|
Fifty Three posted:Like... stars? Yes, but it's a libertarian star that could only be achieved through capital.
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 17:10
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 17:02 |
|
|
Rigged Death Trap posted:...My personal problem with it is that the project driving this push into space is in part a vanity project, and the other part a for profit venture. I choose to believe that most people who bother to think about the state of humanity's future, think we're in trouble. Climate change, resource exhaustion, population pressure - these can lead to potentially species-ending scenarios. I consider those a lot more of an issue that the problems a lot of people tend to focus on - people like Bill Gates, an individual with tremendous resources who is working to better the situation of large groups of people, but without bettering the situation of the species as a whole. I think of it as the difference between raising the floor and raising the roof. I don't agree with your assessment of Musk, but then again I don't particularly care about Musk's drives. IF Elon Musk was a narcissistic, profit-hungry, image-conscious, high-functioning sociopath I still wouldn't care; it doesn't matter if his motivations are altruistic or entirely selfish because he's delivering on technologies and capabilities that are necessary for humanity to start filling in the hole we've dug for ourselves, and quite possibly freeing us from being locked into the Earth as our only source of resources. Our governments aren't doing it, other companies* aren't doing it, and 99.9999% of private individuals don't have the resources to do it. Tesla and SpaceX are doing it, and it's serving as a bellwether for other companies and government bodies to follow along. *There are other companies out there with leaders who share his vision but not his drive and ability. Planetary Resources is one I've been following since their inception in 2010/2011, which has an objective of mining asteroids. So far they've managed to make a few satellites that point back at Earth and to spend a lot of money in doing so.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 17:25
|
|
|
BuckyDoneGun posted:On the subject of V12 Toyota's: SH owns when they aren't trolling their readers with stanced Ferraris
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 17:50
|
|
|
Fifty Three posted:Like... stars? Or any number of other satellites let alone the ISS. Iridum flares are pretty cool, and some are so bright they can be seen in broad daylight.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 18:09
|
|
|
BlackMK4 posted:The dude puts money where his mouth is, I can't fault him in the least. He's out there doing poo poo that we should be doing as an entire race. This. He's making progress. He's doing the poo poo science fiction tells us we should have already done. If he makes money in the process, more power to him, but I get the impression that he's not in it for the money. Government certainly isn't stepping up to give us space travel and habitats, electric cars, and fast reliable mass transit. If I had a kajillion dollars and the ability to organize, sell, and otherwise promote, I'd be trying to make utopian sci-fi a reality as well. It's like everyone's grumpy that he's successful at it. Do you prefer a Blade Runner future, or is it that you think that's where Musk is headed? Genuinely curious. The Prong Song posted:It's kind of funny you feel that way because Elon Musk is the mad(ish) devil-may-care inventor/entrepreneur I grew up reading about in scifi books from the 60s and 70s. Same. You said it better. Also, not only was it a test of the rocket, but they went on to test whether they could hit the heliocentric orbit they wanted. I imagine that's a lot better to do with an unimportant payload than a multimillion-dollar project, especially since they missed the intended orbit. It was a *test* launch, with a *test* payload, and a *test* mission. If I owned a car company as well as a rocket company, you bet I'd be putting one of my cars into orbit. Good advertising, and much more interesting than, say, some generic object. Again, better said than I could put it. FWIW, it could be argued that Apple refined and perfected existing products. They certainly figured out what consumers wanted, at least with respect to mobile devices, or were very good at making consumers want what they built. And Jobs was definitely a charismatic salesman. The Jobs Reality Distortion Field was a real thing. IOwnCalculus posted:We do not need a recreation of the Pleiades using genuine Subaru parts. I think we do. InitialDave posted:There's a good anime, Planetes, which is about space debris cleanup. Dammit, I didn't need another thing to watch. BuckyDoneGun posted:On the subject of V12 Toyota's: God drat. That is beautiful.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 18:17
|
|
|
Larrymer posted:As a Detroiter, I don't really agree with your perception. Tesla is only able to make it "work" because it's a luxury vehicle and can charge more, despite them still never making any money doing it. From a business perspective, you can understand how to any corporation (which are designed to make money and bring profit to shareholders) that this is a bit of a hard sell especially after the bankruptcies. The other thing Tesla did right was making an electric car that looked like something that people would actually want to buy. Even now most electric cars still don't look great, but at least there's more options besides Melted Plastic blob or Solid Wedge.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 18:30
|
|
|
slidebite posted:Or any number of other satellites let alone the ISS. Iridum flares are pretty cool, and some are so bright they can be seen in broad daylight. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 18:43
|
|
|
Darchangel posted:Dammit, I didn't need another thing to watch.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 18:47
|
|
|
I wish Musk had fired some of our posters into space.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 18:48
|
|
|
Wistful of Dollars posted:I wish Musk had fired some of our posters into space. Flamethrowers, bro
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 18:49
|
|
|
They couldn't have done multiple burns with the second stage regardless of fuel btw; it doesn't have any solar panels and the batteries ran out a few hours after the Earth escape burn.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 18:58
|
|
|
InitialDave posted:There's a manga, if you'd rather read. But anyway, while it still hits a few of the usual anime tropes, it's pretty firm sci-fi, and also has some salient socio-political points regarding who goes to space and why. I saw that. I have even less time to read, unfortunately. I can multitask, a little, while watching most things. Wistful of Dollars posted:I wish Musk had fired some of our posters into space. I’d almost volunteer, even knowing I would come back, just because there’s pretty much no other way I’ll get to go up before I die. I wonder if life insurance would cover that? Would it be considered suicide?
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 20:05
|
|
|
BlackMK4 posted:The dude puts money where his mouth is, I can't fault him in the least. He's out there doing poo poo that we should be doing as an entire race. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4 Keeps running through my head. MLKs been dead for 50 years and we ain't accomplished poo poo "as a race" ...Except for LeBlanc's dreamy smile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G21IENsHuNA Edit: that was way too confrontational. All I meant was that disappointment with not having fusion-powered self-driving flying cars should be tempered by dissapointment that people still get polio in the world. And new TopGear at least makes good teasers still. Jonny Nox fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Feb 8, 2018 |
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 20:34
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNHb8iT1nrc VW Lupo with two W12 engines, anyone?
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 23:46
|
|
|
The Prong Song posted:Also, The Worlds Fastest Car should be back around Earth in Feb of 2030. I said to some coworkers that it'd be amazing if SpaceX planned a mission to retrieve it when it's back around. Ambitious, yes, but 12 years to plan and pull it off? And think of the publicity. There won't be much left to retrieve, radiation will destroy everything that's not metal in short order. Will be interesting to see what it looks like by then tho.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2018 23:59
|
|
|
Jonny Nox posted:Edit: that was way too confrontational. All I meant was that disappointment with not having fusion-powered self-driving flying cars should be tempered by dissapointment that people still get polio in the world. *nods* The past had such rosey dreams of the future and look at what we're loving doing to each other still.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 10:33
|
|
|
InitialDave posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNHb8iT1nrc Does that rear engine have actual mounts or just zip-ties?
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 14:58
|
|
|
Olympic Mathlete posted:*nods* An electric supercar is on its way to the asteroid belt.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 16:44
|
|
|
lol musk sucks you guys why would you whinge over a single one of these stupid billionaires who absolutely do not care about you at all https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/musk-slams-union-drive-in-email-to-employees?utm_term=.ibgpkpmq8#.vy3LOL4Yo quote:In addition to defending Tesla's record as an employer, Musk told workers that he plans to improve life at the Tesla factory, which is currently in the process of switching over its lines for production of the Model 3. For example, when the Model 3 reaches "volume production," Musk said he'll throw them "a really amazing party." 
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 16:50
|
|
|
So just like every CEO
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 17:20
|
|
|
Musk is like Tesla. Both were brilliant, but good gods their cults need to gently caress off. Also Edison is getting the last laugh right now. There's only one object in my room at the moment that actually is AC internally, and that's an AC power supply.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 17:23
|
|
|
musk loving sucks AND space-x is cool makes ya think
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 17:34
|
|
|
BraveUlysses posted:lol musk sucks you guys why would you whinge over a single one of these stupid billionaires who absolutely do not care about you at all Exactly like every other CEO or cult of personality surrounding them but for some reason people get real mad that Musk does rockets or electric cars. It's just weirdly misplaced eye rolling that goons always do for anything popular. I don't know of any other billionaires doing space things, usually they are just content to sell iPhones or "run" countries but those hot takes aren't goony enough anymore so people just  about Musk instead.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 17:40
|
|
|
richard branson, off hand
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 18:04
|
|
|
Also, almost all electric cars are DC, due to the nature of batteries, with a drive that uses IGBTs to make an "AC" signal to drive the motors (I only say almost because I don't know if there's any DC motor cars). It's been used in locomotives since the 90s to do the same thing since AC traction motors were more reliable and cheaper in the long run.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 18:27
|
|
|
Model 3 is apparently DC motor. Part of me is wondering what you could do for power density with an AC induction motor that used some special stuff for the laminations and pumped coolant through the rotor in addition to the stator.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 18:32
|
|
|
That's really... dumb if you ask me. AC motors are more reliable than a DC motor, but have a higher initial cost, unless they're using brushless DC anyway. AC controlled by IGBTs are the way to go these days because you get a lot more control over it than simply throwing an AC wave on it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 18:44
|
|
|
It's almost definitely brushless.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 20:02
|
|
|
iospace posted:Also Edison is getting the last laugh right now. There's only one object in my room at the moment that actually is AC internally, and that's an AC power supply. AC still wins for power distribution, aka the thing Edison and Tesla were fighting over.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2018 22:12
|
|
|
Enourmo posted:AC still wins for power distribution, aka the thing Edison and Tesla were fighting over. Yes and no. I'll effort post about that when not on my phone.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2018 00:10
|
|
|
It'd be kind of funny if some other car company shoots a truck into space and manages to hit the Tesla when it's making the return journey. Yes yes, space is HUUUUUUUUUUUGE blah blah. If Luke Skywalker can hit an exhaust port then somebody can shoot an F-150 into it's path.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2018 03:56
|
|
|
gently caress flamethrowers, I want my god drat power loader
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2018 05:21
|
|
|
Enourmo posted:AC still wins for power distribution, aka the thing Edison and Tesla were fighting over. Ok, AC wins on power distribution on two fronts: 1. Less loss at lower voltages than DC at the currents needed for power distribution. Current splits across parallel circuits, but remains the same on a series one, so the 120VAC line on the pole along your street has significantly higher current than what actually goes into your house. 2. The ability to be easily stepped up and down. This is crucial because a higher voltage has less loss due to resistance than a lower one, assuming the power (wattage) is the same. However, at sufficiently high voltages, DC loses less than AC, more on this later. It was #1 that drove AC's success in becoming the dominant form of electricity we have today. If they could transmit a low-voltage DC line without significant losses, Edison would have won the day. AC also has this problem, but it's not as significant, and because of #2, can be offset by jacking the voltage up really high (into the kilovolt range). However, as stated, when the voltage is sufficiently high, DC will lose less power over the same distance compared to AC (I don't know the break even point). This is due to a couple factors, namely the line on an AC circuit turning into a giant capacitor (it's much, much worse on underwater and underground lines, to the point where you can only go a certain distance with AC before it becomes impossible to use), and the skin effect, or the moving electrons moving to the outer part of the conductor as they flow along it. The skin effect is why when you have really high voltage lines you see several conductors bundled together. It's to reduce this. Long distance lines with very, very low potential to be tapped midway through in the future are potentially HVDC lines. HVDC also has the advantage of getting away with a more narrow conductor than HVAC (because of no skin effect), and only needs two lines, a charged line and a return line, as opposed to AC's three (which are all charged but 120 degrees out of phase with each other). The long and short of it, AC wins because of it's ability to be dropped to residential voltages without complex equipment. HVDC is useful for underwater and underground lines, extremely long distance transmission, and dealing with unsynchronized grids, such as Japan who has a 60hz and 50hz grid that splits midway through the country. 
iospace fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Feb 10, 2018 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2018 05:30
|
|
|
IIRC isn't HVDC also useful for large manufacturing/metalworking plants, like aluminum foundries, or large-scale small-component manufacturing zones due to power factor? I could swear I read something (though be damned if I could find it right now) about how HVDC was being used for power supply to industrial parks, then converted on-site, to reduce the losses due to poor power factor of...something. Because if we had to pay for used energy due to poor power factor, a lot of consumers would be hosed due to lovely switching power supplies.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2018 05:36
|
|
|
Metal Geir Skogul posted:IIRC isn't HVDC also useful for large manufacturing/metalworking plants, like aluminum foundries, or large-scale small-component manufacturing zones due to power factor? Yes, HVDC doesn't have the power factor, which is a formula involving the angle between the real power and "reactive power" (which is the "power" drawn by the inductive and capacitive elements on a circuit). A higher absolute value of the power factor is really bad, because you're being charged for power you're really not using. A power factor of 0, which a HVDC circuit would have, means you're paying the lowest you can. That, and as stated upthread, it's much easier to control a motor with a drive that turns a DC signal into an "AC" signal with IGBTs, which a lot of factories do. Oh, and we do pay for energy used for the poor power factor. It is possible to adjust it with significant amounts of capacitors and inductors, but good luck figuring out what yours is, and it changes based on what you're running.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2018 05:46
|
|
|
iospace posted:Yes, HVDC doesn't have the power factor, which is a formula involving the angle between the real power and "reactive power" (which is the "power" drawn by the inductive and capacitive elements on a circuit). A higher absolute value of the power factor is really bad, because you're being charged for power you're really not using. A power factor of 0, which a HVDC circuit would have, means you're paying the lowest you can. This is backwards; power factor should be as close to 1 as possible, as it is (simplified) useful power out/power in. Maybe you mean, like, phase angle?
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2018 05:52
|
|
|
Unreal_One posted:This is backwards; power factor should be as close to 1 as possible, as it is (simplified) useful power out/power in. Maybe you mean, like, phase angle? Right, swapped my sine and cosines. Close to 1 as possible. (I hated AC circuits, for the record)
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2018 06:05
|
|
|
I'm retired and also bad at history, but I thought AC won out because back when electricity was first rolling out it was simpler/cheaper to put out AC since the generators were putting it out without conversion and the only thing people were running was electric lights that didn't care about AC power since it was a hot filament back then. The noisiest dirtiest cheapest AC power would be the same as the cleanest most filtered most expensive DC power. Also here's an electric mini-truck you can buy right now https://www.ebay.com/itm/253413315231?rmvSB=true  It's not running, but I love electric conversions of old cars. Old drivetrain kind of crappy? I've got a solution for you!
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2018 06:24
|
|
|
That is also true. Incandescent lights don't care about AC or DC power. They're just heating elements that just happen to produce light.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2018 06:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 17:02 |
|
|
craig588 posted:I'm retired and also bad at history, but I thought AC won out because back when electricity was first rolling out it was simpler/cheaper to put out AC since the generators were putting it out without conversion and the only thing people were running was electric lights that didn't care about AC power since it was a hot filament back then. The noisiest dirtiest cheapest AC power would be the same as the cleanest most filtered most expensive DC power. IIRC, it was more complicated than just the engineering. Edison envisioned community-based power generation, with many small DC generating plants dispersed throughout a city. This rendered the issue of long-distance transmission losses moot. Tesla and Westinghouse foresaw huge power plants generating electricity far from cities and moving it hundreds of miles. This necessitated AC. Reality settled the issue. People didn't like Edison's neighborhood power generation concept. Air pollution was bad enough already and adding hundreds more coal-burning sites didn't sit well. Meanwhile, Tesla and Westinghouse tamed Niagara Falls to provide cheap and clean electricity for much of New York state. Their solution proved superior in almost every way and carried the day.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2018 06:38
|
|
