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Comment by 2027? (Score 1) 3

I don't see any way competitors will be able to land people on the moon by 2027. I'm not convinced space x can do it either. But reopening the contract at this late stage is a little strange politically. All it will do is delay it further and ultimately cost more. Which may actually be fine for SpaceX who will certainly keep the contract.

Comment Re:TACO (Score 1) 65

It's a negotiating strategy outlined in "The Art of The Deal"...make a big, bold, over-reaching initial claim or ask (way beyond what you actually want), then "settle" back closer to the actual position you wanted in the first place as a "compromise".

It's really not. There is no plan, just a series of impulse-driven changes, shying away from the ones that cause problems that happen fast and are easy to see.

Comment Re:TACO (Score 1) 65

TACO backtracks again.

For the moment, until he randomly lurches in a different directly.

US policy looks like a drunken toddler staggering in random directions because that's exactly what's happening right now. The toddler bumps his head and lurches away from the pain, but the lesson doesn't stick.

The only answer for US business leaders right now is exactly what most of them are doing: hunkering down. No hiring, no expansion into other markets or offering new products, and cutting capex and opex wherever possible to build a cushion of cash to give them freedom to absorb whatever may happen in the future.

Comment Re:Kessler Syndrome (Score 1) 37

When I was a child: Rare to see a satellite pass overhead.
Early adulthood: Plenty of satellites and space junk to see.
Middle age: Rare to see a satellite that isn't Starlink.
Late life: Lucky to die of something other than being hit by space junk?

The subject of your post is Kessler Syndrome, but Kessler Syndrome is definitely not a concern with these LEO constellations. Anything not regularly reboosted at these altitudes quickly deorbits because they're flying within the outer edges of the atmosphere. Kessler Syndrome is a potential problem at higher orbits where stuff in orbit tends to stay in orbit for a very long time, making accumulation problematic.

As for being hit by falling space junk, It's super rare for stuff that has reached orbit to hit the ground. That tends to be a concern with stuff that doesn't quite make it to orbit, which is one of many reasons why launch reliability is important.

Comment Re:The old ones are..Re: Falling As Fast As They'r (Score 1) 37

So a dozen countries are going to just seed the upper atmosphere with every space-grade lead-solder telecommunications trinket by design and pretend that won’t ever have any ill effect besides Kessler?

Besides Kessler? These satellites cannot cause Kessler Syndrome precisely because they deorbit. There may be ill effects of burning a few hundred tons of material in the upper atmosphere every year, we'll have to see, but Kessler Syndrome is definitely not an issue.

Comment Re:so it wasn't really encrypted (Score 2) 63

Not really. Photographers might be swapping SD cards in their cameras all the time, and leave the ones not in use lying about, in a camera bag, coat pocket, or whatever. They are small and easy to lose, so encrypting them at least ensures that whoever finds your card can't get at the images. You might even want the manufacturer to have a copy of the key; in this application the convenience for data recovery in case of damaged hardware outweighs the small risk imposed by such a back door. Maybe it makes less sense on a camera mounted on a vehicle, but still.

Comment Re:Said another way (Score 2) 63

Actually they didn't have the key. It was in a flash chip on the computer board that had to be removed and placed in a working camera from the manufacturer and then it was able to read the card. It's beyond me why they felt the need to run a fully encrypted file system on an SD card inside of a hermetically sealed camera unit that would normally never be opened by any customer. Companies have strange ideas about preserving their trade secrets I guess. Like instrument makers that require hardware keys for their software. Surely a million dollar instrument is a good enough hardware key!

Comment nothing about from space in official reports (Score 1) 56

Near as I could tell the idea that this was something from space originated from a random Twitter post by someone who claimed to know someone who was on the flight (but obviously not in the cockpit). Scott Manley covered this pretty thoroughly on his space oriented YouTube channel. But the plane definitely hit something and if it had been hit in slightly a different spot it might have killed a pilot. So serious stuff.

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