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February 24, 2021 Archives
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: NASA Perseverance Mars Rover Images Impact of Sky-Crane that Delivered It
A moment of respect for the descent stage. Within two minutes of safely delivering me to the surface of Mars, I caught the smoke plume on one of my Hazcams from its intentional surface impact — an act that protected me and the scientific integrity of my landing site. pic.twitter.com/bG4dekrbvJ
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 24, 2021
Posted at
22:39
TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: A Thorium-228 Nuclear “Lightbulb” Rocket
This is the strangest nuclear rocket design I've come across:https://t.co/RvvbeX0dm9
— ToughSF (@ToughSf) February 24, 2021
Powered by the 180 kW/kg decay of thorium isotopes, it delivers heat to a hydrogen propellant not by conduction, but optically through a cerium-doped window!
A 'lightbulb' radioisotope rocket! pic.twitter.com/QHDVQ4Z1mM
Posted at
21:18
CONTINUITY: “The Magnetic Office”—IBM Mag Card Selectric Typewriter, 1969
If they can put a man on the Moon, they can keep a “girl” from having to retype the whole page when the boss changes one word! This seems laughably crude today, but it was a miracle compared to doing it all manually, and IBM's “user interface” for editing was pure genius.
Posted at
16:09
TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: United Airlines Flight 328 NTSB Press Briefing Summary
Yesterday, 2020-02-23, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board held a press briefing about the investigation of the fan blade failure on the Boeing 777-200 operating United Airlines flight 328. Juan Browne presents a summary with the key take-aways from preliminary examination of the event.
Here is the complete NTSB briefing.
Posted at
13:07
THE HAPPENING WORLD: SpaceX Starship SN10 Static Firing
The engine firing only took about a second. This video shows it from various directions, with pre- and post-firing operations. After the test SpaceX said that performance of one of the three engines was “suspect” and it will be changed out, with another static firing before the vehicle is cleared for flight. The next static firing may be as soon as 2021-02-24.
Posted at
12:51
CONTEXT: Landing on Mars Like You’ve Never Seen It Before
Here is Scott Manley's analysis and commentary on the Perseverance Mars landing video, including decoding the secret message encoded in the gores of the parachute.
Posted at
12:35