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Comment Re:Video in English (Score 1) 227

The Sr perchlorate injectors of the PSLV (the predecessor to GSLV) go into the 1st stage main engine (the solid), but those plumbing problems were with the GSLV's strap-ons. The PSLV had solid strap-ons, so I would guess they could not steer. The GSLV has liquid strap-ons, so I would guess they don't bother steering the main engine at all.
I didn't read this before my original post, but the GSAT-5P wiki article and linked reference say that the strap-ons stopped responding to commands, and the vehicle was destroyed by range safety. I suspect we're being given an oversimplified version of things there, unless self-destruct is a two stage thing. I think either it lost it's top, then was self-destructed ~10 secs later, or it wasn't self destructed at all and just progressively failed because of aero loads after loss of control of the strap-ons.
I'm not an expert with inside knowledge, I'm just reading the reports and trying to interpret.
Here's a deshaked version of the failure (done by me from ). You can see the vehicle rolls towards the camera, with some yaw to the left, then stage 3 falls off. Then through to stage 1+2 destruction.

Comment Re:Video in English (Score 5, Informative) 227

So it looks like the GSLV yawed beyond limits, upper stages (I think stage 3 plus payload) broke off (0:34 on video), then stage 1+2 kept going, initially with decreased yaw (it got knocked back on course upon stage 3 separation), but then increasing yaw until 0:45 when stage 2 broke away from stage 1 and the strap-ons broke off too.
The orange cloud at 0:45 should be the hypergolics in the strap-on boosters, I believe that's what caused the orange cloud in the Challenger disaster.
According to the wiki article on the GSLV's predecessor the first stage injects chemicals (aqueous strontium perchlorate solution) into the nozzle to control yaw. I wonder if this has been problematic in the past?

Comment Re:480p? (Score 1) 69

Uh yeah, what's the deal? Youtube can go up to 4000 horizontal lines, and this is supposed to be sourced from "high definition" and film, so it should be available at least in 720p. It was posted 3 days ago, so that should be plenty of time for youtube to encode hidef.

Comment Re:Should be (Score 1) 572

Or he was, you know, joking. Like he said. Just sayin'.

Whoops, you busted me not RTFA. I thought it was Dan Lyons and not his alter ego. Actually I thought Fake Steve Jobs was retired after we found out who was behind it. Oh well, consider me a troll.

Comment Re:Should be (Score 2, Insightful) 572

If they change the terms of the contract then those contracts are no longer valid, allowing customers to cancel them prematurely.
Given that those contracts are used to subsidize the cost of the phones, I don't think it's going to happen.

Not really, there is always force majeur. They could use this "digital flashmob" to change their plans permanently, and carriers and ISP's in the US have been wanting to introduce bandwidth caps for a while now...

Either Dan Lyons is a complete fool, or is a man on the inside trying to change the attitude to bandwidth permanently. So who is Newsweek owned by?

I strongly suspect this is a stunt for the corporations, not to humiliate them.

NASA

Submission + - New Hubble Ultra Deep Field in infrared (hubblesite.org)

Hynee writes: Just in time for Christmas, HubbleSite has released a Hubble Ultra Deep Field redux. The original was in visible light, this version, five years on, is in infrared (1.05, 1.25 and 1.6 um).

The observation is in support of the upcoming JWST which will observe exclusively in infrared, but the newly installed WFC3 does seem to provide some extra resolution over the 2004 visible observations with WFC2.

All the mainstream media has picked up on this, but strangely not even a tweet from NASA or any of its centers. (There's been one tweet in the last 12 hours, I wonder if they're reviewing their tweeting policy. Maybe they finally decided their tweetups were dumb. No text releases either, maybe too close to the holidays.)

Good luck in comparing observations, this new release covers a region about 70% x 70% of the original, aligned with the top left corner (the North corner).

Comment Re:I think he may possibly deserver the prize (Score 2, Insightful) 1721

Well OK then, he maneuvered his way into the presidency without corruption or favours or an army of spin doctors, and has significantly changed the style with which the U.S. engages with the rest of the world.

I still feel this is a significant shift of the Nobel committee from observer and awarder to well established figures, to influencer of current affairs. This is either just pandering to populism or out-and-out lobbying, and we don't need another lobby group.

Comment Re:I think he may possibly deserver the prize (Score 0, Troll) 1721

I think he may possibly deserver [sic] the prize, but its too early to say. Shouldn't they have waited to see if he manages to sort out Iraq, bring peace to the Middle East or something like that? After all if he does manage it now there will be nothing to reward him with.

That's what a lot of people are thinking. The Nobel Prize is famous for being conservative, waiting decades after the achievements of individuals before they give the prize, and then only if they're still living!

The concensus of the nay-sayers is that Obama doesn't have any achievements, he's only 8 months into his first term.

I think this is populist sh*t, same with the prize for the inventors of the CCD--the photodiode was physics, the CCD was a superb engineering effort based off the photodiode. The CCD in combination with fibre optics made it possible for us to see thousands of photos of teenage girls taken in their bathroom mirror. All hail the Internet.

Submission + - Hubble releases first (second) image batch after s

Hynee writes: "As tweeted, NASA has released 10 new images, all from the new WFC3 instrument [Link broken at publish] and others, including the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.

More links

hubblesite.org

HubbleSite.org Video about 10 release images.

Full HubbleSite.org release page with 56 release images.

Images include NGC 6302, Carina Nebula, Stephan's Quintet, Markarian 817, Abell 370, and a few others.

Great looking stuff, the WFC3 has twice the resolution of the WF/PC2, on the CCD at least, if memory serves correctly.

Eta Carina is a fascinating object, and there are at least two releases in this 'Early Release Observations' set."

Comment Re:How can you... (Score 1) 452

What I don't get is why we don't just buy some Soyuz spacecraft off the Russians and be done with it. The Soyuz has a proven track record, the damned things are built like tanks, it is solid and dependable.

It's tiny, three astronauts have to be squeezed in there. It's basically a stepping stone to a proper spacecraft, but they didn't go to the next step because the U.S. had already won the race to the moon. It's good enough to transport astronauts to and from the ISS, and can be modified (Progress) as an unmanned resupply vehicle for the ISS. Not much use beyond that.

They really need a bigger vehicle for long duration missions beyond LEO.

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