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The Reality of Apollo / Re: Ascent stage tanks
« Last post by Obviousman on Today at 07:44:42 PM »
Can't help with that, sorry. NASA Technical Notes 7082 and 7143 have a lot of information about the LM and the Ascent Stage Propulsion System but not weights (that I could find).
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The Reality of Apollo / Ascent stage tanks
« Last post by Allan F on Today at 04:29:28 PM »
I wonder if there's any numbers out there for the mass of the ascent stage tanks. Not the fuel/oxidizer, but the tanks themselves - also the mass of they helium pressurization system?
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The Hoax Theory / Re: Blunder® takes on a Flerf
« Last post by onebigmonkey on March 08, 2023, 02:03:48 PM »
None of his 3 events are in the top 50, let alone Earth bound.

That was my first thought: were the CME he quotes actually heading anywhere near Artemis. The sun's a big ball, it can spit that stuff out in a large range of directions that don't come anywhere near us.
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The Hoax Theory / Re: Blunder® takes on a Flerf
« Last post by Mag40 on March 07, 2023, 05:30:51 PM »
A bit off topic but still relevant - I just listened to today's NASA Artemis I Post-Flight Media Teleconference, surprise guest around timestamp 00:56:00:   :-\

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IWSaicWuVA&t=3367s

Is there anything this incompetent berk can get right? He is citing "hindustantimes" as his source for the 3 CMEs in his question. He has his own video segment covering this. I won't post it.

https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/top-50-solar-flares/year/2022.html

None of his 3 events are in the top 50, let alone Earth bound.
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The Hoax Theory / Re: Blunder® takes on a Flerf
« Last post by TippedIceberg on March 07, 2023, 01:08:13 PM »
A bit off topic but still relevant - I just listened to today's NASA Artemis I Post-Flight Media Teleconference, surprise guest around timestamp 00:56:00:   :-\

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IWSaicWuVA&t=3367s
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Thanks, Smartcooky. I particularly enjoyed this little bit:
0:05:46  …it could align the gimbal to within one-thousandth of a degree.

I guess that's about near enough if I want to know in which way I'm pointing. :-)
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Excellent video!
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Well, wonder no more!

The phrase "Guidance is internal" at T minus 15 seconds was one of the most important call-outs in the Saturn V countdown, and this fascinating short video with excellent graphics explains why.




Its the minute details like this that show just how complicated it is to send rockets to the moon.
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You could get KSP, if you want to explore orbital mechanics.

And it's worth learning, both for fictional contemplations and for studying real missions. Whether it's something as simple as a Hohmann Transfer to get an object from low earth orbit to a geostationary orbit (or from the Earth to Mars), or the Grand Tours of the Voyager spacecraft. Once you've wrapped your head around them, watch Scott Manley's video about the Distant Retrograde Orbit used by Artemis a few months ago, because it includes the bit about the square orbit - that caught my attention when I saw it!

I belong to a speculative fiction writing group, and a few years ago I gave a talk to the group about how to use this sort of knowledge when you're writing hard science fiction. If you were to write a book about a war between human settlements across the Solar System, then clever use of your knowledge of orbital mechanics could make for some truly bizarre but realistic plot lines - there are some places in the Solar System which are really hard to get to if you want to enter orbit or soft-land, and only a little less hard to get to even if all you want to do is a kinetic attack.
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You could get KSP, if you want to explore orbital mechanics.
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