords based on typing habits seems like a very impressive and inventive new method of security. Nonetheless, my primary concern would be that it would lock people out of their computers/applications when they have had a little much to drink. On the bright side, I suppose it could cut down on some of the poorer quality Youtube comments and twitter posts...then again, maybe not...
I'd be glad if someone can come up with a fashion that looks decently "business like", is practical and doesn't involve ties and zillions of buttons.
Hawaiian shirts and blue jeans. I've been rocking them in business casual environments for years now and haven't had my dress code questioned once. They are light, practical, fun, kinda classy (with an appropriate mindset) and don't require a uniform change before you head to the bars after the job;)
Though I must say, that particular style starts to look a little funny when I accessorize with with my motorcycle boots and Thinkgeek gadget hip holster. Maybe its less accepted and more 'ignored because it makes people uncomfortable' than I thought....hmmmm...
Slashdot Mirror
SpaceX is yet to really prove themselves as a launch company, let alone Armadillo. ...
Oh yeah, I forgot that SpaceX has never had a Successful Launch with any of their Falcon 1 rockets yet.
And before you start saying, "Yeah, 3 failures and 2 successes is not really a good record." Please see the beginning launch history of the Atlas Rocket Family and other currently common launch vehicle systems. All rockets start out with a few bugs and, once those bugs are worked out, they tend to go into production mode where they can turn out successful launches repetitively. The Falcon I is already there or at least very very close. The Falcon 9 is just the next stage in the game for Space X.
Oh if only I had mod points. Larson hit the nail on the head with this one. Chemical rockets really do have a law of diminishing returns when it comes to cost vs. payload size. If we don't start moving to smaller, mass production type launch capability America's space program is going to stagnate more so than it already has (40 year moon anniversary anyone?).
That being said, let's hope some of the decision makers make a point to read slashdot and comments like this one...
Also, three cheers for the commercial space programs. SpaceX, I think you should lead the industry in a group hug =)
I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure I would rather *NOT* remember a good part of what happened before I woke up in that graveyard half naked...
For their ergonomic keyboards?
Not until they institute a '-1 VerbalTeabagging' moderation .... or should that be a +1?
To this day the most confident, rational, and competent people I know are the kids I grew up with which got their asses kicked across a parking lot at least once during middle school or high school. Every single one of them got in some good blows themselves and could sit there afterword bleeding out the nose or mouth smiling that they at least had a chance to 'shut that guy up' who wouldn't lay off of of them. It's completely anecdotal, but I have to say that I agree with what you posted in every respect. Tasting your own blood is a memorable and grounding experience in life that more people need to experience, in my opinion.
An entire generation or more has been raised to believe in its own innate and unearned importance...
That is quite a sweeping generalization. I am not sure which generation you are referring to, but if it is my own (I am 23) I would be inclined to disagree with you via a caveat. I will agree that, in general, there are quite a few folks who fit the description that you just posted. Nonetheless, I would caveat that there are some of us, in every generation (not just my own) that know without a doubt that we do not have unlimited entitlement and rights. There are even some of us that know that the Law is not an institution to be used for the abuse of personal gain. In fact, some of us, in every generation, outright abhor the strange exponential increase in the complexity of the Law in general.
So, in principle, I agree that there are quite a few folk out there that think the way you mentioned, using the term, 'an entire generation' really does disrespect those of us that try to remain rational, calm, pragmatic, and realistic. Please, don't lump entire groups of people together as if we are all just walking stereotypes to be typified into a particular Aristotelian category. There are always shades of gray.
The interviewee mentions that both LaGrange point orbits, as well as a few other options, are also being considered. Reading the interview, which is part of the article, can sometimes reveal useful information like this.
Also, to be pedantic, you would still need some fuel on a LaGrange spacecraft for station-keeping purposes. Though this amount would be minimal, you can't justifiably claim that you wouldn't need *ANY* fuel.
Cheers Mate.
With regards to the night vision goggle thing. One of the theaters in a town I worked in for a summer did this. It annoyed me so I had one of my friends who was a photographer rig me up a cheap flasher from a camera (I don't know what the technical term is). The next time I saw an attendant wearing those goggles I set the flash off (I didn't even point it at him). He yelped and ran out of the theater. The theater got sued by the employee and they don't use those night vision goggles anymore....
Naw, the Ubuntu code name is Vegetarian Velociraptor.
Uh oh, Randall Munroe is going to shit himself....
now not okay to smile when you get your license picture taken where I live (planning for the future of biometrics, I suppose
I live in California and, to my knowledge, no such restriction applies on our license pictures. Nonetheless, when I renewed my license recently to have my motorcycle certification added to it the lady at the counter in DMV explained to me (after I flashed a reckless grin for the picture) that they preferred pictures where the person being photographed wasn't smiling. She said it made identification purposes smoother. Now, this young lady was, in my opinion, nowhere near attractive, but, in the most enthusiastic voice I could muster I explained to her that I couldn't help but smile when I laid my eyes on a girl as pretty as her.
;)
She blushed and took a picture of me smiling like a grinning idiot. It's amazing what a little social engineering can do since so many situations occur at a personal level
I've noticed that general trend in society as I've gotten out of school and have been growing older. The younger folks that I know (myself included sometimes) tend to prefer experience by proxy rather then direct experience. There seems to be a severe disconnect growing between reality and the 'virtual' world. I don't know if this stems from some kind of inherent fear or psychological issue in folk or whether it is just a natural evolution of a 'progressing' society. It does seem sad to me though, that more kids would rather press multicolored buttons on a guitar-shaped stick all day than actually learn how to pluck a screen.
Ah well, leave the boring to the boring and experience life for yourself I suppose. It's a much more enlightening lifestyle to try things for real rather than be a passive observer =)
Unsurprisingly, all of it can't be stored. There's a dedicated group of people whose only job is to make sure that only relevant information is extracted, and another small group whose only job is to make sure that all this information can be stored, accessed, and processed at large scales.
I didn't know they needed perl coders at CERN. No wonder everyone is afraid of the LHC destroying the world...
=P
Hmmm, I don't understand why this post was modded Troll. I guess it has to do with it being tossed up by AC, but it doesn't seem particularly inflammatory or abusive. I mean, it's an opinion not based on fact, sure, so maybe an offtopic mod is in order, but troll, really?
Ah well, just another day on slashdot I spose...
However JJ Richards of Massive wants you to give it a chance, claiming that if done correctly it can not only work, but actually enhance the overall experience.
I could have told you that. I've been craving some ice-cold Quantum Nuka Cola ever since roaming the capital wastes. And I know for a fact that if the Chinese ever invade my red, white, and blue sister state of Alaska that my government will run the Commie bastards out of the frozen wastes before they know what hit them! Now please excuse me while I go pray to my loard and savior John Henry Eden and attend to some....errr...personal business....
Must....find...more....blue...preciousness....
Although online image search generates many inappropriate results, our system is able to automatically select suitable photographs to generate a high quality composition, using a filtering scheme to exclude undesirable images
Sounds like they took all the fun out of it to me....
...nothing is going to deter that opinion. There are believers for everything, no matter how wrong-headed it might seem.
Some of us swamp ourselves with information via the internet and other sources specifically so that our beliefs will get deterred. While I agree that most people don't like hearing people scathe their personal beliefs with rebuttal, criticism, wit, and/or stupidity, there are others among us that actually enjoy the experience...if for no other reason than to seek 'knowledge' for its own sake.
Wikileaks is a wonderful source for those of us who have made a hobby out of inundating ourselves with contradicting information and evidence.
Thanks for the response =)
;)
No ROC is necessary, I was just curious if you guys took that into account or not, seems like you did. Good luck on the funding
'However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pacemakers, space satellites, and underwater systems.'"
If this quote even reaches only one anti-nuclear nutjob and opens their eyes, just a little, to the benefits that nuclear energy can provide when handled safely and appropriately, then the world will be a slightly better place. This message needs to get spread around and stated by every single physicist, engineer, mathematician, and wrench monkey that works in any field associated with nuclear energy. It needs to be stated in every single press conference, peer-reviewed journal, and twitter feed by anyone talking about the subject that has any authority. Simply by throwing this short little blip into his discussion, Jae Wan Kwon has already earned more respect in my eyes than Michio Kaku...
This is probably redundant but it seems odd to me to award someone a prize for hoping that they are going to do something great. I mean, sure, Obama has definitely shown us that there are Americans with good smiles and good acting capabilities...but if that's what he is being awarded for why hasn't Brad Pitt landed one of these babies?
I suppose that the committee has the right to give the prize out to whoever they want for whatever they want but giving it to someone for their efforts and implying that, hopefully, those efforts will pay off one day just seems like an absurd case of futurism: "We predict that amazing things will come from this man, so we are going to award him for those things now." What if he gets shot? What if zombies attack before any of his work can pay off? What if our recent bombing of the moon (teehee) backfires and the intergalactic police invade our planet for vandalism? I know these are absurd examples but the point is that tomorrow is never promised (hell I'm not convinced it even exists in anything but our imaginations), and that even holds true for the invincible Barack Obama.
I guess giving it to him for his efforts is decent enough to offset this, but hell, I think a lot of people have been putting effort into making the world a better place, whether it be through blogging or grassroots activism or science experiments or white-hat hacking. Why don't they get prizes too? They are putting in major efforts as well right?
Odd...
While I am not so sure that China will make it to the moon anytime soon, I think the belief that they will comes from a different approach to the problem than we take in America. America is a very risk adverse society in general and this has filtered heavily into our space program. We spend, literally, billions of dollars every year in this country building up infrastructure and bureaucracy within companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Gruman to design and manufacture very complex technical systems (read rockets and spacecraft) which have a 95% + success factor. I have worked on spacecraft design projects and getting a risk analysis with that high of a success rate is incredibly difficult. We are talking about connecting multiple valves, switches, screws, cables, etc. (parts level components) that each come with their own failure/success rating. These get implemented into triple and quad redundant designs so that the risk models can show parallel success paths which is what eventually allows the final massive system to have a 95% + success rating. All of this requires extraordinary amounts of personnel, and, as the number of people working on a project increase, so does the accompanying paperwork and approval meetings and so on. Thus, in order to launch one damn rocket, America literally employs tens of thousands of people at all levels micromanaging every single screw in a system (no, really, I did screw tracking for a summer internship once...Lockheed Martin never loses screws...).
The Chinese culture, currently, allows a different approach to be taken. Primarily, China takes after Russia in its approach to space access. Their motto basically boils down to, "Keep it simple and make 2 just in case." Russia, for instance, has multiple factories capable of literally assembling entire launch vehicle systems rapidly down miles of assembly line. Parts come in by train and are moved down miles of assembly line in huge factories and, basically, a complete rocket is spit out the other side of the factory. Is there as much analysis and modeling of risk and failure potential? No. Do the Russians care? No. If this particular rocket blows up, hell, just use the next one off the assembly line. What about the payload? Well hopefully the customer was smart enough to keep it simple as well and made two. China takes a similar approach. They also trade cost for risk. By not over-designing their systems, they can keep the cost low and produce tangible results faster. However, there is a higher likely-hood that the duct tape holding the vent open will tear and the rocket will explode. Nonetheless, they have backups so they don't worry about it. From an external point of view, however, it appears that they are doing exactly what America is doing at twice the rate twice as well. That's not entirely true, they just take a very different mission approach.
To be complete, just about every culture has its own quirky design methodologies. Russians are pragmatic and get the job done. Americans value safety and low-failure rates. The Japanese spend a lot of time and effort streamlining and optimizing their manufacturing process. Every culture has a different approach because every culture is made up of slightly different values. To use a metaphor, there is more than one way to the top of the mountain. Americans try to chose the safest. It gives off the appearance that they are slow and wasteful (and to some extent we are) when compared to trailblazing 'craizes' like Russia and China. Nonetheless, all paths have their potential benefits and disadvantages. =)
I for one welcome our variable-pressure overloads?
All your pressures are belong to us?
Imagine a pressurized beowolf cluster of these? (maybe for an octopus or something...)
In soviet russia, keyboard pressures you!
My keystrokes go to 11?
Fuck everything, we're going to 5 pressure settings?
Hmmmm, I am having trouble coming up with a slash-meme for this particular article...perhaps a car analogy is in order?
It seems my slash-fu is weak...I still have much to learn....
The first application mentioned, the one that assigns user-specific keys/passwords based on typing habits seems like a very impressive and inventive new method of security. Nonetheless, my primary concern would be that it would lock people out of their computers/applications when they have had a little much to drink. On the bright side, I suppose it could cut down on some of the poorer quality Youtube comments and twitter posts...then again, maybe not...
So, do 'gamers' get + or - points for identifying crimes and bullying and corruption events perpetrated by law enforcement? =P
I'd be glad if someone can come up with a fashion that looks decently "business like", is practical and doesn't involve ties and zillions of buttons.
Hawaiian shirts and blue jeans. I've been rocking them in business casual environments for years now and haven't had my dress code questioned once. They are light, practical, fun, kinda classy (with an appropriate mindset) and don't require a uniform change before you head to the bars after the job ;)
Though I must say, that particular style starts to look a little funny when I accessorize with with my motorcycle boots and Thinkgeek gadget hip holster. Maybe its less accepted and more 'ignored because it makes people uncomfortable' than I thought....hmmmm...