From what I've read so far, it seems that ESA was uncomfortable with the possibility of a collision to a degree that SpaceX could possibly be quite comfortable with - ESA wants > 1km distance, whereas SpaceX might be comfortable with much closer - they are quite different constellations.
Who has the right to dictate who has priority / which criteria is the right one?
I'm going to assume that the cost of ESA's satellite is much greater than SpaceX's StarLink module so obviously they have much more of an interest in preserving full functionality - BUT avoiding collisions is in everybody's best interests. Who is going to use their fuel? Who has right of way, and to what terms?
I think you have this right, not so much about appetite for risk but maybe telemetry on SpaceX's satellite (or a number of satellites in the swarm) gave them sufficient confidence that there was no issue?
Given SpaceX routinely send resupply missions to the ISS I would assume they have a fair amount of confidence when it comes to knowing the position of their vehicles.
That made me wonder about what would happen if google started grouping concepts (eg words for grandmother in other languages will almost certainly give you differing results) rather than words...
Possibly (probably) the cognitive load on people might lead to bad A/B test results, but it would be a curious thing to explore - cultural bias would get a bit of a beating I'd imagine.
It always comes in slightly to the side of the barge and as part of the landing burn it does a final sideways correction. I believe it was for this kind of situation - or one where the final burn doesn't even happen.
Didn't google earth have exactly this in the early days? I can't remember exact details, but pretty sure it was an easter egg - ctrl + alt + a would launch it.
"The non-powered vest offers protection and support against fatigue and injury by reducing the stress and strain"
Would love to see how this works and maintains an adequate range of motion so as to not get in the way. Seems like it adds rigidity so that the weight is shared by the exoskeleton.
The theory behind these devices is even minimal assistance over a long day makes a difference. Try holding your arms strait out for 10 seconds and it's easy, 10 minutes and it becomes really difficult.
Now picture something that reduces your load by 80% you still need to provide some upward assistance so lowering your arms is still effortless, but holding your arms out is also much less effort. For an easy example, sitting underwater provides this kind of support but it also clearly does not reduce range of motion.
Does that mean that lowering your arms with the vest becomes harder? In that case it'll probably take workers a while to build new muscles? Or how does the vest distinguish holding body weight vs the worker lowering their arms.
This gets complicated because you can vary the amount of support based on the angle the arms are at. Anyway, there is no need to account for extra weight simply supporting someone's arms can make a large difference. But, you get into a lot of trade offs.
Pretty sure Wernher von Braun isn't available any more though [x], in fact I think you're going to have a real hard time with many of the other principals. Principles though seem to be potentially an easier route.
Either way, I'd back that category in a heartbeat, though not sure if it could be completed in the duration of a normal games cycle... In a way it's been started already with the google lunar x prize [o] though that's been running a little longer than your typical games...
I believe that comment is more or less based on the shuttle landing and/or the soyuz capsules (eg parachutes) - but as far as I can tell, SpaceX is the only one currently capable (and using) propulsive landing on earth - so essentially they've already leapfrogged the grey zone to a large extent.
Makes me wonder whether testing a propulsive landing on an airborne drone barge is feasible? A blimp with a well-insulated large pad on the top - though I'm not sure how you'd effectively anchor it in the air - probably a active propulsion system as well.
> Except for things like volcanoes and earthquakes... Though grantedly that is a different kind of excitement.
Call me silly, but that really is different to me. There's always some chance a natural disaster will wreck things up for you, but as long as society works together to respond to natural disasters, I feel fairly comfortable coping with that. Likewise, actually, to the terrorism problem in Israel.
The kind of "excitement" I really don't want to live with is the breakdown of social trust: having to worry that my own neighbors or local institutions will turn on me.
> Except for things like volcanoes and earthquakes
As someone who lived and worked in Japan for 6 years, lived not too far away from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant (Koriyama city), and went through the M9 quake in 2011 I can confirm this 100%. Life got rather wobbly.
If you live in some location prone to natural disasters, inevitably you will become the news, or at least live in the news.
From what I've read so far, it seems that ESA was uncomfortable with the possibility of a collision to a degree that SpaceX could possibly be quite comfortable with - ESA wants > 1km distance, whereas SpaceX might be comfortable with much closer - they are quite different constellations.
Who has the right to dictate who has priority / which criteria is the right one?
I'm going to assume that the cost of ESA's satellite is much greater than SpaceX's StarLink module so obviously they have much more of an interest in preserving full functionality - BUT avoiding collisions is in everybody's best interests. Who is going to use their fuel? Who has right of way, and to what terms?